Participation in
the arts

At Hive we believe in skill sharing through participation and exchange with practitioners in the field of art and design. When delivering projects we aim to embed opportunities for learning in the hope of increasing belonging and connection within our communities.

Our most ambitious educational series was delivered for Enfield Winter Lights in 2022 where we developed an ambitious public arts programme across four town centres to connect people post-lockdown, celebrating resiliency, participation and knowledge exchange.

We know that culture can play a great role in economic development and to help shape local pride and identity for all our communities.

Throughout Enfield Winter Lights we encouraged the community to get creative. Highlights included experimental neon life drawing classes led by Jylle Navarro which TimeOut Magazine described as 'a Full Moon party’; immersing participants in light, colour and texture.

Local artists were asked to deliver workshops alongside their public artworks; Southgate based artist, Dan Maier ran a lampshade making workshop at the Southgate Club. We also delivered lamp building workshops at FIELD with Minneapolis designer Blake Carlson-Joshua and architect and designer Purva Kundaje.

Over the eight week period we delivered cyanotype classes, design and innovation in lighting, neon life drawing sessions and pinhole photography classes. All attendees were asked to interpret material, texture, colour and shape. The classes were designed to equip participants with a new skill, experiment and leave with finished artworks. All workshop tickets were heavily subsidised by Enfield Winter Lights and priced under £10.

We received an overwhelming response for the workshop programme, selling out of all tickets after the first two days of going live, to which we responded by adding more activities to the programme.

We believe participation in the arts can improve well-being and facilitate in making arts more accessible to a wider audience.