Lambeth Riverside Festival 2006 |
Lambeth Riverside Festival 2006
Co-ordinated by RCDT
INTRODUCTION
Up to
3,000, mainly local residents, attended or took part in the wide
range of events and activities put on during this year’s Lambeth
Riverside Festival from Saturday 8 to
·
Festival
and fun days in
·
Organisations open days, including Alford House and Roots & Shoots,
·
Art
exhibitions at the Aristao,
·
History
walks and talks, and the ‘Valuing Our Past’ Local
History Fair
·
A
symposium debate ‘Push the Envelope’ on the challenges and
opportunities facing the arts communities in the area, organised by
·
Two
performances of a play ‘Consequences’
·
Two
different performances of the ‘Sax, Lies & Audiotape’ jazz,
classical and other music forms fusion
·
Community action clean-up, gardening and painting days
·
‘Long
Short Story’: an oral reminiscence project with residents of
sheltered housing
·
Events
organised by Sure Start for families with children under 5
·
Sports
activities at the former Lilian Baylis school
·
Fitness
and health activities
·
Textiles skills and
history event
These events were put on by local organisations and residents, and
showcased local talents and skills.
FESTIVAL AIMS
·
To
showcase and celebrate the skills and talents of residents and
workers
·
To show
the activities of local community and voluntary organisations
·
To
promote the rich cultural diversity of the area by encouraging
different sections of the community to know more about each other’s
cultures
·
To
promote ways in which local community and voluntary groups can work
together
·
To provide opportunities
for local businesses to support community activity and benefit from
increased trade
ORGANISATION
The
Festival was co-ordinated by Riverside Community Development Trust.
Overall planning meetings convened by the Trust were held.
Organisations and individuals wanting to run activities were not all
expected to attend the overall planning meetings. There were two
specialist forums: Health & Fitness Network and Local
History/Heritage Forum which discussed the details of the activities
they wanted to organise. The detailed co-ordination was undertaken
by Sean Creighton, RCDT’s Development & Management Worker as part of
his job responsibilities. Special thanks are due to:
·
Jed
Perez (a secondary school pupil on work placement) during the week
preceding and the first week of the Festival
·
Philip
Manning (Goldsmiths Community & Youth Work student who had been on
placement at RCDT between November 2005 and March 2006)
·
Savitri
Thomas, a local resident volunteer
·
Nick
Heaf, RCDT’s webmaster for keeping the website up to date with
Festival information
·
Dan
Styles/Stilwell for the many contributions he made to the Festival
(health & fitness and the play)
·
Tricia
Anderson of Oval Partnership who worked very hard on being the
catalyst for events in the Oval part of the Festival area,
especially the support and involvement of Hyde South Bank Housing
Association, the local artists exhibition at Aristao Gallery and the
Lady Green Fingers project
·
Danielle Arnaud, as
convenor of the Festival planning group, and organiser of events at
her own gallery and at the
There
were various forms of publicity:
·
c.10,000
house to house distribution of Festival brochure by local volunteers
and a delivery company
·
posters
on local notice boards
·
email
communication via an almost daily Festival Enews compiled by RCDT
·
targeted
leafleting
·
coverage
in the newsletters of Ethelred TMO, Hyde South Bank Homes and
Lambeth Council’s Local Life newspaper
·
RCDT’s website
FUNDING
Fund raising proved difficult. £3,000 was given by Lambeth Endowed Charities, including, £1,000 for the Long Story Short writing project with residents of sheltered housing, £300 from the Covent Garden Market Authority, and £1,240 from Lambeth Council for printing the Festival brochure. RCDT set aside £4,000 to help fund the Festival. Most expenditure on events and activities was absorbed by organisations through their budgets or self-financed by the individual organisers. Hyde South Bank also paid for Long Story Short work to be done with some of their sheltered home residents. Dan Styles/Stilwell, was able to obtain some sponsorship for the Consequences play from Tesco and from Alpro and Southbank Club for fitness activtities. An Arts Council/Big Lottery grant was obtained for the ‘Push the Envelope’ event on regeneration and the local artistic communities. Roots & Shoots, and St Peter’s and St Anslem’s Churches donated their venues free for Festival events organised by others.
