Social Art Practice, East London

by admin | Feb 12, 2018 | Participation

Social Art Practice, East London
2009 – 2012

the drawing shed is led by visual artist / directors Sally Labern and Bobby Lloyd. Labern+Lloyd practice both collaboratively and individually; their work uses diverse media and engages with issues of resilience, resistance, commonality and displacement. Both artists are interested in the edges of spaces and their ‘shadows’ as well as the objects – art and otherwise – whose resonance is changed by interaction. Both explore ideas that interrogate ‘the edges’ of (often contested) places and communities, working with the unseen, the debris and the dis lodged. These are the pathways into a dialogue and creation of a new form and this is integral to our methodology around social engagement. Using mobile studios the drawing shed delivers socially engaged projects, while both artists also respond as individuals and in collaboration to commission briefs for site specific work that extends their ideas and work.

Social engagement

In their socially engaged practice Labern+Lloyd have worked together for the past few years, as well as on independent projects for the past two decades in East London and beyond, working with communities experiencing high levels of social exclusion. They often develop long-term relationships with individuals which allows complex and rich collaborations to emerge as trust develops. Integral to their work is a strong focus on developing dialogue and celebrating difference through the visual arts. Socially engaged projects can lead out of Lloyd+Labern’s collaborative practice and/or run parallel to it. Always the content works in tandem with the form and the work is ideologically charged; or indeed the converse can be true, collaborative practice triggered by the richness of creative and social interactions that unfold in the socially engaged projects.

the drawing shed mobiles

These were established in 2009/10/11 as an artist-led project/resource/collaboration, they form a central platform for Labern+Lloyd’s creative practice and are at the heart of the drawing shed. These three mobile studios – the drawing shed, ClayOven and PrintBike – live in the drawing shed’s two garages on The Drive housing estate E17, from where the artists currently run socially engaged projects both on the local estates, in the YMCA and across London. Through these mobile projects the drawing shed is able to go to where people are rather than waiting for them to arrive, also using online tools, such as Twitter/Blog, where and when it fits.

Well London and Be Creative Be well

As part of the Be Creative Be Well (BCBW) Well London programme in E17, 2009-2011, the drawing shed took a strategic community development role working alongside UEL and London Sustainability Exchange to develop catalytic projects and access to training that could support behaviour changes for local residents. The resulting real changes in the well-being of individuals created the foundations for community led projects by a ‘Delivery Team’ of residents who then set up a new community group (‘…Ask Freda’) to continue and sustain this grassroots development. the drawing shed wove creativity and well-being through a community cohesion approach to supporting a healthier community.

In E17 Labern+Lloyd continue to use the existing signage that looms large and loudly punctuates the estates, creating text/visual posters with participants, developing skills of local people to forge deeper connections with their neighbours. The new Twitter-based ‘conversation’ in the public spaces on the two estates (which are separated by a wide road) changes their tempo and shifts them into ‘common’ space with Labern+Lloyd as artists negotiating the content of the posters as they are made, and working with residents – children, teenagers and adults – to change the conversation.

the drawing shed has also set up a teenage Girls Estate Based Theatre project supported by partnership organisations as part of the Communities Against Gangs, Guns and Knives, building on the positive vision and aspirations of the girls, the families and the community. This project has seen the coming together of five partnership organisations and the local Hoe Street Well Street (HSWS) Network as co-producers, with the girls taking the lead.

We have also worked with local partnership organisations to co produce projects Eg. With Learning Mentors of three schools and an ‘…Ask Freda’ Volunteer we ran a Monoprinting project in the community to attract 20 hard to reach families; we worked together to create an exhibition which went up on the signage on the estate acting as an art trail leading other local people down to the opening of a new community garden created by and for residents at the back of two sets of flats.

the drawing shed seeks to achieve its vision of challenging preconceived ideas through:

Developing projects and the drawing shed ‘mobiles’ in other public spaces also using digital/Social Media tools (GPS, Blog, Twitter, film, sound) with particular communities, that are as accessible to adults as to children
Setting up ‘the drawing shed’ workshops in ways that create open access and an atmosphere of sharing, understanding of difference and tolerance within the community ; Fostering community networks to share new experiences and the understanding of the value of innovative arts projects and creativity to Well Being

The VALUES which underpin the drawing shed’s work include:

PARTICIPATION – increasing access for people to enjoy drawing, and to confidently use drawing/art making as important tools for imaginative communication and Well Being.
Co-producing contemporary arts projects with communities is central to our work as is INCLUSION ensuring that ‘the drawing shed’ activities and marketing are accessible, relevant and attractive to a culturally diverse audience and that ‘the drawing shed’ continues to seek new participants for creative projects that lead to creating new dialogues within and across communities
COLLABORATION strategic partnerships with local community groups and organisations (voluntary,arts,educational,community, corporate), developing projects with those who share complementary aims.

