London, London

— Richard Parry

Southwark housing campaigns to support the occupation on the Aylesbury Estate (2015)

Southwark housing campaigns to support the occupation on the Aylesbury Estate (2015)

This essay offers a case study of a transnational, late 2000’s corporate entity and its ambient cultural field. My focus is supported by Stephen Pritchard’s research into phenomenologies of “artwashing.”[1] And Lewisham Art House, an artist-led arts organisation in London. Both sites have allowed me to recollect my embarrassment at different times, in my own cultural confinement. Such as of the summer of 2012, curating a “summer club” arts programme. At another art’s organisation called V22. This was a particularly structured reality. Part of a readymade cultural context indexing the hundreds of artists V22 have as commercial tenants or exhibition content. For an organisation that represents people as cultural collateral within overlapping systems of private property speculation, public subsidy, and urban regeneration.

  V22 was set up in 2006, and operating in Lewisham since 2013. Lewisham forms part of Inner London. Home to the largest police station in Europe, Goldsmiths College, and Millwall FC. From 2005 to 2015, total property values in the borough of Lewisham increased by £17.8billion,[2] incentivising property market speculation and dispersal of lower-income households. During this time the cash-strapped Republic of Zimbabwe has amassed global attention for the human-rights abuse and transnational corruption associated with the Marange diamond fields, discovered in 2006 at the peak of the country’s political, economic, and humanitarian crisis. In the case of London property speculation and open-cast mining in Zimbabwe, value is extracted from redefined territories through their surface. This case study focuses on the role of London’s artists in associated activities. And considers what being an artist in society (whether you want to be or not) might mean after Brexit. And what happens to minor cultures when transnational interests seep in through the state.

  After 115 years, the Mayor and Council of Lewisham Council privatized Manor House Public Library in 2017.[3] The V22 Foundation was awarded the building’s 25-year lease. As “custodians”[4] acting as commercial landlords for “artists, entrepreneurs, start-ups, social enterprises, ‘tech-for-good,’ not-for-profit organizations, and freelancers.”[5] In 2013, V22 London Ltd acquired a 125-year lease on another nearby public building, Louise House[6] from Lewisham Council. This meant that in 2016, V22 Foundation could lease this property from V22 London Ltd for 123 years, paying a premium of £100,000 to do so. This profit was justified by V22’s CEO as “obtainable if V22 London marketed the property without the subsidy they offer artists as a studio provider.”[7] It appears that Arts Council of England funding underwrote, and paid for this controversial, commercial, profit-driven transaction.[8]

What subsidy?

  - anonymous V22 studio tenant (artist)

The preferred community organisation of the council is V22, but the public’s choice by consultation was Arts Network. Why is the council ignoring public wishes, if the consultation was genuine? The V22 Foundation may have charitable aims but is not a charity. …. Handing over public services to a private company is scandalous!

  - Save Lewisham Libraries blog[9]

  Although V22’s commercially-managed, leveraged appropriation of public space is represented as “a community hub for the advancement of art, education, and the personal and physical wellbeing of local residents”[10]), the V22 Foundation is not a charity. It has no trustees, no independent oversight and no regulation from the Charity Commission. The V22 Foundation is a private limited company[11] founded and operated by Tara Cranswick/V22 PLC.[12] When the acquisition of these buildings facilitated further Arts Council of England funding of £315,000 agreed in 2015, the offer was made to Kathleen Cranswick (the same person), as Director of the V22 Foundation. On the 30th of September 2015, a certified invoice was submitted to the Arts Council of England. For a direct payment of £123,697.37 from this grant.[13] A payment of £100,000 is requested as “Premium payable to V22 Ltd” alongside sums of £5,400 and £7,095.60 attributed to “V22 London Ltd.” This invoice was also signed by Kathleen Tara Cranswick—but this time, as the Director of V22 London Ltd.

