E17 Art Trail: Reflections
Artillery is an arts development organisation based in Walthamstow, North East London, established by the creative team behind the E17 Art Trail. Artillery aims to create lasting shared memories among neighbours resulting from our open invitations to create neighbourhood events and projects together.
Artillery’s founders wanted to find a creative, democratic and relaxed way to evaluate the success of the E17 Art Trail, and asked if I might illustrate and document a number of introspective conversations on my iPad on the go through a series of tours.
This was a really amazing project to be involved with, as each tour created the opportunity to have really in-depth conversations discussing the different perspectives of participants, to ensure the trail was serving the entire community in Walthamstow - rather than just a specific sub-set.
This tour focused on the experiences of young people in Waltham Forest and their engagement with the E17 Art Trail. Led by Chantelle Michaux of Mbilla Arts Drum Group, we visited a number of stops on the trail. BCE, Gnome House, Project Zero and Lauren at Dark Yellow Dot to name a few!
Our tour of the high street with Penny Rutherford and Katherine Hall examined how growing creative programmes can have an impact on our Neighbourhood high streets. In particular the relationships that local businesses can build with artists to get involved in local projects.
One of the highlights was meeting Lloyd Ramos, a local photographer who also works in his families shop on Walthamstow High Street. Lloyd worked mostly in the store during lockdown, but continued to document the local high street by propping up his iPhone on the iconic rice bags in the window!
As a long-time resident of the high street he was welcomed by fellow vendors in his quest to photographically document their day-to-day, where other photographers without that unique relationship would not be as welcome.
I cannot state just how much I learned on this tour by local artist and Photographer Jo Sealy, who was exploring how visible black narrative was in our neighbourhoods. See visited a photographic essay of Black Artisans, a collective of leading sculptors, artists, photographers and steel pan makers that Jo herself had captured in a series of portraits.
We were joined by Frank from Great British Carnivals, who spoke to us about how they adapted carnival during lockdown for people shielding in their homes. One of the most poignant moments for him was the following year when many of us had ventured out back into the world, and still seeing people with their windows closed - shielding in their houses.
Jo then gave us a tour of an exhibition she had put together at Vestry House to document the incredibly social history surrounding the Windrush Generation, of which her parents were part of. When people from that generation pass away their knowledge is lost. It’s a huge missing piece in the social history.
Black people have always played a huge part in British history, but their contributions are often left undocumented. Jo worked tirelessly to capture stories and portraits, one of the women featured in the exhibition has since passed away, and her story would have been lost to time.
It’s worth noting that Jo developed real connections with the people who volunteered their time and stories to her exhibition, they had been apprehensive having been photographed before but with absolutely no follow up or care.
Can non-purpose built spaces welcome audiences with diverse access needs?
In many instances publicly funded venues & commercial spaces do not cater for disabled people, even in cases where literally the bare minimum effort could improve this - like having a portable ramp.
In this introspective tour, we looked at ways in which the Art Trail and local council might be able to facilitate access to exhibits, taking into account that many of the stops on the tour are actually in private residences. Many of those taking part poured hours into their exhibitions, but have limited access to funds to make their spaces accessible.
We also explored the remarkable ways in which people have overcome barriers to accessing the Art Trail. Some decided to hold exhibitions in gardens so that people could safely distance themselves during their visit, others limited capacity to smaller numbers.
Sba Shaikh took us on an incredible tour focusing on culture, diaspora & place. One of the highlights was a shared meal at Mini Hiba while we discussed the differences between Pakistani culture in Pakistan vs. the British-Pakistani experience!
In such a welcoming setting, food and conversation went hand-in-hand, and we learned about the British-Asian music scene being vastly different in the UK vs. back home in Pakistan, and how the culture that left Pakistan 30 years ago looks very different today, as we deal with the fallout of colonialism.
Each illustration made was submitted as part of the wider E17 Art Trail project evaluation, and I really feel that by using illustration to document unique experiences we humanised what can often be a very impersonal process.