Pipilotti Rist – Artist
“The Garden of Ideas project is full of love. It’s like a dream coming through. I believe in the necessity to do a high level pleasure park for everybody. All generations, all classes, all cultural groups are symbolized in the Garden of Ideas as a utopian melting pot art park, where we dance, experience, think, learn and eat together.”
Ruth Mackenzie – LOCOG Director of Culture
”Thanks so much for this original and engaging idea – it could provide a magical and educational experience for families and young people.”
Felix Barrett – Artistic Director, Punchdrunk
“The Garden of Ideas embodies the way the world is going, as we sit in front of computer screens using less and less of the human senses, we become more aware of how we need creative places to explore our ‘human senses’ with more detailed intelligence and sensitivity. The Garden of Ideas is the way forward and Punchdrunk would like to support this project and we look forward to participating in its realisation.”
Guy Nicholson – Councillor, London Borough of Hackney
“The Garden of Ideas is an inspirational legacy project for the east end of London. It puts people and participation at its heart, bringing together world class artists and the community to explore the Arts in what will be an intelligent, spectacular, fun and thought provoking experience.”
Sir David Bell – Director of Imagine Nations, Trustee of Common Purpose UK, Chair of UK’s Millennium Commission, Media Standards Trust, Council at Roehampton University, Crisis UK and Sadler’s Wells
“The Garden of Ideas is something I have seen grow and develop with some of the worlds most innovative and engaging thinkers. Simon has brought a world class team to deliver the project and I cant wait to see it up, open and running. This will become a popular destination developing work with some very talented artists and community groups to create the content. This is a ground breaking, much needed project to give voice to the unheard in a spectacular and intelligent way.”
Professor Michael Earley – Principal, Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
“Art, entertainment and education are all represented in this ambitious undertaking. Teaching, involvement and apprenticeships would add to the dimension of what the Garden of Ideas aims to produce for London and the world. Getting young people, students and graduates involved seems one of the key aims. We would be pleased to promote these ideals alongside and together with the project.”
Alexa Perrin – The Experimental Food Society
“The Garden of Ideas is a project that will lay a most fertile soil. Pioneering a fresh approach in architectural, environmental, artistic and social practice it is a truly worthwhile legacy for the Olympic Park. This is what the future should look like.”
Nick Harrison – Cathedral Group PLC
“Cathedral are excited about the business plan we have seen for The Garden of Ideas.
If the project goes ahead we feel it would benefit Newham and the surrounding areas greatly. Not only providing a good use of space in the Royal Docks area but creating employment and generating opportunities for local people.
There are many synergies between The Garden of Ideas project and the Dear Future project Cathedral are proposing, we therefore feel the two projects could complement each other.”
Dame Judi Dench – Actress
“Garden of Ideas is an innovative project and I wish it huge success.”
Zoë Wanamaker – Actress
“This sounds a very cool project, intriguing, exciting and takes us into the 21st century.”
John Waters – Artist, Film director, Author
“Finally, an amusement park whose focus is edge and humor rather than theme park dreariness and market-tested blandness. Garden of Ideas could be the Coney Island of my dreams; scary because it will be so close to the horrors of the real world but thrilling in it’s commercial appeal to everybody without “dumbing down” the social satire. Hopefully, the joyous rebel in every curious spectator will be excited just like I am by the whole idea. What can I say, I’m a true carney at heart.”
Emma Thompson – Actress
“This is an important ‘must have’ Installation Gallery for the future of London, and our children, to ensure London remains at the centre of installation arts that it engages broad audiences with high end content in an exciting new way, I fully support the Garden of Ideas.”
Jeremy Newton – The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts
“The Garden of Ideas is a fascinating and imaginative project which will create a major new cultural destination of national and international significance. His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales believes passionately in the need to give all children access to the very best cultural experiences available and, through His Foundation for Children &the Arts, ensures that many of the most disadvantaged children in the UK are able to see high quality performances and exhibitions which would otherwise be beyond their reach. We at the Foundation would be delighted to collaborate with the Garden of Ideas to ensure that such children could feel part of this exciting new project.”
Tony Oursler – Artist
“It’s about time the dreams of a new generation are focused in a fun and public way, one atop the other, in the Garden of Ideas.”
Lawrence Friesen – Structural Designer Generative Geometry, Buro Happold
“Buro Happold and its Generative Geometry team have been providing their support to the development of the Garden of Ideas scheme in the city of London. As a result of our association with Kathryn Findlay and her innovative projects, we were asked to contribute to the conceptual development of the Garden of Ideas project, which we believe has great potential to be ground-breaking and innovative. The project will be a welcome public space for the local community to enjoy, an amenity for visitors to explore and will be an inspirational art space. Buro Happold has a long history of providing engineering design services to realise innovative projects within the cultural and arts sectors and is proud to support the Garden of Ideas project.”
