Art Workshop On Silchester
As part of the provision of health and well-being services for our residents’ recovery from the enormous trauma caused by the catastrophic Grenfell fire, on June 14th 2017, we held a series of art events on the estate to provide a safe place for residents to escape to and to create a therapeutic atmosphere and a feel-good factor within that space, for our residents.
Our very first session was in December 2017 which was extremely successful, engaging close to 100 residents. Our second event was a workshop on Saturday, 13th Jan. 2018.
These workshops then ran every 2nd and 4th Saturday, until June 2018. We commissioned the former artist in residence on the estate, Constantine Gras, to work with the RA to deliver a diverse range of art forms including drawing, creative writing, dance, music and ceramics.
At the end of the project, we produced a book, documenting all the artwork and literature created by our talented residents. You can see the full picture here
The aim of the project above all was to provide a therapeutic outlet and emotional support for our residents, without any stigma that is attached to “Mental Health” . This was a great way to engage residents and provide them with a few hours of diversion from the trauma and the troubles they have been exposed to following the Grenfell tragedy.
At the end of the project we had a two day exhibition of all the work by resident
s which attracted close to 200 visitors from the neighbourhood and beyond.