   A PLC is a company whose securities may be listed or traded on a stock exchange, but don’t have to be. A PLC can be privately held / owned. UK-registered PLC’s are regulated, and required by law to publish their complete and true financial position so that investors can determine the true worth of their stock. V22 PLC (V22’s parent company) is not registered in the UK. V22 Plc is registered in the Isle of Man.[14] Revealingly, this is how V22 describe their activities in an Interim Report to investors. Also signed by Kathleen Tara Cranswick—as Director of V22 Plc, and Co-Chair:

The success of our property strategy is also reflected in the increase in net asset value. Our subsidiary V22 London Ltd was delighted to enter into a 125-year lease on Louise House in Forest Hill, London, in May this year. […] V22 London sold a long lease on the rear building of this property to V22 Foundation. V22 Foundation raised significant grant funding from the Mayor of London and Arts Council England.[15]

  Alongside investment in the V22 group, (Kathleen) Tara Cranswick appears to have other interests. These include as Director of V220 Ltd (in Management of real estate on a fee or contract basis) in Ladywell Ltd (letting and operating of own or leased real estate) and African Agronomix (Mining and Quarrying[16]). The Directors of the almost eponymous V220 Ltd are Tara Cranswick and Bruce McRobie. Bruce McRobie is a development surveyor for the London Borough of Lambeth (and formerly Hackney and Tower Hamlets). He is V22’s other investor-Director. Complimenting his interest in the V22 group are directorships in V220 Ltd, Mornington Road (Block H) Management Company Ltd (property management), and Shakey Isles Ltd (buying and selling of own real estate).

  V22’s parent company files accounts in the Isle of Man, an offshore tax jurisdiction.[17] How this £123,697.37 of Arts Council England funding is ultimately accounted for is clearly undefined. Resolutions and transactions between different corporate facets are undefined.  V22’s structure, and who ultimately profits from it is undefined. Regular references are made to “social impact,” “social responsibility,” “social remit,” and “ethical investing.” But this doesn’t include filing accounts or tax returns in the country V22 operate in.[18] This raises some serious questions which remain unanswered. These include, why is the V22 group located in an offshore tax haven if there nothing to hide? Why does the Arts Council of England “supporting organisations to be more resilient by having the right buildings and equipment to deliver their work”[19] appear to include subsidising off-shore property investors? Because the Arts Council of England granted V22’s London Ltd subsidiary £5,000 in 2008,[20] and its Foundation subsidiary £405,000 from between 2011-15,[21] where does this selective, subsequent understanding of the V22’s group structure and operation originate?

Our funding is project-based, not-for-profit and ring-fenced from the organization’s core running costs […] the organization is still fully responsible for every part of its business. As such we are unable to directly intervene …I would recommend contacting the V22 Foundation directly […] they may be able to shed some light on this and how their funding from Arts Council England has been directed.[22]

  But clearly, V22 is not the V22 Foundation. And the V22 Foundation does not exist in isolation. In 2013, V22’s CEO defines V22 as “3 complimentary companies.”[23] In 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 grants for the arts applications, V22’s CEO defines V22 as “the alternative name … (if any)” for the V22 Foundation.[24] So suggestions this £123,697.37 was “ring-fenced from V22’s “core running costs” appear confusing. Furthermore, it would appear V22’s structure risks its CEO transferring, receiving, and benefitting from public subsidies in three distinct ways:

1. Payment from V22 Foundation Directorship (grant income to V22 Foundation Directorship)

2. Payment from V22 London Ltd Directorship (revenue to V22 London Ltd)

3. Profit from V22 London Ltd (enhanced value of shareholdings in the parent company, through increased revenue)

4. Profit from V22 PLC (via any dividend payments accounted for offshore)

  As V22 expand their definition of so-called affordable studio provision across London (where artist tenants pay up to 370% more to access / activate “creative space” than existing, unsubsidised models[25]). This rent provides V22 with a significant revenue stream.[26] Property Leaseholds in V22’s portfolio, including (V22) Louise House provide V22 with a significant revenue stream.[27] Injections of public funding from the Arts Council of England provide V22 with a significant revenue stream.[28] And these all improve V22’s net income, to the clear benefit of shareholders:

Mr McRobie now holds 3,566,788 Ordinary Shares representing 11.39% of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company.