LOCAL HISTORY EVENTS
Black History Walk
Steve Martin led 12
people in the sweltering heat of Wednesday 12 July on a walk around
Kennington Oval and Vauxhall looking at the black heritage of the
area, including looking at the homes of Duse Ali Mohamed (see below)
and Claudia Jones, the black performers at Vauxhall Pleasure
Gardens, including the innovative black American dancer Juba, and
William Cuffay, the organiser of the Kennington Common Chartist
demonstration of 1848.
“That region of brutality and bestiality across the water:
popular theatre in Lambeth in the 19th century”
Organised on Monday 17 July by the Friends of Durning
Library this is their report: Jon Newman, archive manager for
Lambeth Archives, gave us a fascinating illustrated rundown of
Lambeth’s theatres in the 19th century. In the 16th
and 17th centuries the marshy area south of
The
talk was attended by about 40 people. The Friends report that
it met their aims - to provide a stimulating talk on local history
and/or by a local person - and cost the Friends nothing. The
audience was mainly middle aged white. The ongoing benefits
are support for the Library, (thus preventing, or at least
hindering, its closure, interest in local history leading to more
support for local events.
A dozen people enjoyed Stefan Szczelkun’s walk on
the history of the Park held on Sunday. He explained about the role
of Kennington Common as a place for popular social activities and
cricket, for preaching, as a political speakers’ corner, and for
public executions. He paid particular attention to the Chartist
demonstration in 1848 highlighting the role of William Cuffay, a
Black Briton in organising it and being transported to
North
Lambeth & Charlie Chaplin Walk
Tony Merrick led over 20
people in the sweltering heat of the early evening on Wednesday 19
July on a historic walk of North Lambeth with an emphasis on Charlie
Chaplin.
Repatriating the
Throughout the Festival Paraobla Trust put on a daily exhibition
about the Tradescants at the
On
Tuesday 18 July Professor Penelope Corfield (Royal Holloway) spoke
on ‘Community and Conflict. Tension in the history of
Valuing Our Past - Local History Fair
The
Local History Fair ‘Valuing Our Past’ on Saturday 22 July was a
collaborative effort organised through the Kennington, Oval &
Vauxhall Local History/Heritage Forum. Despite many people being put
off from coming because of the rain in the early afternoon, a varied
programme was on offer for those who did come. A packed meeting in
the late morning heard about the history and successes of the
Community Care Centre in a celebration of its 21st Anniversary.
Films and videos were on show about aspects of the history of the
area. There were displays about the history of arts and crafts
education and industry, Lambeth and music, the histories of
·
Sean
Creighton on Radical North Lambeth
·
Steve
Martin: ‘Casting
Light on UK Moslem Organisation 1911-1921: Duse Mohamed Ali’ – Black
Moslem Activist who lived in Vauxhall
·
Mark
Windich
on the
history of
·
Max
Boucher: ‘William
Bligh: The True Story of the Bounty Voyage’–
to obtain bread fruit plants to take to the
Duse Mohamed Ali
(1866–1945)
Here are some key aspects of
his life: Son of
an Egyptian army officer and his Sudanese wife. Settled in
HEALTH , FITNESS & SPORTS
ACTIVIITES
A
number of opportunities were provided for people to take part in
health and fitness activities including:
·
blood
pressure and fitness testing at Lambeth Walk Group Practice run by
Dr Raj Mitra and Dan Styles (Freestyle Fitness)
·
two
free circuit training sessions at
·
Carpet
bowls at Vauxhall Gdns Community Centre and Lambeth Mission –
unfortunately these did not attract many people
·
All
Nations Centre organised informal team sports – see below
·
A tea
dance for older people at Lambeth Mission
·
A competition to win 4
free physical training sessions organised by Freestyle Fitness
Freestyle Fitness was sponsored by Alpro, which provided soya drinks
and yoghurts for the Festival and Southbank which provided prizes
for the competition.
Although not organised as part of the Festival, promotion was given
to the sports organised for young people at Lilian Baylis by Sports
Action Zone. Linford Christie came to give his support, including
running against a little girl, who won!
