WALL – Our exciting community multimedia project for 2017/2018
This project has a number of elements and is including the whole community in areas of creativity.
Bricks on the Wall
Project with local schools and community groups. Encouraging groups to draw/paint on brick size cardboard on the theme of WALLs. These will be incorporated into an installation in the SE9 Container Gallery and elsewhere .
We have heard from one primary school that they are planning to make ceramic bricks , which can then be installed on a wall on the school after the project . Other schools are now involved and planning exciting activities and brickmaking.
We now have mosaic , knitted , embroidered and crocheted bricks. A real mix of material and creative talent. El Recreo, our Eltham Spanish group are planning a fabric installation.
Free creative workshops are being organised at the Eltham Centre for all ages .so everyone can make a brick and be involved. These are family workshops and suitable for all ages .
Eltham library : 16th Feb and 31st May 2018 from 10.30 to 12.30am and 21 June 10.30 to 12
New Eltham Library : Sat 28th April 2018 from 2 to 4pm
Leading: Pragya Kumar and John Wingham
Writing on a Wall
A short story and poetry creative writing challenge. This is on the theme of WALLS around us. This is an exciting topic which encourages people to think about the walls around them and be inspired to express themselves creatively in prose or poetry. It may be a wall on a house or historic building, a wall dividing cultures or a personal wall within which inspires you to write. A great opportunity for all ages to be involved .
FREE Workshops were run by John Paul O’Neill to support the project and inspire everyone to join in and write a poem or a short story. These were at Eltham Library on 30th January 2018 ( Write a poem/short story – workshop for adults) and on 3 Feb 2018 2 (Write a poem. Family wokrshop for all ages). These workshops were very successful !
Poems and short stories have now been completed and there were a high level of excellent. entries. The celebratory event with an exhibition and awards took place on World Book Night 23rd April 2018 at Eltham library and was a great success with over 300 people attending . There were awards for children and adults. We were also entertained by the local Eltham ‘Make a Noise’ Choir The exhibition of a range of entries was on display at Eltham and New Eltham libraries
It is planned that a selection of entries will published in a book of the same name.
Writing on A Wall flyer Eltham Arts PDF
Leading: Gaynor Wingham and Miriam Storey
Songs across a Wall
Singer/song writers were challenged to write and perform their songs around the WALL theme.
We are planning a whole day of WALL songs as part of the Eltham Music Festival in Passey Place , Eltham High St on 21st July 2017. This will give a showcase of local talent. We may also have other events at local venues where singer/songwriters will have an opportunity to perform.
We have produced CD’s in 2016 (Aspects of Winter) and 2017 (A Plateful of Songs) of songs from our challenges , which have been an excellent opportunity for publicity for individuals and the Eltham Arts network. We may be able to produce a CD this time .
Leading: Zahira al Zahira and Dave Kenningham
The Secret Story Garden
Based around the theme of Francis Hodgson Burnett’s book we are working with Eltham Library to developing an outside garden area of the Eltham centre as play and art space. Art works will be developed along with part of the planting. This is dependent on agreement from the building owners. GLL have expressed support for the project
Leading: Miriam Storey
Green Walls
Photographer Sandra Marques looks at the cellular structure of plants. We are considering how this may interface with the secret garden project. Exhibition at the SE9 Container Gallery (Sept/Oct 2018) .
Leading: Pragya Kumar (liaising with Sandra Marques)
My Wall
“My Wall” is a project by photographer Elizabeth Itisor. She aims to capture stories of local people by taking pictures of them against walls. Her final work will result in an exhibition in SE9 Container Gallery.
Leading: Pragya Kumar (liaising with Elizabeth Itisor)
Walls from the Water (The Foundation of Time)
Creative project from found objects (many bricks!) from mudlarking on the River Thames foreshore. No one is sure what will be created but it will be interesting and different! This is an 1860’s brick found at Greenwich from our WALL project display in the Eltham Centre (Nov 2017) . It was the star of the display and a talking point. Dave is an now expert on bricks!
Leading: Dave Kenningham
Over the Wall and Far away : New Eltham shopfront Mural
Mural on a vacant shopfront commissioned by NEBA (New Eltham Business Association). Completed Aug 2017 entitled ‘Over the Wall and Far Away ‘
A fantastic improvement (and talking point) loved by the community. Well done team !
We were delighted and proud that the New Eltham Lights Up community event on 27th Nov 2017 was staged right by the mural with local children carol singing and the lights being turned on by James Serjeant , Headteacher of Wyborne Primary School !
Leading: Pragya Kumar, John Wingham and Zahira Al Zahira
WALL Exhibition at the SE9 Container Gallery
This innovative gallery , designer built from shipping containers, is in the Grounds on St Thomas More Secondary School, Eltham has been booked from 22nd Sept 2018 for four weeks. We are delighted that we will have the opportunity for four Saturdays to have an installation and exhibition of works from the projects and film generated by the project. There may also be other events organised in the gallery during the show.
Leading: John Wingham and Pragya Kumar
The Acting Class – film screening
Eltham Arts were delighted to host a screening of ‘The Acting Class’ at Bob Hope Theatre as a part of their WALL project on Wed 21st Feb 2018 . This film which focused on the class barriers within the acting profession led to a lively Q and A with the Directors , Tom Stocks and Labour politician Trevor Macfarlane. A good evening with a thought provoking film.
The Acting Class (D.O’Neill & M.Wayne, 2017, 77mins)
All the world’s a stage but not all the players are equal. When Tom Stocks, a young man from Bolton has to turn down a chance to study at the East 15 drama school because he cannot afford the fees, he sets up a campaign to highlight socio-economic exclusion in the arts. Tom is not alone. Actors from working class backgrounds are struggling to get in and get on in an industry stacked against them. Established actors worry about where the next generation of talent from modest backgrounds is going to come from. Christopher Eccleston, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Maxine Peake and Samuel West are among those who feature in this film talking about the barriers to success. And this is an issue not just for those who see their dreams thwarted because they do not have the ‘bank of mom and dad’ to back them. Who gets to be on our stages and screens matters to all of us. Whose stories get told, what images we have of ourselves, who we think ‘we’ are, helps shape our individual and national identities.
Awarded Best UK Feature Film by the Labour Film festival 2017.
Leading: Gaynor Wingham liaising with Inside Film
Wall – the Film
This will be a film to explore some of the issues raised by the WALL theme and document the project. Gaynor will work with photographer Robert Piwko
Filming has started and the film will evolve over the next 6/9 months. documenting projects but also exploring wider issues in our community. We are planning the film will be shown at the SE9 Container Gallery and elsewhere
Leading: Gaynor Wingham
Email elthamarts@aol.co.uk for more information or to discuss a project. or through the website contact.
It was encouraging to see our local MP Clive Efford supporting local arts events, and our wonderful police too:
Eltham Arts 