  - V22 PLC Holdings in the company, February 4, 2016[29]

Kathleen Cranswick, Executive Director of the Company […] now holds 3,349,444 Ordinary Shares representing 10.70% of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company. In connection with the share purchase, Ms Cranswick also received 3,000,000 deferred A shares and 3,000,000 deferred B shares in the Company (the “Deferred Shares”) […] Ms Cranswick is now interested in 27.30% of the voting capital of the Company.

  - V22 PLC, February 4, 2016[30]

Year on year V22 PLC has grown net income from a loss of 40.38k to a gain [profit] of 893.44k primarily through revenue growth (822.31k to 1.24m). For a while the costs associated with cost of goods, selling, general and administrative and debt all increased as a percentage of sales, the 51.36% growth in revenues contributed enough to still see net income improve.

  - Financial Times [31]

  V22’s structure appears to lack consistency for a number of artists work-
ing within it. Former staff members and collaborating artists report wages or production costs paid by V22 Ltd, V22 Foundation, interchangeably or not at all.[32] Artists appear listed as “partners” in speculative funding applications made to the Arts Council of England without their prior knowledge. And in 2009,[33] 2011,[34] 2012,[35] Tara Cranswick as V22 CEO authorised payment for herself as Director in V22 shares. Some in off-market transactions.[36] And made a personal loan to V22. Of £15,000, repayable at 7% interest.[37]

  Accompanying such operating procedures is V22 PLC’s Non-executive Director, Roy Tucker.[38] Described by Graham Aaronson QC as, “an ingenious deviser of tax avoidance schemes designed for high income earners.”[39] He is also a Director of Vast Resources, a mining and resource development company with interests in Zimbabwe. African Consolidated Resources[40] was renamed Vast Resources in 2014 after Tara Cranswick’s sibling, Andrew Noel Cranswick, resigned as CEO [41] after charges of “smuggling precious minerals, externalising foreign currency and tax evasion”[42] were made against him by Australian and Zimbabwean governments.

Tax avoidance was the financial phenomenon of the 1970s, just as asset stripping had been in the 1960’s; and no one was more successful at it than Roy Tucker and Ronald Plummer of Rossminster, both of whom became millionaires by making tax avoidance schemes available to the businessman in the street as well as to the very rich. Rossminster’s astonishing success was a direct result of the penal tax rates imposed by the Labour Government in 1974; hiding behind an absurdly complex network of paper companies in tax shelters like Guernsey and the Isle of Man.                          

  - Nigel Tutt, Tax Raiders: The Rossminster[43]

African Consolidated Resources (ACR) boss Andrew Cranswick, who is facing prosecution for allegedly acquiring diamond mining claims fraudulently, has made stunning confessions that he engaged in questionable activities after taking advantage of “lax” monitoring systems in Zimbabwe. These include smuggling precious minerals, externalising foreign currency and tax evasion. The startling revelations were last week exposed by the Australian Business Day newspaper, which is in possession of a transcript of Cranswick’s interview with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) which last month declared the controversial businessman bankrupt over a $1.1 million (Australian dollars) tax debt.

  - http://maravi.blogspot.co.uk[44]

“That man will never mine in this country as long as I am minister. Cranswick, only one man, has caused all the chaos. That one white man does not even employ, his company is listed in Britain yet he holds Zimbabwe to ransom,” said Mpofu.[45]

ACR owns legal title to the Marange diamond claims but was controversially forced off the alluvial diamond-rich field by the government about four years ago.

“In fact, we received communication from Israel, the Kimberly chair saying they will not listen to Cranswick and they want us to move forward. He is responsible for all this mess, stopping us from using our resources to assist the country. We are under sanctions because of that one man,” Mpofu said, blaming the media for listening to Cranswick more than the government. “He has used the media effectively.”

