Tag Archive for: DECAY

House of St Barnabas Art Hang 2019

We are delighted to include the creative work of the Accumulate zine, Decay 3, in the bi annual Art Hang 2019 exhibit at House of St Barnabas. This exhibition launched in London’s Soho last week. We are so proud to exhibit next to so many other incredible not for profit artists and in such a stunning setting.

Photo Credit Nic Serpell-Rand

The artwork on display came from Decay Issue 3. This is the Accumulate zine that showcases the words, images and random thoughts of people affected by homelessness. We collaborated with House of St Barnabas and their Employment Academy team back in the Summer.  The Employment Academy graduates, employees and members all sat round a large table to produce creative content together. By doing so formed their own creative community, whilst producing inspiring creative pieces. As part of this collaboration, students from Ravensbourne University’s Graphic Design course developed the ideas from the workshop into the final visuals you see on display.

Photo Credit Nic Serpell-Rand

It is just incredible to see the artwork displayed on such a large scale. It looked stunning! On the night,  we also sold copies of Decay 3 along with prints of individual artworks. All profits from sales are split with the artist so they can earn from their creativity and with Accumulate so we can continue to support more people affected by homelessness find empowerment through creativity.

Photo Credit Nic Serpell-Rand

It has been a privilege to work with this inspiring organisation and support their vital work with people affected by homelessness and we hope we can work together in the future on more creative workshops.

Accumulate DECAY at The London Art Fair private view

Accumulate starts 2018 full of creativity!

Creativity is at the core of Accumulate, and the start of 2018 has certainly lived up to this.

We started off with the “DECAY at The London Art Fair” exhibition where we showcased the creativity of the 11 participants from Evolve Housing in Stockwell who participated in the Accumulate magazine project last year.

DECAY at The London Art Fair Invitation

DECAY at The London Art Fair Invitation

To say that the DECAY exhibition private view was busy would be an understatement! Thank you to everyone who came along, bought artwork and were so positive about what Accumulate does and how it helps young people who are homeless through creativity.

Accumulate DECAY at The London Art Fair private view

Accumulate DECAY at The London Art Fair private view

But the best part of all was receiving this feedback from a care leaver who visited the exhibition.

“I had such a great time at this event! The painting were amazing because I could feel what the young people have been through as I am a young person living in a hostel too.
I would be more than happy to volunteer and help as much as I can, because I think that by volunteering it’s the best way to help people.”
We have now started the Accumulate photography project, this year we are working with 7 hostel groups and this year we will collaborate with Somerset House, The Barbican, Tate Modern, Autograph ABP, Victoria and Albert Museum and The Photographers Gallery to deliver our workshops. Every year something wonderful happens on this project and this year, it is wonderful to see last year’s Accumulate graduates and scholarship winners supporting and helping this year’s participants.
Jay, an Accumulate graduate, supports Anushan

Jay, an Accumulate graduate, supports Anushan

Recently we ran a series of zine workshops with The House of St Barnabas (HOSB). HOSB is a private members club in Soho, which is actually also a charity that trains people affected by homelessness with hospitality and catering skills so that they can gain employment and enter the industry. The Accumulate workshops focused on writing, drawing and photography and the content will be used for the next issue of the Accumulate DECAY zine.  This Accumulate project is a real creative collaboration as the workshops were attended by graduates of the HOSB Employment Academy, staff and members, the content will be worked on by 80 students from the graphic design course at Ravensbourne, and the amazing Creative Conscience folk are supporting this project. Everyone is getting involved, getting creative and will be full of fulfilment and creative contentment.

Harvey's hands after the Accumulate workshop at HOSB

Harvey’s hands after the Accumulate workshop at HOSB

 

Accumulate at Youth Club Archive shop

Accumulate Good News Stories

Accumulate has some good news stories to share with you!

So what have we been up to?

Accumulate Good News Story 1.

Accumulate entered a t.shirt collaboration with the wonderful Hopeful Traders. Hopeful Traders are a social enterprise that create and sell t.shirts using designs by homeless people and then they give a share of profits to charities dealing with homelessness. So it seemed a pretty obvious, that Accumulate should team up with Hopeful Traders and produce this beautiful, cool and groovy t.shirt.

Accumulate World Queen T.shirt

Accumulate World Queen T.shirt

 

Accumulate Good News Story 2.

We also have been busy bees producing products for the Accumulate Pop Up Shop within a pop up shop at Youth Club Archive, 3, Carnaby Street, London W1F 9PB.

The Youth Club Archive shop is a celebration of all things connected to Youth Culture, with a huge archive of photographs documenting the different subcultures such as punk, rockabilly, ska, skinheads, grime etc.

