Open Southall is a vibrant creative hub where you’re always welcome, included, safe and part of a community. You can have fun, learn new things, see new work, exchange ideas, meet new people, relax with your friends socially, and come away feeling inspired & creatively fulfilled.
Sited in The Green Quarter development Open Southall is a place of opportunity and includes a ceramic studio, screen printing facilities, sewing rooms, family maker space, co-working space, gallery shop, community hub and cafe. We’ll celebrate the use of recycled and unconventional materials to re-purpose and refashion textiles; revive Southall’s links to ceramics and use the prestige of the Martinware Collection to help young potters create their ceramic legacy and establish Ealing’s first art scrapstore.
Our space and your help & support will increase the range and amount of equipment we can provide for community use. Together we shall develop a wonderfully diverse and vibrant community hub.
What we'll deliver:
- A community ceramic studio with handbuilding and throwing facilities, glazing and kilns
- An equipped textile studio where we teach traditional crafts with a contemporary twist
- A screen printing studio equipped for artists with varied levels of experience and diverse ability
- Employment for 6 people & opportunities for others to earn a living by running workshops, showcasing and selling work
- A fully inclusive and accessible creative programme
Why it's a great idea:
It’s the first time that Ealing Borough residents will be able to access local, community focused, affordable studios specialising in ceramics, screen printing and textile arts.
Embedded in our creative programme are courses and drop in sessions for all ages with diverse abilities.
Community projects and spaces like ours are needed more than ever in these times with figures of loneliness and poor mental health increasing. We shall make Open Southall a sanctuary away from everyday angst with space for learning new skills, meeting inspired and inspiring tutors, collaborating with local artists, meeting old friends and making new ones.
We have employment opportunities and several ways the community can be involved as volunteers.
And there’s plenty of opportunity for visitors to shape the activities and events that happen on site. Open Southall represents a truly collaborative approach to community programming.
Steps to get it done:
- Recruit studio technicians & admin staff
- Recruit volunteers
- Recruit workshop leaders
- Sign cafe partner
- Fit out studios and workrooms
- Call out for recycling and art donations to start Ealing's Art Scrapstore
- Launch Open Southall website
- Publish creative programme and sign up studio members
- Launch party
We’ll offer age appropriate workshops and courses at beginner and intermediate levels and advanced practitioners will be able to have dedicated studio time.
The community space is available for hire and we’ll be collaborating with local groups to offer a broad range of activities.
We’ll promote recycling and upcycling of art materials and textiles and use the donations to run free sessions. Materials can be collected to use on site with the guidance of an artist, or taken home. Schools and local community groups will be able to access the materials store for their creative projects and talk through mechanics with the staff.
Our mantra “It’s not just the look; the vibe matters!”
The project would not be possible without Berkeley and their agreement to our proposal.