These two neighbouring events benefited by being
next to each other with a walkway from the Garden into the Square.
The range of music including performances by local young people who
go to Pimlico School including a 13-year old girl who
beautifully sang 60s folk songs accompanying herself on the guitar.
The Square was closed to traffic and a stage put up for live music.
The Bonnington Café was open for food. An empty shop was opened up
as an impromptu local artists gallery. There were stalls and
refreshments and a range of other activities. A very diverse mix of
families, children, young people and adults enjoyed themselves.
CELEBRATING TEXTILES SKILLS AND HISTORY
Between 80 and 100 people came to this event on Friday 14 July at St
Anselm’s Church Hall and Lady Margaret Hall Settlement which
contained the following activities.
Talks and Demonstrations by Leon Conrad
Leon
Conrad, a local resident who is an internationally-renowned
specialist in historic needlework techniques, demonstrated the art
of blackwork embroidery, and gave two fascinating talks:
·
17th Century Embroidery
Techniques:
‘What Didn’t They Get Up To?’: 17thC English Embroidery Techniques -
the History, Techniques and Background to One of the Greatest Ages
of English Embroidery.
·
Black Work Embroidery:
Magic,
Mystery, Symbolism.
All Sewn Up Project
The
All Sewn Up project led by Lady Margaret Hall Settlement put
on a display of work by students on its soft furnishing courses.
There was a presentation of City & Guilds Certificates by the
designer Neisha Crossland in the presence of Kate Hoey, MP, advice
and guidance about courses was available, as well as refreshments
being provided and a raffle. The local women involved on the courses
are a broad cross section of the diversity of the ethnicity of the
area. Local resident Betty Severn commented: ‘I was most impressed
with the exhibition of work by students of the curtain and soft
furnishing classes at the Lady Margaret Hall Settlement.
Beautifully made curtains and cushions well displayed were a tribute
to this enterprise for creating local skills.’
Ghanaian Kente Textiles
Quophie Ababio (Methodist Minister at Vauxhall Mission) gave a talk
on the history and development of Ghanaian Kente textile work, and
his wish to foster teaching it in
CITY
FARM, ST PETER’S CHURCH AND HERITAGE CENTRE OPEN DAYS
A steady stream of between 200 and 250 people,
including families with young children, older children and adults
came to the linked open days at Vauxhall City Farm and St Peter’s
Church & Vauxhall Heritage Centre. Particularly popular at the Farm
were the maggot races and ‘the make your own mosaics’. Several local
people signed up for horse riding lessons, and the Farm gained six
more local young volunteers. There were also demonstrations by the
Dyeworks spinners and weavers group.
The displays at the Church and Heritage Centre
covered the history of
The Genesis Housing Association displayed their
proposed new housing block to replace offices at Glyn St. Local
residents and Friends of Spring Gardens were particularly concerned
about the scale of the building and its impact on the park.
‘Singing brilliant’ said one person who heard the performance by
Sarah Dacey of ‘Sweeter than Roses’ by Purcell, songs by
Schoenberg, John Cage and Manuel de Falla and Scottish minstrelsy
songs. Sarah graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2005 and
was working as a freelance soloist and ensemble singer in
PUSH THE ENVELOPE.
SUSTAINING ARTS COMMUNITIES ON THE LEFTBANK
Regeneration is happening in Vauxhall - the last bastion of
non-gentrified society in a central
The Push the Envelope debate addressed a range of
issues including: the impact economic ‘regeneration’ is likely to
have on existing art communities in North Lambeth and the lessons to
be learned from arts-led regeneration in other areas, such as
London’s East End; the project to reconnect craft skills with art
practice in a hostile climate and the pros and cons of
running
small-scale operations in the shadow of Tate.
Those taking part in the debate were:
*
Sheila Wagstaff (Chief Curator Tate Modern)
*
Anna Harding (Chief Executive, SPACE studios)
*
Tony Carter (Artist and Principal of City and Guilds of
*
Richard Grayson (Artist and Independent Curator)
*
Peter St John (Director,
*
Jeffe Jeffers (Director, Lady Margaret Hall Settlement)
There
was also original art work.
