SET Free Space for Community Groups>Activism>Charities
SET have awarded 15 charities, community groups, grass roots movements, zines & collectives free space for one year, running from the 22nd of March 2021 to the 22nd of March 2022. A total of 5000 sq ft has been awarded at SET Woolwich.
The organisations selected address a variety of crucial causes in inspiring and creative ways.
Below is a brief overview of all the selected organisations.
For more information about SET Woolwich see here.
Little Bean Theatre 小豆釘
is the first and only Cantonese-English bilingual family theatre company in the UK. Founded in 2018 by a London-based group of female theatre, music and multi-arts practitioners, most of their members are of Hong Kong origin and are based locally in Woolwich.
The company’s objectives are:
- To promote and celebrate diversity
- To encourage cultural cohesion between the Chinese diaspora and the UK community
- To preserve and pass on their heritage, language and culture
- To increase cultural exposure of ethnic Chinese families in the UK who are not typically theatre-goers
Mama 2 Mama
Mama 2 Mama is a baby bank which works in partnership with parents, to plan, monitor and evaluate support until they overcome the problems they face. Their services include referrals for parenting programmes, targeted family support services, employability, advice and health services.
The Baby Bank is like a food bank but for baby essentials. They collect new and pre-loved items for new-borns to 3 year olds from the local community and give them to families who are in urgent need of help.
Trailblazers Mentoring
Trailblazers Mentoring is a national mentoring charity that offers support to young men (aged 18-25) during the fragile time around their release from prison. Through weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions with a fully-trained volunteer mentor – both in custody and “through the gate” after release – they aim to empower, encourage, and inspire their mentees to help them reach their potential and make a positive impact in their communities. Their support ranges from the practical (immediate support on their day of release, setting up a bank account, Universal Credit application, assistance in securing accommodation/housing etc.) to the personal (building self-esteem or working to improve relationships) and is always guided by their mentees and what the mentees feel they need. Whether it’s help with money management, setting goals, applying for a job, or even just someone to talk things through with, they stand by their mentees’ on every step of their journey. Trailblazers Mentoring intend to use the Woolwich SET Space to launch their first Community Hub, a place to meet with mentees and carry out vital outreach work. This will significantly bolster the support they can offer service users in the community, after their release.
Hate Zine & Baesianz
Hate zine is an independent, anti-capitalist, ad-free publication founded in 2015. Each issue explores politics and social justice through art, photography, interviews, features, short stories and poetry. Past issues have covered mental health, sex and gender, the environment, love and death. Alongside their annual publication, they host regular events, parties, fundraisers, zine fairs and workshops.
Baesianz is a London-based collective and publication that celebrates artists of Asian heritage from all around the world. Founded by Sami Kimberley, Sarah Roselle Khan and Roxanne Farahmand, three individuals from origins spanning China, Pakistan and Iran, the collective curate collaborative projects centring Asian identities through film screenings, artist talks, radio and publishing. They are currently curating a film screening for a film platform and are launching a grant scheme for Asian artists in the UK. Their first print publication is due for print Summer 2021.
Black Fly Zine
Black Fly Zine are a collective and project which began in 2016 that centres the thoughts, feelings and experiences of marginalised Black and brown people in regard to their sexual health. They are a multifaceted platform using arts and culture in various ways that include facilitating physical and digital workshops, panels, art events, launches, club nights and editing a print publication.
The Chateau
The Chateau is an LGBTIQA+ arts and nightlife organisation for SE London. Branded as “South East London’s revolutionary LGBT venue” by Time Out Magazine, The Chateau was born as a pop-up bar and cultural space in an empty religious themed cocktail bar in Camberwell 2018, with a purpose to address the severe lack of safer spaces for the LGBTIQA+ community in SE London, whilst celebrating and platforming the incredible diversity of queer artistry that graced their stage. After closing the doors to their original venue home in March 2020, The Chateau is now looking to rebuild, with a renewed focus on supporting, nurturing, developing and platforming queer art, performance and creativity in SE London and beyond.
