@click_mute performing DJ set at SET Woolwich

SET

ON THEIR WEBSITE, SET  DESCRIBES ITSELF AS A MULTIFACETED ARTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANISATION. THEIR PROJECTS AND MEMBERSHIP PROGRAMMES INCLUDE LIVE MUSIC, EXHIBITIONS, WORKSHOPS, SCREENINGS AND PROVIDE A PLATFORM FOR NEW AND COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS.

“SET’s charitable objectives are: ‘for the public benefit, to promote, improve and advance education in, and appreciation of, the arts’. we fulfil this aim by financially and creatively supporting grassroots artistic production. our mission is to nurture artists’ communities by offering affordable studios - the space, foundations and support to make bold, innovative and exciting new works.”

I SPOKE WITH VERITY MONROE, CURATORIAL ASSISTANT AT SET:

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SET EXISTING IN A CONTEXT OF THE ARTS BEING DEFUNDED IN LONDON?

‘SET Social opened in December 2022 in the old Peckham Rye Tabernacle Baptist Church as our arts and social club and home to a large portion of our arts programme for SET and the wider community.’

‘Each SET centre is hosted in otherwise vacant property and looks to put disused space back into positive use. When moving into a new site, such as the Tabernacle Baptist Church, we look to understand the actions and role of the building before our presence. By prioritising relationships with local community-lead organisations we look to spread awareness of the venue and how it can be utilised by a range of local groups and organisations. In this way, SET plays an important role in working to make an artist-lead and creatively focused space exciting and accessible to its surrounding community.’

‘As a venue, SET Social and its staff focus on their relationship to their immediate environment as well as our wider social impact within the context of the arts. We are fortunate enough to be able to offer the use of SET Social for free to an eclectic mix of social groups, workshops, classes and meetings to make use of the accessible and warm workspace with wi-fi and an affordable café. The weekly rota of events at SET Social is all externally-lead and initiated with the goal that SET’s artistic community and Peckham’s local residents can shape the programme to suite need of the public sphere. SET’s charitable objectives are to promote, improve the presence of the arts for the public benefit. With an aim to work with existing community groups in the area, as well as provide space for artists and creatives from within the SET community and beyond, we hope to provide vital space for these communities to overlap.’

I ALSO SPOKE WITH FRED WHO HAD INSTALLED A SOUND SYSTEM IN SET WOOLWICH AND RUNS DIY SOUNDSYSTEM NIGHTS

FRED FROM OUR SOUL SOUND SYSTEM:

“I think that SET has done a really clever thing that kind of shows to the local councils and the government that disused industrial spaces can have purpose and that communities can gather around them and make them a viable thing and that they can provide a lot more value to that community than if the building was just left disused.” 

I think the space at SET woolwich is really smart because it predominantly exists just to serve communities just for art, but the fact that they’ve got that space in there now (obviously it has to pay for itself which can be tricky) alongside already so much good that they’re doing for the community in the form of the art studios I think is a really smart way to do it because the venue doesn’t have to rely on paying all of the bills and all of the staff just with the club.”

THE TUBE 

SOUND SYSTEM

Because its so hard for venues to exist in London, (because of the rent increases and overheads and bills) when a venue has to pay for all of this with just the money they get from a club night I think makes it really difficult for them to stay open and its even more difficult for venues that have to pay all their bills to support grassroots, small, emerging nights. Small emerging nights wouldn’t exists without places like set where they can focus on actually providing for their community and providing space for their community, rather than just focusing on just getting people in that are going to make them money to pay their bills.”

I think what set does so well is that it cultivates the community and without cultivating that community it wouldn’t exist. Our Soul (our sound system) believes in that to such a degree that we are essentially donating out sound system and without us donating the sound system I.e. giving the sound system for free, the community of SET would not be able to do smaller nights there. So its all, everything is still so expensive that the club can’t really afford to put small nights on really without us having to donate valuable equipment, so its quite tight still.”

CLIP FROM OUR SOUL SOUND SYSTEM NIGHT:

Thank you to Fred from Our Soul Sound System for these clips and photographs of their nights. Follow them on instagram to find out more about their tube sound system.

@oursoulsound