The
Leftbank Artists Network was launched at the end of the event. This
Network was being put together by RCDT as a Festival planning
initiative with the help of local galleries. The event was organised
by Beaconsfield Gallery in consultation with RCDT, and funded by
Arts Council England and Big Lottery. A transcript of the debate is
being produced.
LADY GREEN
FINGERS
Lady
Green Fingers was developed by Oval Partnership as a result of
discussions in the Festival planning process for the Festival by
Oval Partnership. It was supported by Lambeth NHS Primary Care Trust
as well Lambeth Recycling, and Hyde Southbank Homes. It started
being made using recycled materials during an art and well being
event organised by Lambeth First.
Lady
Green Fingers depicts a woman with a brush in her right hand, and
nature or wellbeing by holding a spade in her left hand. The
sculpture is also an example of drawing people together while
providing a sense of ‘well being’ in the process of being created.
Since being made, people sometimes stop, look and then sit on the
bench beside the sculpture to have their picture taken – an example
of art continuing!
All
the work in putting the sculpture together was done by local people
working together with the help of artist Susan Swartzberg. Old
and young, people from the estate, people passing and seeing the
work happening, a man in a suit, local women, a retired gentleman,
an actor, school children......
Lady
Green Fingers was made of old bicycle tyres (hair and skirt); beer
bottle tops from the local pubs and London Marathon; plastic bags
collected from local people and knitted by local people (bodice of
dress); a broken bench and a spade from Lambeth Parks.
The sculpture was planned to be ready for Lambeth Riverside Festival
and was on view on the grass area in front of a block of flats in
Kennington Park Estate, directly opposite the Oval Tube Station, and
for some time afterwards. This project was made possible by the hard
work of Tricia Anderson of Oval Partnership.
LONG
STORY SHORT DISPLAY
This project was commissioned for the Festival
after discussion between RCDT and Spread the Word. Brixton based
Library of the Unwritten Word worked with sheltered housing
residents in Lambeth Walk and in Oval to turn their reminiscences
into little story books, to create a display and provide a series of
postcards from the photographs people had. A big thanks to Caroline
and Sam Brown of Unwritten Word. After the St Peter’s display
Caroline and Sam put the poster part of display up in the window at
Spread the Word. ‘We met one of the participants on Lambeth Walk
just after we had installed. She was absolutely thrilled with it and
very excited about coming to the local history event.’ The display
remained in the window at Spread the Word at 77 Lambeth Walk. The
display generated a lot of interest from passers-by. The full
display was also at the Local History Fair on Saturday 22 July at
Roots & Shoots (see above). Those taking part in the project who
live on Lambeth Walk thoroughly enjoyed the project and were
delighted with the result. The project was funded by Lambeth Endowed
Charities and Hyde Softbank Homes.
CONSEQUENCES A PLAY
Consequences is a play
about a trio of close friends as they begin to realise their
relationships are far from perfect. With shifting emotions and
loyalties, each of them is forced to rethink their whole life plan
and to determine the fine line between friends and lovers;
especially when the consequences of their decisions may lose them
everything. It was written by local resident, Dan Stilwell and
produced and performed by him and friends. It had been included in
the 2005 Festival programme as a play reading. Phil Shaw, a casting
director commented:
“An excellent
play - holds together very well as a dramatic piece of writing, and
the ensemble is good. There was nice work from all actors and the
direction was well paced. For a first night this was a commendable
performance.”
ALL NATIONS’ CENTRE COMMUNITY EVENTS
All
Nations’ Centre (ANC) ran three environmental and community
awareness events during the festival period. a Community Service
Project, a Sport Tournaments and a Summer Party. ANC explains these
activities and the benefits involved in running these during the
Festival.
‘Our aim was to add value to people’s lives by making a difference in the community and showing that we care and are interested in what happens to the people living in Lambeth. People living in this area have commented about the lack of community facilities and even the ones that do exist are so badly maintained. We wanted to address some of these needs. It’s a known fact that people’s environment do matter to them.