  - Wikileaks Email ID 326641[46]

  V22 purchase works for their collection using cash and / or studio time. They also generate a share issue in the corporate art collection, without voting rights. This grounds claims of collective ownership from V22’s corporate share-holders to community stakeholders which don’t appear closely examined. In London, V22’s community stakeholders include Lewisham Council and the Arts Council of England. V22’s shareholders include or have included Bruce McRobie, (Kathleen) Tara Cranswick, Fergal Stapleton,[47] Rebeca Warren,[48] and those who wish to remain anonymous. As Director of V22 Foundation,[49] Stapleton’s practice appears to include “being commissioned” by V22 London Ltd for an £18,000 community garden—as—artwork. Paid for from the V22 Foundation’s Arts Council of England grant.[50]

  Regarding custodianship of Louise House, Lewisham Council did not approach Lewisham Art House. Lewisham Art House is a registered charity and provider of open access artist facilities, working in the borough for twenty-five years, and maintaining Deptford’s former library building since 1993. Lewisham Art House’s public provision is arguably better and definitely comparable to V22’s. Economically, its facilities, resources, and programmes are more accessible to Lewisham residents and artists. Because they are based on the median income of London’s artists[51]—not market narratives. Other differences include Lewisham Art House being a registered charity, with Trustees, and consistent, ongoing outputs in education, arts and graduate residency programmes all year round. Remarkably, Lewisham Art House does not appear to receive significant public funding from either Lewisham Council or the Arts Council of England. Understandably, its artist-led provision doesn’t require offshore shareholders, investor-Directors, or privatized assets. The cultural capital generated by such artists, audiences, and communities remains held in common. Unindexed, unmediated, and unabstracted by market speculation.

  So why does it appear easier for a private company (an owned subsidiary of an offshore-registered investment vehicle) to lease public assets, than a recognised charity, already working in London for twenty-five years? Cold this concern historical, controversial connections between Lewisham Councillors, “redevelopment,” and enhanced scope for anonymous offshore shareholding?

Lewisham council planned to seize Millwall’s[52] land, evict the club’s prized community trust and sell the land on to an offshore-registered developer called Renewal […] Renewal was founded by two former Lewisham council officers, one of them the previous Labour mayor. The developers are ultimately owned and administered behind a veil of secrecy in the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man.

  - Barney Ronay, Guardian, January 25, 2017[53]

The inquiry will examine the circumstances surrounding the regeneration of land at New Bermondsey/Surrey Canal with a view to determining whether the (Lewisham) council, its members and officers have acted properly and with due diligence when taking decisions in relation to the regeneration of this land.

  - Opening statement on the New Bermondsey/Surrey Canal

Independent Inquiry, Chaired by Lord Dyson[54]

  The Lewisham Council register of interests doesn’t appear to define indirect shareholding (for example, of an offshore-registered company that operating in London through subsidiaries) as an interest that requires registering.[55]

  Alongside securing them public funding and assets, London’s artists unwillingly underwrite claims their speculative landlords have on the future. For example, as V22’s CEO, Tara Cranswick, consults with the Mayor of London’s Specialist Assistance Team. The Mayor of London sets policies and budgets for housing, planning and the environment. And his Specialist Assistance Team supports “excellent results” in urban regeneration.[56] V22’s CEO is also a member of the Greater London Authority taskforce for the “future of sustainable workspace in London.”[57] Meeting with the Mayor of London’s office and the Greater London Authority, through the “Artists’ Workspace Advisory Group.” Conversely, it would appear that V22’s Directors are simultaneously invested in these same property markets that they declare artists need “protecting” from. Such as through their directorships, shareholdings, and complimentary business interests. Ultimately, V22’s responsibility is to shareholders with voting rights. So an unresolved conflict of interest between property speculation and cultural provision, such as with any market sensitive information they might encounter. Through the Mayor’s office:

Boris, I’ll write your report:

Artists contribute enormously to London and the UK economy.

Art is the greatest civilising force we have.

Artists need space.

The GLA and local councils have publicly owned properties.

It is further in your power to ensure a small space in every new development.

Make it so.