READ THE PROJECT’S EVALUATION: Click here

CLAYOVEN COOKBOOK

by admin | Sep 19, 2017 | Participation, Publication / on-offline

CLAYOVEN COOKBOOK

ClayOven was born in 2010 as an idea in response to the residents of the YMCA – which itself sits to the South of the two estates – most residents are still unable to cook their own meals and many talk freely of this as separating them off from being able to be connect to that deeper cultural part of themselves which is signified by the making and sharing of food. Residents at the Y now volunteer in their excellent cafe helping to cook food for each other.

Launched at a community organised event, residents decided that they needed ClayOven to be mobile so it can remain safe and unattractive to bored teenagers, this extraordinary ‘gift’ to the community was made by many local families and has now been well and truly understood as valuable, creative and a powerful connector; it is used at every public community event where food is on the agenda!

It was also at the heart of the various ‘cook and eat’ sessions. The project invited families to share the cooking of a simple culturally-specific meal together in each other’s homes as another facet of this dialogue – we called this ‘Eat-Ins’ and they ran alongside ‘Eat-Outs’ where the community cooked and ate together in the open air. This continued to inform the cookbook that documented the building of the ClayOven and the ritual of food within the everyday, within evolving personal / community identities.

This whole project was inspired by Sister Corita whose community cafe ran alongside the print workshop that provided radical posters during the anti vietnam protests of the 1960’s.

The cookbook is an ongoing and developing resource, any ideas – please do share!

Everyone can add a recipe! Write yours to thedrawingshed@gmail.com sharing an image too.

Click on the image below to see the ClayOven cookbook:

CLAYOVEN

by admin | Sep 19, 2017 | Communities of Imagination, Mobile, Participation

CLAYOVEN

The idea of ClayOven came to us when we were making the drawing shed in the cafe garden of the Forest YMCA with the help of our carpenter and residents – the ‘Y’ sits to the South of the two Hoe St estate communities – many of the Y’s residents aren’t able to cook their own meals due to the lack of kitchens and they expressed really strong feelings about how this denied them connection to a deeper cultural part of themselves, one that is signified by the making and sharing of food.

In fact, the mobile ClayOven came into being for the Big Lunch, June 2010. Launched at this community organised event on the two estates where residents decided that they needed it to bemobile so it can remain safe and unattractive to bored teenagers, this extraordinary ‘gift’ to the community was made by many local families and has now been well and truly understood as valuable, creative and a powerful connector. We still hope to build another small oven in the residents garden of the YMCA.

It has also been at the heart of the ‘cook and eat’ sessions where ‘…AskFreda’ and the drawing shed have invited families to share the cooking of a simple culturally-specific meal together in the open air, and will continue over the winter of 2011 / 12 in each other’s homes as another facet of the dialogues we set up across the estates. This community cooking which is led by local families, informs the community cookbook that documents the building of the ClayOven and the ritual of food within the everyday, within evolving personal / community identities.

A Print image for the home will also be created by the family cooks as the project develops, again led and inspired by residents as Art Activators for their own communities. This is the story then of the making of the ClayOven!

Since making ClayOven the drawing shed and ‘…AskFreda’ community group have had several community feasts all based around local cooking and in the open air. When ClayOven comes out it creates opportunities for local growers to donate vegetables, local cooks to share recipes and their cultural skills with others and an unthreatening casual space for friendships to be forged.

Stories of ClayOvens across the world also get shared and it becomes a space that fires the imagination; on July 1st 2012 ClayOven was used to make over 72 pizzas for a youth arts event, ‘Festival Here’, led by young people taking part in the Performance Project.

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…and now we are ready for The Big Lunch round the corner….!

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Stoking the fire…

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More neighbours join in to chop wood and watch.

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THE FIRST FIRING. ClayOven is drying out in readiness for the first cooking session.

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The first flame!

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Bobby laying the kindling for the first ClayOven firing!

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experienced ClayOven users join in, bringing gifts! …trying his handmade bread ‘paddle’ for size.

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…the internal sand mound has been scraped out now to make the ‘hollow’ of the oven …

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Hours later….

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Thick and tough work to meld onto the first layer..

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The mixture! Bobby lost her wedding ring in the mix and we had a community hunt on to retrieve it from the clay- took us hours, but we finally found it !