Decolonising The Archive (DTA)
Decolonising The Archive (DTA) facilitates heritage-based therapeutic interventions for people of African heritage using African/ Diasporic cultural principles and technologies. They came to build bridges between communities and restore cultural memory in order to support collective agency and the subversive act of togetherness. Their space at SET will be an opportunity to facilitate their Emotional Emancipation Community sessions and to create archive theatre productions.
Foreign Body Productions
Foreign Body Productions are a community-focused production company working via participatory and collaborative methods of filmmaking. Through their practice of creating documentaries, short form video and facilitating community workshops, they aim to establish new creative relationships, provide opportunities to emerging artists and develop boundary pushing films. Foreign Body Productions look forward to engaging with the SET space and collaborating with the other artists in the building, and are very excited to look at hosting workshops and filmmaking groups within the space.
Working Class Creatives Database
There is a known absence of people from working-class backgrounds in the creative arts. As of 2020, only 16% of the workforce in creative industries are from working-class backgrounds. Art is a reflection of our time and if working-class people are not given the opportunities to be able to develop sustainable careers in the arts, our stories are not represented. The ‘Working Class Creatives Database’ is a platform to share and highlight the work of working-class creatives
The Working Class Creatives Database aims to facilitate a space that puts working-class creatives at the forefront; A space for conversation, connections and sharing of opportunities, skills and knowledge. This database is about creating a community amongst working-class artists and to encourage greater representation of the working-class experience within the arts. Their aims are to provide more paid opportunities for working-class artists and to make the creative bubbles more accessible for working-class people.
Protest Stencil is a collaborative art-activism project that works to support grassroots groups with the design and making of visual materials for their campaigns. The project focuses mainly on antiracist campaigns against the UK’s ‘Hostile Environment’ for migrants, but also on other issues of racism and colonialism, and on local campaigns.
Vadí? Nevadí
Vadí? Nevadí was born from a desire to create an intimate space for conversations about film. They focus their LivingRoomFilmClub on films that share their own truth, about people & places that deserve to be heard. Their particular focus is LGBTQI+ films and filmmakers, radical people, and dreamers. Vadí? Nevadí believe in the power of critical writing & conversation, and that those outside the margins deserve a place in the spotlight. They hope to establish a community space not only for conversations to be had but also for ideas to be born.
Banjo’s Space
Statement on Banjo’s space by Aziz Patricio:
‘In the summer of 2019, an artist, dreamer and close friend of ours Johnathan Adebanjo (known as Banjo) passed away under extraordinarily tragic circumstances. Minutes before his passing, we had a conversation about his plans for the near future, which stuck with me as life went on. In his own words, he realised he didn’t necessarily need to stay at uni for what he wanted to do in life (he was a student at UAL, but wanted to create graphic novels). We went to his house-share after he passed and came across hundreds of pages of artwork and writings…when Banjo passed away, I wanted to create a space where people from all backgrounds and all walks of life could come to create stuff and have access to things they normally wouldn’t have access to. Money, space, tools, equipment etc – there are so many barriers to entry that stop people from being able to take action on ideas, and it’s depressing because it makes art this ‘exclusive’ place, when it should really be for everyone.’
Banjo’s Space at SET will be a central hub for people to come together to plan and create positive, ‘open-sourced’ content like podcasts, tutorials, engaging videos around important topics etc. This will include scheduled/planned workshops and ‘open days’ for people to come and learn skills such as screen-printing, video production, audio mastering, podcasts or even trying out painting. The collective aims to be open to collaborating and working with others as much as possible.
Phase Zine
Phase Zine blurs the lines between magazine and grassroots collective, creation and criticism. They are composed of young artists, writers, photographers, and student activists who have been drawn together by the shared ambition of creating a platform dedicated to the undiscovered and underground talents of London. Whilst giving these young creators a place to share their work, they also create fresh connections and enable creative collaboration between their artists and writers. Phase Zine are determined to amplify the voices of marginalised groups and want to reflect their feminist ideas and radical political convictions in the work they produce.
The RA5k
The RA5k is a local litter picking group in and around Woolwich and the surrounding areas. They host weekly litter picks and encourage members to to get out on their own, posting pictures of their litter picks. They have made strong links with other local litter picking groups all with the same vision of keeping our community clean. They are hoping to collaborate with many of the artists, charities and groups at SET.