– V22 blog post addressing the Mayor of London by Tara Cranswick, February 14, 2014[58]

  In 2015, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, agreed to grant V22 £133,000 from the Greater London authority High Street Fund, for the “Dartmouth Road, Forest Hill project.”[59] Because (V22) Louise House is on Dartmouth Road, Forest Hill. It remains unclear why, within the government’s austerity agenda, this building had to become privatized to secure such public funding investment.

  For tenants of V22’s eight studio buildings, gentrification might be defined as the process of a place conforming to a broadly middle-class taste, re-enforcingmarket narratives.[60] Some people (estate agents, for example) might identify artists as the start of gentrification. Or the structure / activities of the V22 group as a symptom, rather than cause of market-born displacement. In Lewisham, the state, transnational interests, and anonymous offshore investors converge. And it is they—not the artists — who are (re)defining culture’s ground. Cultural legitimacy becomes a service industry, as artists are priced-out from spaces of production or living. And it is the clichéd imagination of international property markets, not the artist tenants being exclusively catered for. Acrross London up to 3,500 artists are predicated to lose a place to work in the period 2014–19 (30% of the 2014 provision[61]).

  Ironically, for the subjects of de/reterritorialization, this neo “creative space” defines and supports art’s own dispossession. It’s aesthetics little more than a signifying form of regulatory fiction.[62] Subject positions become more intensively projected. Towards a DIY native informancy against the self. Contextual aware-
ness defines an institutionally-operated “consciousness zone.” Cities dislocate artists like tradable assets such as “the creative,” “the social,” or “collectively owned” to intensify an alienation only purchase might relieve. Market speculation grounds invoke resident culture. And artists awake another middle class executive business—like Instagram or the police force.

It really is an apparatus. It really is a machine. It doesn’t evolve from anywhere.

  - anonymous V22 studio tenant

  As in the art world, claims of “the social” maintain corporate PR, and its predictable narratives globally. Like an auction house “building trust” between investors and “stakeholders” (at least until a market exit is performed), these enhance property and land values. And the minerals beneath. The World Bank describes social capital as “the glue that holds them [the institutions] together.”[63] For London, “cultural provision” might appear as more than just a pretext for other interests. For some, it starts to feel that life itself is being rewritten or indexed. Residents (including artists) simultaneously activate and are dispersed by the city itself. “Community participation” here does not refer to socio-political production, but to a mode of [mis]representation, and the aspirational logic of its value form.[64] Pre-subscribed. There is art, and there is enforced contemporary art. And that is just “history.” A way of continuing the agenda.

We are pleased to have Galileo Resources earning into our highly prospective Rare Earth Project in the new and dynamic Muchinga Province of Zambia (…) This is good news for all, especially the people of Muchinga, considering what it means for employment, community participation, economic growth and infrastructural development.[65]

  - Vast Resources[66]

Grace Mugabe has fleshed out her allegations of illicit diamond dealing against Vice President Joice Mujuru by claiming that she [Vice President Joice Mujuru] owned African Consolidated Resources.[67] […]The first lady claimed that Mujuru formed ACR in a bid to control the country’s mineral resources and fund a plot to oust President Robert Mugabe because he is too old.

  - Staff reporter, New Zimbabwe, October 23, 2014[68]

  In landscapes of extinction (such as affordable housing in London, or open cast mining in Zimbabwe) “community participation” appears reissued as image-led incantation. Affording transnational speculators access to territorial assets and wealth. Like a major art fair’s treatment of minority subjectivity, or a psychedelic diamond, democratic cultural provision is simulated in one facet, whilst the embodied capital of its subjects is assumed in another. Agency becomes defined by the people who represent it, and as such acquires an institutional dimension. For artists, these paradoxes remain unresolved. But perhaps not entirely without scope to be mediated or “re-mediated” by those enfranchised enough to be (or not to be) the heritage in new, serious, operative ways.

