Through our work, participants are encouraged to use creative exploration as a way of discovering new perspectives on the spaces they inhabit and the people they connect with.
They develop new skills and perspectives by engaging with their local environment through audio, visual, physical, and structural approaches.
This process encourages people of all ages to look, listen, and respond to the spaces we inhabit in fresh, innovative ways. In doing so, we hope to inspire independent ideas about ourselves, our communities, and the places where we live, work, and gather.
Since 2015, Walls On Walls has facilitated creative action in over a dozen site-specific locations, from housing estates to public spaces. Projects have been developed in partnership with Camden Council, the V&A Museum, and City, University of London, with additional support from Arts Council England, the Big Lottery Fund, hClub London, and UAL Central Saint Martins.
At its heart, the work is fundamentally collaborative - rooted in listening, playing, making, and doing together. From conception and design through to creation and activity, each project explores evolving local identities and environments alongside the true experts: the people who live there.
These multi-authored explorations, and sometimes resulting artworks, become frameworks for collective social action, where individual expressions - through sound, visual, and other media - interweave to articulate the broader socio-political contexts from which they emerge.
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 Walls On Walls understand that outcomes with the greatest impact are not the 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.
Develops an awareness about local heritage and stimulates ideas for future changes from participants
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
Promotes long term, neighbourhood connection and collective agency over decision making