More than three decades separate the debut of Gillian Wearing’s Dancing in Peckham (1994) and the most recent exhibition of the work in the eponymous south-east London neighbourhood, last year. In the 25-minute film, the artist sways, shakes and moves her body in the central corridor of Peckham’s Aylesham Centre, a shopping arcade on Rye Lane more recently at the core of conversations about gentrification in the area. ‘There were a lot of questions around the Aylesham, and one way of participating was to show that piece in its real context,’ explains Hannah Barry, founder, artistic director and chief executive of local non-profit arts organisation Bold Tendencies, which presented the film in 2025. ‘Context of the location, but more importantly, the context of change. I found it very powerful to show it as a way of participating.’
The decision to exhibit Dancing in Peckham speaks to the balance of creativity and civic responsibility that is fundamental to the programming of Bold Tendencies, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026 (coincidentally, the latest proposal for demolishing the Aylesham was thrown out within days of the new Bold season launching).
Over Zoom, Barry appears in front of a scale model of the multistorey car park that has played host to the arts organisation since 2007; among subsequent architectural interventions is a rooftop bar, Frank’s Café, designed by architects Paloma Gormley and Lettice Drake. Occasionally, Barry swivels in her chair, using the model to highlight a particular element of the Bold trajectory, such as switching entrances in 2016, and the subsequent commission of Simon Whybray’s hi boo I love you.
Detail of Athen Kardashian & Nina Mhach Durban, I have often walked down this street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet, 2026
‘That was a visual arts and a permanent commission, and the opening up of a piece of useful infrastructure,’ says Barry, relaying the genesis of the pink stairwell. ‘I wrote to Simon, a silence, then “every existing surface to be painted pink and glazed. That's the work. A ten-storey love letter to my fiancé”. It turned into this sort of moment, but the intention was simple.’
Indeed, quickly becoming a fixture on Instagram, the work continues to enthral new and returning visitors. ‘Commissioning is a big part of where Bold starts,’ continues Barry. ‘I was interested in this idea that you could intellectually, financially and logistically support a new work of art, beginning to end, and show it. In 2009 we had applied the idea to architecture – that's how Frank's came about.’
Barry, who is also the director of Hannah Barry Gallery on Holly Grove, had previously been involved with a group of artists working out of a DIY space on nearby Lyndhurst Way, primarily in an admin capacity. ‘I was excited to be close to artists of my own generation, which I hadn't ever encountered,’ she recalls. The group’s final show, focused on outdoor sculpture, was titled ‘Bold Tendencies’, and effectively shaped the gallerist’s next two decades. Existing projects such as Skulptur Projekte Münster in Germany, New York’s Dia Beacon and The Fourth Plinth in London proved further catalysts for Bold as it appears today, and its five annual commissions, curated under an umbrella theme and presented on the roof.
‘Sculpture comes with its own logistical concerns, and can be so many different things,’ offers Barry, recognising the focus on large structures. ‘I was always excited by it as a form.
Detail of Emma Hart, Last Chance Saloon, 2026
‘Bold is about the principle of exercising your right to joy and the experience of feeling welcome,’ she adds. ‘In European cities you have public squares with people doing different things, and I often think about the rooftop [like that]. There is a sense of responsibility too, because of the nature of the space. Your visit needs to be special and spectacular.’
Alongside the new visual artworks Bold’s programming includes music, dance, literature and learning (typically on other floors), while in 2015, permanent works began being introduced in response to the organisation’s then impermanent situation. Richard Wentworth’s Agora was the first, followed by no more quick, quick, slow by Rene Matić in 2020 and Jenny’s Holzer’s Bold Sign in 2023. In 2017 the organisation’s lease was extended, giving Bold another 20 years. ‘Then it was a kind of act of protection and protest, against diminishing truly public space in the city, and an intuitive feeling that certain things could remain as important emblems of a certain moment.'
Andreas Gursky, Cocoon II (detail), 2026
For 2026, the chosen theme is Euphoria, and the line-up includes new commissions by Andreas Gursky, Louis Morlæ, Athen Kardashian & Nina Mhach Durban, Tarek Lakhrissi, and Emma Hart. ‘It’s been reflected in very extreme, different ways with the five. The immediate interpretation is about highs, but you can only know the high if you know the low,’ observes Barry. ‘It’s a theme of contrasts, like the wider reflections I have about Bold: you can't have success without failure, joy without sadness…’
Further characterising the organisation’s future, she notes that ‘there’s something about improving it and making it better that is very addictive. Twenty years down the line there's still so much to build and improve on, but it still stands for the spirit and guiding principles of making multiple ideas happen.’
Bold Tendencies summer programme is at floors 7-10, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park until 12 September 2026