The People's Park, 2019

Finsbury Park is 150 years old in 2019
As one of the original People's Parks of London, Finsbury Park was created following a petition for a park to alleviate conditions of the poor. 150 years on in 2019, 2NQ (a local partnership organisation) seeks to revive the concept of a People’s Park through a cultural and heritage programme offering many ways for everyone to get involved.

Invitation to join 2NQ Community Board
We are holding a Community Board meeting on Wednesday 6th March 6.30-8.30 at Finspace, 225-229 Seven Sisters Rd, London N4 2DA. Please come and join us - we welcome people from all walks of life and backgrounds.

We want to create a space where you can share your ideas and connections. We’d like to find out what programmes you would like to be involved in, as a participant, a volunteer - or perhaps you are a member of a local group that would like to come and take part in a particular part of the programme.

We hope to give everyone the chance to get their ideas heard and so would like you to prepare answers to the following questions

Why do you want to join the 2NQ Community Board?
— What would you like to offer? [volunteer my time / bring my group along to activities / provide connections / promote events and activities to others]
— What would a successful 150th anniversary of Finsbury Park look like to you?

Finsbury Park 150 activities
The planned activities will run throughout the summer and we hope will include:

#Everything150 : An ongoing discovery of everything found in Finsbury Park in 2019. Monthly walks open to everyone invite people to take pictures, safely pick them up and record them to be part of a public picture archive. In partnership with Museum of London and CHAT - Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory.

The People’s Platform : A mobile small stage using factory trolleys is wheeled around in and around the Park and different acts will perform live.  Invitations will be given to performers from different cultural traditions (music dance theatre spoken word).

The Safe Space : A series of workshops led by artists from different specialisms. Placed together they form a safe space for people who are carers, have experienced mental health
problems or are just lonely.

150 Photographic : A project sharing unseen images of Finsbury Park’s surprising and radical past.

The People : Involving young people from the surrounding boroughs in devising a story and rendering it as a digital graphic novel. Social realism, what the park is like now, a resource to understand how parks work or not from their perspective.

Free Fair and Alive Festival : A fun festival of making: music, games, literature, experiments, performances hacks ... all kinds of creative trouble with a focus on emancipation, justice and living communities.

We The Children : A day long festival for children from all three boroughs, a true meeting of the communities surrounding the park. Hands on making, performances, competitions and ice cream.

Hornsey Wood Tea Room : A time travel space recreating history with VR and physical pavilions to reanimate Finsbury Park’s past. Tetherless VR head-sets and simple operation on mobile devices.

Finsbury Park Cine Reality : Free open outdoor screenings at the Furtherfield end of the park.

12 Prints : New images made by artists and designers across the year. Forming a set of
‘double crown’ format posters. Collectible, found in cupboards in 100 years time.

Finsbury Park Curators : A group of people work with park rangers, to engage and excite
people about the projects and activities.

About 2NQ
2NQ is a not-for-profit organisation set up to work with the stakeholders and communities of Finsbury Park to improve the usability and enjoyment of the Park for local residents and visitors. Our first project is to collaborate on a programme of arts, culture and heritage events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Finsbury Park in 2019.

Three boroughs, eight wards, one community!