The
Community Service Projects (CSP) attracted about eighty five church
members who cleaned graffiti, painted and decorated damaged access
points, cut grass and uncluttered play areas in the
We
also wanted to rekindle a community spirit where people shared
things in common. The sports tournaments were held in
The
Summer Party was planned in partnership with
In
conclusion, everyone in the community benefited from our events. The
services we offered were to a cross section of the community such as
parents, children, young people, older people, men, and women. This
also included middle class, working class, students and the
unemployed. People attending our events also came from various
ethnic, social and religious groups including Rastafarians, Muslims,
and Hindus etc.
One
of the benefits of ANC taking part in the Festival was to show
through practical acts that we are aware; we care and are concerned
about the needs within the community. Before the Festival many
people had preconceived ideas about the role ANC played in the
community. But that has changed due in part to our involvement in
the Festival. On Sunday 16 July ANC held a Community Sunday Service
and many people in the community attended. We have seen a marked
interest in individuals and groups wanting to use our services.’
SOME OTHER
EVENTS
·
150
parents, children and carers went to see the Sure Start exhibition
at Roots & Shoots of toddlers’ views on living in Lambeth.
·
Local resident Veronica
Ledwith, who went to the first ‘Sax, Lies & Audiotape’ music
fusion evening commented: ‘Soaring
up to fill the great Gothic space of St Peter’s, the sweet sounds of
alto and soprano sax interact with the electronic pieces and samples
of classical, dance and street sounds.‘
·
300 parents and children attended the
Sure Start Family Party on Wednesday 12 July.
·
Over 80 young people enjoyed activities
such as hockey, football, inflatables, bingo, and the Bar-B-Q at
Alford House’s one day
·
Several people came to
the experimental Local Designers Show and
Assessment
Inevitably not all the events that were originally conceived came to
fruition:
·
a large
scale recycling proposal to collect unwanted goods from people
especially on their local social housing estates did not happen. All
Nations’ smaller scale activity showed the potential
·
the original idea of a large launch event on
Spring Gardens was abandoned after grant application to the
national Park It scheme was unsuccessful, and the idea of a smaller
event was abandoned because of the cost and other implications of
the Council’s health and safety requirements
·
the
proposed sculpture demonstration by students of the City & Guilds
School of Art led by the leading sculpture Henry Horsley, who
teaches at the School and lives in the area is on hold because it
was not possible to raise the money needed in time for the Festival
·
he RCDT
and Handmade Opera’s ‘Night at the Opera’ event had to be cancelled
due to lack of support
·
an
Enterprise event drafted by RCDT and Frances Forrest, the Manager of
Lambeth Council’s Town Centre Manager, was conceived too late
to include in the programme
·
the piano recital
organised by Lady Margaret Hall Settlement to promote the Recycle
project which collects of ships unwanted bicycles to
Despite these difficulties, the Festival has shown once again what
can be done with very few central resources when local people and
organisations are committed to putting on events for local people.
A
number of project ideas emerged during Festival planning and
activities and are in the RCDT’s Development Plan for 2007-8.
Riverside Community
Development Trust
March 2007
RCDTS's Vision for the 2006 Festival
With the success of the 2005 Festival the Board decided to co-ordinate the July 2006 Festival between 9 and 22 July. A wide range of events and activities were again provided, with an emphasis on engagement on local social housing estates. It promoted both Festivals at the annual North Lambeth Parish Fete in June.
Financial support for the 2005 Festival was provided by St George’s plc, Cross River Partnership and the brochure was printed by the Council. Funds were received for the 2006 Festival from Lambeth Endowed Charities, Covent Garden Market Authority, Lambeth Council for brochure printing, the Arts Council. South Pacific Bar donated back the £300 it had been given towards costs incurred in its 2005 Festival event.
The day before the opening launch of the 2005 Festival had seen the outrage of the London bombings. A large number of parents kept their children away from school, and those who let their children go to school would not them stay behind. This drastically effected the numbers of children and parents attending the afternoon launch activities at Archbishop Sumner School and the attendance at the evening activities. Attendances throughout the Festival were adversely affected by a fear among many people about being outside their homes. The intense heat during the 2006 Festival also had an adverse effect on attendances, as did the rain downpour on the last Saturday. However the Trust estimates that 3,000 mainly local people took part in the various events in 2006.