We invite participants to consider how exploratory artistic methods can be applied in their own surroundings.
They learn new skills and approaches by experiencing their local environment through audio, visual, physical and structural means. Enabling individuals of all ages to look, listen and respond to the spaces we inhabit in innovative ways. We hope this informs independent ideas about ourselves, our communities, and the places we spend our time.
Since 2015, Walls On Walls have facilitated creative action and artistic interventions through more than a dozen site-specific projects in social housing estates and public space across London. Such works have been made in partnership with Camden Council, the V&A Museum, and City, University of London with additional funding from Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, hClub London and UAL Central St Martins.
The work is fundamentally collaborative - listening, playing, making and doing, together, from conception and design to creation and activity - explore evolving local identities and environments with local experts: the people that live there.
These multi-authored artworks act as frameworks for shared social action. Within each piece, many individual expressions through sound and visual media are understood in combination to articulate the wider socio-political contexts from which they emanate.
The works are springboards for further conversation and local community action. They may create a culture of inclusion, engagement, and solidarity amongst residents and, as such, provide templates and models for collective working and shared leadership beyond the scope of the projects.
As a practice-research activity over the last seven years, Walls On Walls understand that outcomes with the greatest impact are not any tangible artworks themselves, but rather the socially engaged process of creating them – involving exploratory play, experimentation, and social interaction. The long-lasting value for community cohesion and individual well-being reach far beyond the individual artworks.
This work:
Supports creative development. Individually and collectively.
With participants, develops an awareness about local heritage and stimulates ideas for future changes
Supports community cohesion
Increases collective pride in an area
Engages residents and local community groups in the study of art, aesthetics, place and identity
Supports physical and cultural activity within an area