The Wapping Project

The Wapping Project is a UK London-based arts organisation and a working name of Women's Playhouse Trust (WPT) since 2000. WPT is a registered charity (286384) established in 1981 and incorporated in 1982.^[1] The project works as a commissioner and producer of art.^[2]

History

Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, WPT worked predominantly at the Royal Court Theatre, London. The first WPT production was a revival of Aphra Behn's The Lucky Chance, performed at the Royal Court in 1984, starring Alan Rickman and Harriet Walter.^[3] In 1993 WPT began to mount work in the derelict Wapping Hydraulic Power Station in the East End of London. WPT purchased the building from London Development Agency and invested £4 million in converting it into an arts centre. The conversion was designed and overseen by architectural practice Shed 54.^[4] The new gallery space opened on the 10 October 2000.^[5] WPT sold the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station in 2013.^[6]

WPT's founder and artistic Director, Jules Wright, who was diagnosed with cancer in February 2015 and died on 21 June 2015.^[7]

WPT continues its artistic work under its working name The Wapping Project, headed by its former Deputy Director, Marta Michalowska, and a longstanding collaborator of Jules Wright, Thomas Zanon-Larcher.^{[citation needed]}

Recent work by The Wapping Project

• Andrea Luka Zimmerman's films Wayfaring Stranger (2024) and feature documentary Erase and Forget (2018) ^[8]
• Shona Illingworth's installation Topologies of Air^[9]
• Mairéad McClean's installation Making Her Mark^[10]