Sleeping Alice and the Beast

6 February - 7 March

Dominique Golden, Louise Clarke and Zoe Hodgson will exhibit multimedia works as a direct response to the collection at the William Morris Gallery. They have been exhibiting together for the last 10 years since meeting at The Royal College of Art printmaking course. Their work collectively fluctuates between fine art and craft based art works and their influences are similar in range to that of Morris and Co., that is of nature and fairytale romanticism.

» More on William Morris Gallery events

Holiday activities at your local leisure centre

Get all the information you want to know about all the holiday activities on offer at your local leisure centre on this new website.

You can also sign up for reminders and updates to be emailed straight to your inbox as soon as the next holiday’s information is available.

Launch of the Culture strategy

Councillors with Tessa Jowell and Youth Ambassadors

Tessa Jowell, the Minister for Olympics and London visited the borough on Tuesday 26 January to attend an event at William Morris Gallery to mark the launch of the Council’s Culture Strategy.

Tessa Jowell met Cllr Robbins, Cllr Reardon and Waltham Forest’s Youth Ambassadors.

» Culture strategy (PDF file 7.7MB)

Free swimming for under 16s and over 60s

London Borough of Waltham Forest will offer free swimming at its leisure centres for all children and young people 16 and under and all over 60s from 1 April 2009.

» More on free swimming

Love your borough awards

Waltham Forest Council is on the look out for community heroes with its new awards scheme for the people and organisations who help put the spirit back into their area and promote pride in the borough.

» More information on the Love your borough awards

William Morris Gallery receives heritage lottery funding

Waltham Forest Council has successfully bid for Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) to help further develop the William Morris Gallery.

The HLF grant process takes place over two stages. Organisations can bid for first stage funding to develop a project and then proceed to a second stage bid for funding to deliver the actual project. The Council applied for £80,000 first stage funding in November 2008.

The HLF funding will contribute to total project development costs of £289,000, to help develop a proposal to make the gallery more accessible, build an extension to house an education and exhibition space and provide high quality visitor facilities.

The developments would enable the gallery to attract a more diverse audience, help accommodate school and group visits and further develop its programme of heritage-based workshops and events.

The Council will apply for £1.32 million second stage funding in spring 2010.

Cllr Geraldine Reardon, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Arts and Culture said:

“Being awarded Heritage Lottery Funding is good news for the William Morris Gallery.

"The Council wants to improve the gallery and its collection, and to increase the number of people who visit it every year.

"Any changes made to the gallery thanks to HLF funding would compliment the work we have already done to improve the learning and outreach programme, and develop the exhibitions and activities programme.

"Extending the gallery will allow us to attract more visitors, and ensure many more generations of people can enjoy the groundbreaking work of William Morris in his home borough."

The Beckham trail

David Beckham was born on 2 May 1975 at Whipps Cross Hospital and lived as a young boy in a terraced house in nearby Leytonstone, E10. To find out more, follow the Beckham trail.

» More on the Beckham trail