COMMUNITY PROJECTS

First, some history.

Burgess Park was planned fifty years ago as a "green lung" for South London. Land has been recovered and all buildings demolished except the Grade Two listed almshouses at Chumleigh Gardens and a complex of old factory sheds including our studios. In the process of regeneration thousands of people left, but many were rehoused nearby on the Aylesbury Estate.

Morning Walks in Burgess Park

It is our aim to bring back to what is now a vast park many different communities and to encourage them to participate in its development by kindling their interest in the natural environment. As artists we are inspired by the sight of people interacting in a wide open space with things they find out of doors: from ice on the pond to tracks in the mud, kites to bikes, lake water birds to ants, buds to seedpods, tools to toys.

We run two action-packed Community projects, one for the very young (a Sure Start scheme for 900 local families ) using the park itself as the venue, and one for elders and people with life threatening disease, centred on the Heart Garden. Neither project would be possible without the example and help of Southwark Parks Ranger Service who established the Community Gardens and house Art in the Park.

Community Projects are managed by sculptors Sue Pritchard and Claire Freer and led by pairs of artists, trained in the disciplines of sculpture, printmaking, dance, film, video and painting. A very important and additional role is taken by volunteers and placement students who frequently find new work with us.

How do Community projects come about? Organically. People have a great interest in the making of new places and bring memories as well as skills to the collaborative process. In 1997 we drafted an Artists Charter for Burgess Park which generated a number of commissioned community projects with our neighbours Groundwork Southwark. These include Where Once was Water, a tile scheme mapping the Grand Union Canal ( filled in thirty years ago), Circle of Life, a ring of bronze to celebrate the Millennium, and soon to be installed, paving at the Lime Kiln, last relic of industry on the canal wharf.

On similar lines in 1998/9 we originated a (Small) Children's Charter for Play in the Park, funded by London Arts. Alongside three and four year olds we explored their games in the park and school play areas and helped them to invent new landscapes in the studio and to describe their findings. We await an opportunity to apply this research to the creation of dedicated play places for the very young in Burgess Park. Let's hope it happens soon...

In 2002 over a hundred local families with children under 5 started to join us regularly for walks in the park, treasure hunts, picnics and tree-planting. See the Sure Start page.

In 2000 the Heart Garden, designed and built as an Arts in Health initiative, began to yield home-grown produce and is still doing so, offering an excuse for even more of our now famous working lunches! See the Heart Garden page.