Public Engagement
Kentish Town City Farm
We ran a one-off screen printing workshop at Kentish Town City Farm encouraging participants to create prints in response to animals and nature.
The participation for this workshop was split, so that people could either join on a drop-in basis or pre-book. This gave the farm an opportunity to attract some new visitors, while it also allowed regular users of the farm to take part in a different kind of experience. Something that was particularly pleasing was the multi-generational involvement, the group was made up of a broad range of ages, from children as young as six, to teenagers, to adults and older members of the community.
The format of the workshop meant we were delivering inductions to participants unfamiliar with the process, alongside supporting those who came with ideas and knowledge to get the best prints they possibly could. The difference in abilities meant providing a range of pre-prepared materials to make the process as accessible as possible, such as pre-exposed photographic screens, and paper stencils of animals and nature.
Everyone who joined us got to take away something they had printed, for most people this meant two prints onto paper, but we did also have some examples of prints onto recycled t-shirts. It was great to see the younger participants go all the way through the process multiple times, from drawing an image onto paper and considering about how it will translate as a stencil, to picking colours and successfully getting the knack of how to pull the ink through the silk. While it was also nice to see older members of the community, familiar with the process, have the opportunity to engage with it again, as well as provide advice to others in the group.
