It’s now a little over a year since Foundation for FutureLondon was established to help bring the Olympicopolis dream to life.

The foundation, a charity that will help bring some of the world’s most exciting education and cultural organisations to Newham, will build on the fantastic arts and cultural groups already long established in east London.

We are building a new cultural and education district on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with new venues for the Victoria and Albert Museum, Sadler’s Wells, UCL and UAL’s London College of Fashion.

This hugely ambitious project will be fantastic for Newham and the wider area, creating 3,000 jobs, attracting at least 1.5 million visitors a year and generating around £3bn of economic value for the local and national economy.

The foundation will not only focus on raising philanthropic contributions towards Olympicopolis, but will also stage an exciting programme of projects and events that will connect partners with east London’s thriving arts and cultural scene. We’re hard at work planning our programme for the summer, when we’ll be hosting a season of events that will include the Big Lunch, a huge picnic on the park for thousands of people, open air theatre and dance and a festival for young people headed by the Young Mayor of Newham.

We’ve had a busy first year. In 2015, we supported incredible local organisations including East London Dance, Discover Children’s Story Centre and The Yard Theatre, helping them put on performances and workshops in and around the park.

We worked with Studio Wayne McGregor and Space Studios to put on summer schools for more than 300 school children, and we’ll be doing the same again this year, hosted at the newly opened Here East.

We’re delighted to announce The Princess Royal has been appointed our Patron. Princess Anne has a long history of supporting the arts and played a key role in bringing the London 2012 Games to Stratford. We are very excited about working with Her Royal Highness.