Centre for Creative Explorations

Check out our latest with Maud!
“For my debate cake, I wanted to explore gender euphoria x fluidity. This relates to my GCSE Art Textiles Identity project, which is about gender fluidity, as well as myself as a genderfluid person. I think that gender is a very important topic to discuss within single-sex schools, as due to the nature of the school, many things about the student’s gender are assumed by everyone they encounter while in their uniform, from their identity to their name and pronouns. So, as well as this being an informative workshop about how different people experience gender, I also wanted to make a space for genderqueer students from our school to be able to express themselves freely without feeling the need to explain, correct, or apologise to everyone about the ‘inconvenience’ they may think that they are causing by their existence.”
For the full story go to the CCE website.

Thanks for the opportunity to be part of this brilliant edition exploring Gender,art and transformative education. All credit for Peckham Portrait project goes to for creating a beautifully simplistic practice to prompt much needed conversations around gender identities. Creative practice doesn’t have to be complicated, it doesn’t need overblown narratives, as Jenna illustrates here, a simple post-it note holds the power for transformation. Peckham Portraits can also be explored on the CCE website along with all the other incredible creative activist projects developed by our young people at -it

What an amazing night! We done to all involved with Alt Club and for leading such an inspiring session! Lovely to have so many people support and celebrate these alternative ways of exploring and questioning the world around us through materials and creative processes! Thank you for collaborating with us and provoking conversations around plant/animal/human behaviours. Thank you for once again supporting us and providing the space for us to hold the encounters! Watch this space for website updates and sharings of this inspiring project!

Come along tomorrow and join us at our final event of the year! Alt Club!

ONLY 3 days left to apply!! See CCE website for application form!!

Our final event of the year and the close of our fabulous artist in residencey with
Club Alt has been the vehicle through which a series of alternate realities have reimagined new ways to co-exist with plant and animal species.

At the South London Gallery we will show work developed by Club Alt collaborators
Blessing, Nana, Alyssa, Maud, Asha, Ava, Maxim, Davida & Zaidat.

Using the premise of the Umwelt – the German word for ‘environment’ – defined by Baltic-German Zoologist Jakob von Uexhill. Club Alt members have explored the perceptual world of animals by initially processing and exploring within their own Umwelt..

We will be presenting three immersive encounters produced as part of the residency, previously premiered in
Peckham Festival 2024. As well as, a large scale visual reimagining conceived for this event.

Event details:

4.00-5.00 pm - Club Alt
5.00-5.30 pm - Presentation
5.30 - 6.00 pm - Q & As

South London Gallery
65 Peckham road
SE5 8UH
Clore Studio
Please RSVP if you would like to join us!

Because of the incredible projects developed by our young creatives shared on the CCE website we were contacted by Sandra Vacciana who was developing a project called ‘Authoring Our Own Stories’ at Partnership for Young London, who was inspired by the creative research projects and offered a group of our young people a (paid) opportunity to be trained as youth ambassadors to develop creative research practices and engage with the local community. Moshood’s art work that was part of that project, further inspired a tutor from the Open University, and this art work is now part of one of their courses exploring anti racist practice. Empowerment has many facets, but having confidence to take risks, to try things, to take advantage of all opportunities that come your way, is vital in this endeavour. And as you see here, who knows where it can lead. Super proud of Moshood and Ling and Natasha who are still working on this project. Wonderful to see how this work extends beyond the classroom walls and create opportunities that are more powerful than grades

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR ARTIST IN RESIDENCY 2025! DEADLINE 6th DECEMBER 2024. We are delighted to offer a one-year artist residency with the Centre for Creative Explorations which is based in the art department at Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich.

The aims of the CCE are to promote creative activism through feminist sensory researching practices. We are looking for artists who want to explore their practice in innovative ways within the school context that has young people at the heart of their endeavour (Please see previous projects on the CCE website for an idea of the kind of socially engaged projects we are interested in).

The residency will run from January 2025 and end in December 2025.

The successful applicant will have a free lockable studio space within the art department. In return for the studio space, the successful applicant will offer interesting interventions in the CCE and art curriculum.