  Like an emerging art fair section or strategic property developer, repeating such landscapes makes-believe a world that is stable. In London, local authorities overlook conflicting interests between common and enclosed wealth. Towards artist reservation zones, where cultural provision and market speculation (and their claims on the future) are indistinguishable. Like AstroTurf™ performing,  “grass roots,”[69] or open-cast mining defining an environment. Desperate pretexts for wealth-extraction, collective disenfranchisement and dispossession recirculate as righteous, foregone conclusion. London becomes a less a cosmopolitan place as Arts Councils sponsor offshore property developers and public libraries become real estate. As with Brexit, overall one sees the decorative effect increase. Like a state enclosure or terrible art fair.

Eddie Peake, Contrapposto Pause, live performance (2011) via http://www.v22collection.com/artists/eddie-peake/

Eddie Peake, Contrapposto Pause, live performance (2011) via http://www.v22collection.com/artists/eddie-peake/

  1. [1] Cf. http://colouringinculture.org/search?q=v22 ↩
  2. [2] From 2005 to 2015. As charted in “Mapped: 10 years of Britain’s house price boom (and bust),” Telegraph, February 27, 2015: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/house-prices/11432738/Mapped-10-years-of-Britains-house-price-boom-and-bust.html ↩
  3. [3] Lewisham Council report, March 22, 2017: Libraries Saving Programme – approval of preferred provider for Manor House: http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s48849/Libraries%20Savings%20Programme%20approval%20of%20preferred%20provider%20for%20Manor%20House.pdf ↩
  4. [4] V22 online marketing: https://twitter.com/dawnafinch/status/87837109350088294 ↩
  5. [5] V22 online marketing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PgHGPPt43_gt1plMWcFYD-TAJWcRUdsX/view?usp=sharing ↩
  6. [6] V22 Interim Report for Half-Year Ended 30 June 2013: “V22 London was also pleased to be notified that its tender to acquire Louise House – a Grade II listed building in Forest Hill, SE London was successful. The tender was run by London Borough of Lewisham to award a 125 year lease on the property at an affordable premium.” ↩
  7. [7] Final Results of V22 Plc, 31 May 2017: https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/final-results/20170531070000P683A/ ↩
  8. [8] Arts Council of England, V22 Certified Invoice Summary, via Freedom of Information request https://drive.google.com/open?id=11h5DRogu9lHdOWgMmBsWxcnt_pdxqHEW ↩
  9. [9] http://savelewishamlibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/library-protest-5pm-this-wednesday.html ↩
  10. [10] Lewisham Council report – Libraries Savings Programme Update, 13 July 2016: http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s44557/Library%20Savings%20Programme%20Update.pdf ↩
  11. [11] Companies House overview of V22 Foundation: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07590502 ↩
  12. [12] Copy of Certificate of Incorporation of a Private Limited Company – V22 Foundation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tjQrs_Fxy3ZnL9pSSRZZlnoNa6u3dQdH ↩
  13. [13] Certified Invoice Summary, op. cit. ↩
  14. [14] V22 Admission document, pages 30–32 (Incorporation and Memorandum and articles of incorporation): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1W-xaqCkvBNtZbPboLUko0_ra5vLpCDPy ↩
  15. [15] V22 Interim Report for Half-Year Ended 30 June 2016: https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/v22-plc-group-s-results-for-six-months-to-30-ju—/20160930070000P31CF/ ↩
