Hafsa Adan and Simon Vickery appointed Open House Festival Curator and Programme Manager

Open City is delighted to announce two significant new appointments to the team behind the UK’s largest architecture event, Open House Festival.

Simon Vickery has been appointed Programme Manager and Hafsa Adan as Curator of London’s two-week Open House Festival.

The two will work alongside Festival Director Celia Mead and the wider Open House Festival team to take the event forward into its 32nd year, building a more diverse and adventurous programme, supporting the festival’s core community of participants and volunteers, and better connecting the festival with Open City’s year-round educational programmes supporting children and young people from under-represented communities.

Simon Vickery is an experienced housing activist with a passion for London and its architecture. He was a founding member of the London Renters Union and previously led educational programmes at the Bishopsgate Institute. Simon has been a key part of the Open House Festival as Communities Manager and looks forward to stepping into this new role at an exciting time for the festival and its parent charity Open City.

Simon said: ‘Having been focussed on working with our wonderful volunteers since I joined Open City in 2022, I'm now looking forward to turning my attention to the festival as a whole. I'm excited to start working more closely with our community of contributors and to find how, as a staff team, we might support new and existing contributors alike to get the most out of taking part in the festival. In particular, I'm keen to explore how we can deliver a festival that is accessible as possible to all potential contributors, volunteers and visitors, so that our programme can continue to reflect London in all its plurality.’

Hafsa Adan is a curator with a background in architecture currently studying part time at Kingston Uni and the Design Museum. She was previously Assistant Curator of the Open House Festival and has led a number of other curatorial projects including co-producing and designing a short film and zine exploring matriachal bonds within the British muslim diaspora.

Hafsa said: ‘In my role as Open House Festival Curator I’m really excited to continue growing and nurturing our existing curatorial programming as well as introducing new ways of exploring the festival. I want to champion and give a platform to new and creative voices in architecture through programmes such as Guest Curators and City Curators. As Curator I hope to work creatively and collaboratively with the festival team to curate a festival that is representative of London, its architecture and the people who inhabit it.’

Phineas Harper, Chief Executive of Open City, the charity behind the Open House Festival said: ‘I am thrilled that Hafsa and Simon have been appointed to these key roles in our festival team. They are both extremely diligent, creative and proactive thinkers who will carry the festival forward to new heights with care and empathy.’

Notes

Typically the Open House Festival attracts 170,000 visits. The economic impact is estimated to be £2.9m direct spend in the local economy by visitors.
Open City, the charity which stages the Open House Festival was founded in 1992 and runs educational programmes for children and young people from under-represented communities in London and Birmingham year-round.
Over its three-decade history, the Open City has helped set up Open House Festivals across the world from New York City to Lagos. There are now nearly 60 Open House Festivals worldwide which together attract around 750,000 visitors a year.

Photographs: Phineas Harper