Rich Mix secures a £2 million+ capital investment
12 Jun 2026News Story
We have some bold news.
As we celebrate our 20th year, we're excited to announce a major new chapter for Rich Mix.
We have been awarded £2.2 million in capital funding from the Arts Council England Creative Foundations Fund to transform our Shoreditch building into a more welcoming and accessible cultural space. Additional funding has been provided by the Aldgate & Allhallows Foundation, City Bridge Foundation, The Clothworkers Foundation and Cockayne.
This investment will fund a major redevelopment of our ground floor, creating a new entrance on Redchurch Street alongside our existing Bethnal Green Road access. This will help physically connect our local and diverse communities with the wider city. Essential building upgrades will address longstanding infrastructure needs, improve energy efficiency and support our long-term financial sustainability.
Our transformed ground floor will offer greater flexibility across our café, bar, events and hireable spaces, creating new income streams that will support our programme. We are creating a more open and welcoming environment where local communities can walk in, see themselves reflected and feel a sense of belonging.
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Flexible foyer and exhibition spaces will provide a platform for our Creative Engagement and Artist Development programmes, turning the building into a vibrant and visible showcase for the creativity and ambitions of East London. Accessibility is central to the design, with improvements including a Changing Places WC, acoustic and visual enhancements, and improved signage.
We have appointed a design and project management team to deliver the works, and planning is now underway to coordinate the programme, which will take place over the next 18 months.
This funding is a vote of confidence in what Rich Mix represents and what it can become for its next 20 years. We are rooted in one of London's most ethnically diverse communities, and this transformation will ensure that even more people can create, share and experience culture here.
New leadership structure to shape Rich Mix's next chapter.
We are introducing a new leadership structure that reflects the communities we serve. This includes supporting new generations of artistic leaders and introducing a new artistic leadership model guided by an Artistic Advisory Board, a Youth Board and our Board of Trustees.
As part of this, we will appoint a new Creative Director to develop the creative vision for Rich Mix, alongside a new Executive Director, as we enter an exciting new period and look ahead to our next twenty years. These appointments mark a significant moment in our twentieth year, coinciding with the physical transformation of our building and a renewed ambition for what Rich Mix can be.
Judith Kilvington will step down as CEO later this year following a smooth transition process. Since joining Rich Mix in 2019, she has led the organisation with vision and ambition, expanding our role beyond that of a multi-arts venue. During her tenure, we have grown our Creative Engagement programme for young people in East London, widened our audiences, developed future creative leaders from the Global Majority and successfully delivered our capital campaign.
It's been a privilege to serve as CEO of Rich Mix for seven years and to work with so many talented artists, leaders and community members. Rich Mix is so much more than an arts centre; it is a free, shared, democratic public space for anyone passionate about how we build bridges between the many cultures and communities of East London, and London as a whole. With the capital development secured, I feel now is the right time to pass on the baton so that this representative leadership model can fly.
Rich Mix at Twenty: celebrating the past, shaping the future.
As Rich Mix turns twenty in 2026, this milestone arrives at a moment of transformation for our organisation, our building and our community.
Rich Mix – 20 years in numbers
- 2.5 million+ audience members
- 62,000+ film screenings
- 10,000 live events
- 150,000 artists supported
- 120,000 children, young people and community participants engaged through Creative Engagement projects
- 200+ creative organisations incubated and supported at Rich Mix
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Rich Mix was conceived in the early 1990s as a direct response to cultural and racial polarisation in East London, established by a group of local councillors, activists and artists. We opened our doors in 2006 with a mission to bring communities together through arts and culture. Over the past two decades, we have become a creative home for East London's most innovative businesses and a launchpad for emerging Global Majority talent.
To mark our anniversary, we will deliver a co-curated programme of music, film, exhibitions and talks exploring the connections between our own history and the underground cultures that have defined East London and continue to shape activism and identity in the community today.
A new documentary, drawing on oral history portraits of key early stakeholders and co-created with young people, will premiere in Autumn 2026 with £50,000 of support from the Aldgate & Allhallows Foundation. A permanent multimedia exhibition will open alongside our transformed building, celebrating where Rich Mix has come from and making a bold statement about where we are going next.
A massive shout out to our founders, supporters and everyone we've welcomed through our doors since 2006.
Here’s to twenty more years!