  16. [16] African Agronimix, trading as Fisherman Mining is reported as a billion dollar mining company (https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/1bn-fertiliser-manufacturing-company-on-cards/ ) Andrew Cranswick, reported as African Agonimix’s Director, isn’t listed in Companies House. Kathleen Tara Cranswick is listed as an active person with significant control (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10384877/persons-with-significant-control ). Roy Tucker is also a director of V22 PLC and African Agronimix. Andrew Cranswick appears associated with diamond mining, mineral mining, currency smuggling in Zimbabwe, bankruptcy in Australia, and offshore tax evasion: (http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-bankrupt-ceo-and-one-hell-of-a-secret-20101123-185pz.html ) ( http://www.insiderzim.com/acrs-cranswick-a-cowboy-capitalist/ ) “If there’s a transaction –let’s say someone in Zimbabwe says, ‘OK, listen. I need to get money out of the country,’ I introduce them to Tony,” Cranswick said. I say, “This is the chap. He wants to send it to the UK,” or Australia or whatever the case may be, and then Tony negotiates with him. OK? And he copies me in on what he’s done. ↩
  17. [17] https://services.gov.im/ded/services/companiesregistry/viewcompany.iom?Id=147817 ↩
  18. [18] Ibid. ↩
  19. [19] http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/capital-large-grants ↩
  20. [20] Freedom Of Information request – Arts Council of England, email 5 June 2017, 14:36: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZRMWJkiDos_cJgayDINM_5FZNV4wqnDE ↩
  21. [21] Ibid. ↩
  22. [22] Information about the Arts Council / V22. Email reply sent on behalf of Sir Nicholas Serota on July 12, 2017: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SlcWENxWpgjH1pP4HU38iyf5QdkY9OxT ↩
  23. [23] V22 – The V22 Plc Impact Report, 2013. ↩
  24. [24] V22 application to the Arts Council of England. Grants for the arts, 2014: https://drive.google.com/open?id=18w7xK9uXC6ECi1XHLO12LY38gXHSaSv2 ↩
  25. [25] Lewisham Art House, £6.50 per sq. ft. per annum vs. V22, £24 per sq. ft. per annum. ↩
  26. [26] See V22 – Final Year Results, Year Ended 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016:  https://www.investegate.co.uk/Index.aspx?searchtype=2&words=V22 ↩
  27. [27] “Property Portfolio ” – V22 Final Results, Year Ended 31 December 2015: https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/final-results/20160531070000P3C89/ ↩
  28. [28] V22 Plc Interim Report for Half Year Ended 30 June 2016: https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/v22-plc-group-s-results-for-six-months-to-30-ju—/20160930070000P31CF/ ↩
  29. [29] V22 Plc Holdings in the company, 4 February 2016, 4:05 pm: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pbX9MaGvjxuVdlE7khILmdbqE3YCSpCB ↩
  30. [30] V22 Plc Directors’ Dealings, 4th February, 2016 (2 of 2): https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/directors–dealings/20160224160000P709A/ ↩
  31. [31] https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/financials?s=V22O:ISD ↩
  32. [32] Anecdotal and personal experience. ↩
  33. [33] http://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/issue-of-shares/20090731125526P2F78/ ↩
  34. [34] http://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/purchase-of-artwork-and-issue-of-equity/20111223110000P7028/ ↩
  35. [35] http://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn issue-of-equity-and-total-voting-rights/20121228133540PCD91/ ↩
  36. [36]

