This workshop series followed the “AN INTRODUCTION TO STREET ART – PRINCIPLES, TOOLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP” workshops held last year in South London and all the work carried out during the desk research on the evolution of street art and its applications to modern society, particularly in the UK, focusing on how the UK has supported artists and how many artists and their artworks have contributed to the regeneration of certain areas, inspiring local residents to taken on the path of becoming artists and/or work within the arts. The workshop also showed a practical example on how an artist’s career can be shaped and evolve from with the practical example of artist Lucy Grainge who led the workshops.
As part of the continuous process of documentation and outreach for the INSIDES project, Beatbuzz produced a series of workshops focusing on community art hosted in a location prone to community art and focused on being a space for local artists. Once again led by a working up and coming artist focusing on the impact that the artworks have to people who produce them and to the people who benefit from them, also going once again through the whole process, from the idea to the funding, the permissions and all the logistics around it once again bringing first hand accounts from an artist and curator that turned art and culture into their livelihood.
Whereas the previous workshops were focused on a lot of the theory and the process behind the realisation of murals or open air exhibitions with the artist leading the workshop and the production, these new series has been more practical with a first part introducing the artists’ experience to the attendees and then remaining of the workshops focused on driving inspiration, the creative process and the realisation of both individual pieces as well collective pieces, expanding from the key topic of collaborative and communal work. The practice we wanted to use is printing, from monoprinting to screenprinting via stencil and via transfer method.
The attendees immersed themselves into the various techniques and the creative process, leaving with new skills and inspiration on alternative ways to create, both individual pieces as well as more collective art.
These workshops resulted in more collective artworks being produced, made from by joining together the individual works produced by the attendees into larger collective pieces. The artworks will be documented, stored and then exhibited, also shown during the multiplier event along with the results of the project. The event will most likely take place at Turf Project as it reflected the core value and aims of the INSIDES project.
The workshops have been hosted at Turf Projects, in Croydon, South London. Turf Projects is a registered charity space founded in 2013 by Croydon locals, Turf Projects is Croydon’s homegrown artist space and the first entirely artist-run contemporary art space in the borough. It has been female led since its inception. Among many other things, it supports artists with paid opportunities via exhibitions, workshops and commissions, with a principle that artists should be fairly paid for their work and time. Since 2013 Turf has supported the work of over 500 artists! Turf Projects is a prime example of a successful story of on a organisation that put artists and local communities at the core of their activities, focusing on improving the lives and career of the artists they welcome as well as the local residents’ via offering workshops, talks and exhibitions, all for free, funded by the incredible work of a team dedicated to find the resources to keep everything going.
Overall, a total of 25 people attended the 2 workshops and produced a series of artworks and the overall feedback was extremely positive. All the attendees were excited for the work created as well as being eager to experiment with their newly acquired skills in their own time. The sessions saw an audience attentive and engaged with continuous interactions and questions and ideas exchanged.
