Avant Gardening works with local communities to develop creative responses to environmental issues like global warming, recycling and bio-diversity, through encouraging participants to creatively reconsider their relationship with their local environment. For Kingston Summer Art Season 2010 the Galley invited Avant Gardening to work with our own local community on a range of participatory activities involving art, gardening and food that will map out the suburban location of the Gallery for all our visitors. An extended programme of activities culminated in a week of special events and workshops (listed below) for local residents of all ages and interests to discover the Gallery and enjoy what it has to offer.
Events & Activities, July 2010:
Wildlife & Mapping Walk & Workshop
Saturday 3 July
Artists Polly Brannan and Rachel Postlethwaite led a leisurely stroll discovering and collecting facts and objects on the route between Kingston Train Station and Stanley Picker Gallery. Participants returned to the Gallery to make pressings and mappings of their findings.
Kingston Pub Quiz
Sunday 4 July
Think you know everything there is to know about Kingston? Avant Gardening led a fun evening with friends and neighbours in which all learnt something new about our town.
Avant-Gardening at the Market
Monday 5 July
Members of the public were invited to meet the Avant Gardening team at the local markets, where they were shown how to make personalised hanging basket and maps from pressed flowers!
Walk with Mill Street Residents
Tuesday 6 July
A walk from Mill Street to Kingston Rail Station. Participants took an early morning walk, spotting wildlife and nature!
Avant-Gardening Studio Day
Wednesday 7 July
Polly was at the Stanley Picker Gallery creating her alternative maps and all were invited to join her for a cup of tea and to say hello.
Collecting & Foraging Walk
Thursday 8 July
Avant-Gardening artists Polly Brannan and Katelyn Toth-Fejel led a walk to find, discover and collect plants, weeds and off-shoots en route from Kingston Station to the Stanley Picker Gallery. All findings were used in a lab on Saturday 10 July.
Avant-Gardening Studio Day
Friday 9 July
Polly was at the Stanley Picker Gallery creating her alternative maps and all were invited to join her for a cup of tea and to say hello.
Avant-Gardening Presents: Katelyn’s Lab Part 1 & 2
Saturday 10 July
Part 1: As part of the International Youth Arts Festival and Circus Suburbia, Avant Gardening had a stand at the Circus Suburbia event on the Fairfield. They presented photos taken by local residents of nature in their back gardens, handed out Avant Gardening seeds and showed visitors how to make DIY hanging baskets!
Part 2: A walk around Fairfield followed by an exciting invitation to return to Katelyn’s lab at the Stanley Picker Gallery where she showed visitors how to make natural dyes from plants and flowers.
Stanley Picker Saturday Art Club
The Saturday Art Club worked in conjunction with the Avant Gardening programme. Children were be invited to explore the Fairfield green space, gathering natural materials which will later were used in a lab back at the gallery. They will also create their own mappings.