We have created a range of Accumulate products for the shop including t.shirts, tote bags, badges, art prints and posters. The Accumulate products use artwork created by residents at the Evolve Hostel in Stockwell when they participated in the Accumulate DECAY zine workshops.

Accumulate at Youth Club Archive shop

Accumulate at Youth Club Archive shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accumulate Good News Story 3.

And then to top it all off we were very lucky, grateful and honoured to receive funding from the RSA Catalyst Fund to support the development and commercialisation of Accumulate products. The fund will enable us to increase the range and sales of Accumulate products designed by young people who are homeless and who attended our workshops. Through this development, we can provide an income to the Accumulate artists, who will get a share of the profits generated, build greater awareness of Accumulate and what it sets out to achieve, and, most importantly, provide an independent source of revenue so that we can increase our services and impacts, and reduce any dependency on grants and donations.

Accumulate gets RSA Funding

Accumulate gets RSA Funding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accumulate Good News Story 4. 

And then finally, we are looking forward to the DECAY at The London Art Fair exhibition. This Accumulate exhibition will showcase all the creativity produced on the DECAY 2 workshops with the Evolve hostel residents. And what’s even more exciting is that the exhibition will be within the prestigious London Art Fair – and that’s a great, big, good news story to end this year on! many thanks to the fantastic Briffa law firm and also the wonderful Ravensbourne for sponsoring the DECAY at The London Art Fair exhibition.

DECAY at The London Art Fair - Accumulate Exhibition

DECAY at The London Art Fair – Accumulate Exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A HAPPY 2018 TO EVERYONE!

Accumulate gets National Lottery Funding!

Accumulate wins National Lottery Funding

This week we got a most glorious email in the post telling us that we have won National Lottery Funding to run our Photography workshops next year. Winning funding like this is a real endorsement and celebration of our work, how what we do helps vulnerable young people to improve their lives and the difference creativity makes to them and their futures, so this totally made our day!

Accumulate gets National Lottery Funding!

Accumulate gets National Lottery Funding!

Along with this bumper news, the second issue of the Accumulate DECAY zine has been printed and is even better than we had expected!

Every zine is mega packed with amazing images, words, poems, designs and photographs made by 21 young people who took part in the Accumulate zine workshops and who live at the Evolve Housing hostel in Stockwell, South London. And as usual, every DECAY zine we sell will help fund our future creative workshops at hostels.

You can get DECAY at Youth Sub Culture‘s shop at 3 Carnaby St, Carnaby, London W1F 9PB and we will also be selling DECAY at events and zine fairs in the lead up to Christmas. The next zine fair we will be at is Cultural Traffic on 8th October at Kachette, 347 Old Street, EC1 VLP.

Please do follow us on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts to get ongoing details and info on where Accumulate will be selling. We are also going to be producing t.shirts, tote bags, posters and badges with designs from DECAY in the lead up to Christmas – so please think of Accumulate and the difference you can make by getting all of your groovy Christmas gifts from us.

Issue 2 of DECAY

Issue 2 of DECAY

 

And here are the Accumulate DECAY art prints being printed – looking good and the perfect Christmas gift for all the family!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonya's poster at the DECAY zine workshop

The Accumulate DECAY ZINE Issue 2

The past week we have been running a series of ZINE workshops with residents of Evolve Housing‘s Stockwell hostel. It is always a bit of a stress, not knowing if the project is going to appeal or, worse still, whether anyone is going to turn up and actually do anything. Well, the fears didn’t last long, every day people would turn up, sit round a shared table, talk and share insights, stories and their creativity with each other.

Getting creative at the DECAY zine workshop

Getting creative at the DECAY zine workshop

It became a very meaningful activity, trust was developed and creative content was produced for the DECAY zine which was beautiful, emotional, personal and incredible. They produced drawings, illustrations, poems, photographs, stories and collages and it will now be a hard task to edit, select and curate these for Issue 2 of the Accumulate DECAY zine. Tonya came to the DECAY workshop after getting a new job, and she created this lovely poster which just sums up how great she felt!

Tonya's poster at the DECAY zine workshop

Tonya’s poster at the DECAY zine workshop


The start of "reverse sunset" by Tia at the DECAY workshops

The start of “reverse sunset” by Tia at the DECAY workshops

We finished the week of with a portrait and drawing workshop at Youth Subculture. The group created their own backdrops and then had their portraits taken in front of their creative work.

Aaron's backdrop for DECAY zine portrait

Aaron’s backdrop for DECAY zine portrait

It was a very empowering session, in fact the whole project has really encapsulated what Accumulate is all about – using creativity as a tool for empowerment and progressing in life. DECAY will come out in September, so be sure to grab a copy and find out just how much talent there is, that is hidden, and just needs a helping hand to be enjoyed, appreciated and admired. It’s going to be great!