Venu Dhupa – South Bank Centre
“Hope London has the courage to realise the Garden of Ideas. It is born of exactly the kind of creativity and imagination that this Government has said they want to encourage, so now lets see if more support lies behind the rhetoric of supporting risk.”
Rt Hon Lord Chris Smith – Director The Clore Leadership Programme
“This is a daring and exciting project. It combines art, entertainment, learning, excitement and innovation all in one place. Good luck to everyone involved.”
Carolyn Kerr – Head Curator (British Art) Tate Britain
“Garden of Ideas is an extraordinary and exciting project that challenges our expectations; a unique opportunity for art to be experienced and enjoyed by anyone in an entirely new way.”
Lois Keidan – Live Arts Development Agency
“Garden of Ideas is an intriguing new vision for the arts in London that has the potential to lead to the development and experience of new performance based practices in new settings. Garden of Ideas is considering the creation of total immersion environments that promise to engage audiences with art in ways that they may not have had the opportunity to experience before. The Live Art Development Agency supports the work of Simon Elliott in developing this project which we have seen gain real momentum over the last few years. The Live Art Development Agency would like to encourage potential funders to support the project and contribute to the development of a new and potentially unique creative environment in London.”
Josette Bushell – Mingo OBE Actor, Director
“No question about this project. Innovative, interactive, people and art orientated, well thought through with humour and wit. We need a place like this. I am happy to support it and Simon is one of the most creative, business minded and generous artists I know, he is a great project leader.”
Basil Twist – Puppeteer
“As a child I fantasized about something like the Garden of Ideas…dark rides, slow rides, total sensory experience, a complete world to be invited into. I work in theater and puppetry because that’s the closest I could get to my fantasy..but the concept of the Garden of Ideas amazingly fills this fantasy out completely, and just hearing about it makes me feel like that child again -connected to the potential of imagination beyond anything that’s been done before.”
Gerry Alexander – Actor
“The Garden of Ideas idea seems to me to be an idealistic and creative possibility. I am currently working at the Globe and it strikes me that centuries ago it was the centre of innovative creativity, the repercussions of which not only reverberated in its own time but echoed into the twenty first century contributing hugely to the thriving Southbank we have now. Garden of Ideas offers the same possibilities. How wonderful it would be to create something in our own time that future generations still valued in the way that the Globe has done. I first met Simon over twenty years ago and his unique form of creativity was startling then and it is fantastic to see it expand into something everyone could benefit from now.”
Deborah Armstrong – Strong & Co.
“The Garden of Ideas project is one of the most forward-thinking and exciting projects I have ever come across, and is just what we need to take us into the 21st Century. It is the first place to offer a home to the new experiential genres that are emerging in art and theatre. London needs projects like this to be placed at the very forefront of global contemporary culture. Standing alongside other famous landmarks, Garden of Ideas would become a cultural landmark known the world over. Simon has drawn in so many interesting people to work with on this; he has real visionary zeal and the humour and enthusiasm needed for such a big project. Because of this and more, he is one of the few people who with the capability to make this happen. I wish him the best success, am happy to help however I can and ardently hope to be visiting Garden of Ideas in a few years time.”
James Quayle – Head of Strategy, Lambie-Nairn WPP
“At last a new breakthrough in popularist entertainment that uses creativity to feed the imagination of the audience rather than simply offering a brief novelty. Putting human interaction back at the heart of the entertainment industry, as well as fostering a sense of community in the process. Is Simon the Walt Disney of our generation?”
Friends of the Earth Southwark
“Friends of the Earth Southwark were very impressed by your talk and exhibition concerning the Garden of Ideas, at our February 9th meeting. The membership felt that they can fully support your proposals as they have been very thoroughly researched and the plan encompasses environmental aspects to the complex which we thoroughly approve of. This included mention of being powered by local source and not encouraging chain store food chains etcetera within the complex, as well as having space for people to sit and be quiet and enjoy a London Park area. The whole aspect of it being also educational but not in a formal sense also sounds very good way of encouraging youngsters to enjoy arts and performances of varying types and encouraging the next generation of performers. We also noted that you have researched the development so that it can be user friendly for the disabled and we feel that this must be encouraged. The idea of having a family friendly affordable hotel area is also a very good point so that visitors to London can have access to performing arts at an affordable level. We fully support your efforts to undertake this development and wish you good luck in the future.”