    V22 Plc Report – Director/PDMR Shareholding: https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/director-pdmr-shareholding/20151126140132PEC91/ ↩

  37. [37] V22 Plc Annual Report, year ending December 2014x: http://www.v22collection.com/media/uploads/isdx/v22-annual-report-ye-dec-2014.pdf ↩
  38. [38] https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/directors?s=V22O:ISD: ↩
  39. [39] https://www.taxjournal.com/articles/swing-pendulum-tax-avoidance-modern-times-28092016 ↩
  40. [40] http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news/AN_1396858972944999400/african-consolidated-resources-appoints-roy-pitchford-as-interim-ceo.aspx ↩
  41. [41] http://www.vastresourcesplc.com/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/vastresourcesplc.com/news/corporate-and-operational-update/_index.html_gzip ↩
  42. [42] http://maravi.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/sticky-talkzimbabwe-cranswicks-minerals.html ↩
  43. [43] Nigel Tutt, Tax Raiders: The Rossminster Affair (London: Financial Training Publications Ltd, 1985). ↩
  44. [44] http://maravi.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/sticky-talkzimbabwe-cranswicks-minerals.html ↩
  45. [45] Government of Zimbabwe, Mines Minister, Obert Mpofu. ↩
  46. [46] https://wikileaks.org/gifiles docs/32/326641_-os-zimbabwe-uk-mining-uk-firm-will-never-mine-zim-diamonds.html ↩
  47. [47] V22 – Issue of Equity and Voting Rights, 30th September 2015: https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/issue-of-equity-and-total-voting-rights/20150930150000PA056/ ↩
  48. [48] V22 – Holdings in the Company, 4th April, 2017: https://www.investegate.co.uk/v22-plc–v22o-/prn/holding-s–in-company/20130404122824PB467/ ↩
  49. [49] Companies House – Fergal Stapleton: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/HHJX_HlADt0khL03DON9fskbyyQ/appointments ↩
  50. [50] V22-london-ltd-fergal-stapleton-conformation: http://www.v22collection.com/artists/fergal-stapleton/ ↩
  51. [51] £10,000 per year DACS research – 2010: https://www.dacs.org.uk/latest-news/artist-salary-research?category=For+Artists&title=N ↩
  52. [52] Millwall are a professional football club from Bermondsey, in the London borough of Lewi-sham. From 1910 until 1993 the club played at what is now called The Old Den in New Cross, before moving to its current home stadium nearby, called The Den. ↩
  53. [53] https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jan/25/millwall-cpo-scrapped-lewisham-mayor ↩
  54. [54] https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/lewisham-publishes-opening-statement-new-bermondsey-surrey-canal-sports-foundation-inquiry/ ↩
  55. [55] Example of form: http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/mgDeclarationSubmission.aspx?UID=182&HID=1003&FID=0&HPID=0 ↩
  56. [56] https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/regeneration/advice-and-guidance/specialist-assistance-team ↩
  57. [57] V22 Annual Report Year Ended December 2015: http://library.isdx.com/infostore/Company-Accounts/V22/V22%20Annual%20Report%20YE%20Dec%202015.pdf ↩
  58. [58] “Leaving Bermondsey,” blog post:  http://v22collection.com/blogs/2014/02/14/leaving-bermondsey/ ↩
  59. [59] https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lho4wcWuBJIR8ZLcnjTmYPLtOAeutcz8 ↩
  60. [60] The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines gentrification as “the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.” The Oxford Living Dictionaries define gentrification as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste.” ↩
  61. [61] Greater London Authority – Artist Workspace study, September 2014: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/artists_workspace_study_september2014_reva_web_0.pdf ↩
  62. [62] E.g., “Meet London’s new generation of sensationalists shaking up the art world,” https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/meet-londons-new-generation-of-sensationalists-shaking-up-the-art-world-a3361126.html Published by London’s Evening Standard free daily newspaper (edited by George Osborne, who as Chancellor of the Exchequer 2010-16 oversaw six years of austerity and spending cuts in public services). ↩
  63. [63] http://www.senscot.net/view_art.php?viewid=1250 ↩
  64. [64] Ana Teixeira Pinto, “Artwashing  NRX and the Alt-Right,” Texte zur Kunst, no. 106 (June 2017), https://www.textezurkunst.de/106/artwashing/ ↩
  65. [65] http://www.vastresourcesplc.com/news/galileo-resources-plc-farms-into-nkombwa-hill-rare-earth-project-in-zambia/ ↩
  66. [66] Vast Resources No. 1 are a UK-based mining company. Roy Tucker is a Director of both Vast Resources No. 1 and V22 PLC. (Kathleen) Tara Cranswick is CEO and Director of V22. Andrew Noel Cranswick (her brother) is a former CEO of Vast Resources. Vast Resources’s (formally African Consolidated Resources PLC) Grace Mugabe has claimed that the Zimbabwean Vice President formed African Consolidated Resources. ↩
  67. [67] Later renamed Vast Resources. ↩
  68. [68] http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-18561-Mujuru+formed+Marange+owner+ACR/news.aspx ↩
  69. [69] Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by a grassroots community. It is a practice intended to provide credibility by withholding information about financial connections. The term astroturfing is derived from AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to resemble natural grass. A grassroots movement is one which uses the people in a given district as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations involve collective action at the local level. ↩