Possible areas include but are not limited to: creative research projects, workshops, technical support, lectures, exhibitions and after school clubs, however, we are open to any creative and innovative suggestions that fit with our ethos and relate to the context of Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich. Outreach into the community is one of our main aims and this would need to be reflected in the statement of intent. See the CCE website - www.centreforcreativeexplorations.weebly.com

Inspiring weekend at discussing activations of peace building through art education. Such a powerful theme always, but particularly pertinent this week. Thanks John Johnston for continuing to model the power of art education for resisting traumatic presents, and reimaging and rebuilding possible futures. Thanks for your thought provoking insights and reflective practice. Your generosity is a welcome force in the arts community. Thanks to all the other speakers which that prompted food for thought and action. Hope is always based in connection and collaboration, and art education is at the heart of this.

Yesterday I found the news of the American elections almost debilitating, such was the sense of dread for the future. However, this dread soon became replaced with hope as I stepped back into the classroom and witnessed the critical and creative discussions that were being had, challenging racial stereotypes through Afro futurism with yr9, or the use of feminist collaging by yr12s to explore gender and racial issues through the work of Wengechi Mutu and Hannah Hoch, and yr 8 we’re developing their performance poems around Britishness and what this means to us. Full of aspiration, reflection and activism to want to change the world for the better. I was once again inspired and replenished to push on. The classroom is a powerful space.

What a privilege to be part of the IOE - UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society Secondary PGCE Debates in Education session ‘How can student teachers build anti-racist practice in schools?’ Speaking to 500+ beginning educators alongside an awesome panel - Alison Wiggins and Dr Robin Whitburn and chaired by Ben Hammond, was inspiring. It is 22 years since I was sitting in that same place at the IoE about to embark on my teaching career, this session was a real marker in the shifting landscape of education. Anti racist practice was not on the agenda 22 years ago, and seeing the critical engagement and energy within this group of emerging educator activists filled me with hope and encouragement for the future. Teachers are powerful and change is in their hands.

We’ve arrived in Venice! Straight to a MOCKtail workshop at the St Regis hotel, where the glasses are designed inspired by artists and created for cocktails. Beautiful details in each glass and what a fab way to start our trip!

Final workshop with Margot exploring the hidden colonial histories in our museums and education systems. Considering how this make us feel and the impact on society as a whole. Triangular pieces of clay representing western power structures were manipulated and reimagined.

What is love? A question posed by Khalima who led an exploratory workshop which visualised the various iterations of what love can mean. The main message to appreciate all kinds of love more!

First up Roadah exploring our relationship with the built environment and how it makes us feel. The paper sculptures and embodiment of those feelings, pulling them altogether to make a community ‘feeling’ landscape.

Looking forward to sharing our creative research practices tomorrow . Come along to see our current work in progress with artist in residence who has collaborated with HGAED students to produce a series of alternate realities reimagining new ways to co-exist with plant and animal species.

There will be three performative encounters to engage with, alongside workshops led by our sixth form artists.

We will be there on Saturday 14th September 2024 between 11am and 2pm. You can find us in the Community Hub, Unit 8, Copeland Park, just off Rye Lane, Peckham.

Another year has flown by and we are once again heading down to the Peckham Festival to share our current creative research projects.

This year we will be sharing the collaborative work developed between the students at Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich and our 2024 artist in resident Nazneen Ayyub-Wood. Nazneen is interested in creating spaces whereby participants can explore and speculate possible futures between human and non human agents. There will be three performative encounters to engage with, alongside workshops led by our sixth form artists.

We will be there on Saturday 14th September 2024 between 11am and 2pm. You can find us in the Community Hub, Unit 8, Copeland Park, just off Rye Lane, Peckham.

For more information about Nazneen’s practice please visit the CCE website: https://lnkd.in/eh9Vz-2X

Please share with anyone who might be interested and hope you can come along!

Introducing our for 2024 💥 check out her profile on the CCE website. Nazneen has been developing a project in collaboration with our young creatives and we are now preparing to share in September! Watch this space for updates!