Tag Archive for: homelessness

Wonderland – 2023 Art Exhibition and Scholarship ceremony

Wonderland

As we approach the Summer break it feels like the perfect time to look back at the incredibly special summer showcase event we held at the beginning of July. Sponsored by MTD Group and hosted by Conductor London, One Crown Place and Sun Street Hotel in the City of London, we celebrated the creative achievements of all our participants in the last year.

Wonderland Exhibition –  July 2023. Big thanks to Patrick Fry for the amazing graphics!

The exhibition was absolutely brimming with incredible art, all produced by our participants during our programme of creative workshops throughout the year. Guests on the night viewed ceramics, visual art, fashion, film and photographs. All created by people affected by homelessness.

Headpieces on display from our ‘Wearable Art as Fashion’ series of workshops

Beautiful ceramics designed and created by participants

Images from our Analogue Photography workshops

This year we wanted to make the exhibition as interactive as possible so we treated our guests to live screen printing workshops run by the wonderful Nicole Line as well as drawing workshops led by Joshua Beatty. We even had our own DJ booth, designed, built and painted by a group of participants along with Poor Collective.

Screen printing workshop so guests could give it a go too!

One guest loved the print so much that she printed it onto her trousers! Looks so good!

Our DJ booth created together with Poor Collective

As we all gathered together to celebrate the creativity in the room, we felt so privileged that participants Sam and Deon agreed to speak to the audience about their own Accumulate experiences. Sam, as a participant and scholarship winner in 2022, and Deon who is taking part in the MATTA programme, working so hard to inspire creativity in others. Listen to their stories in their own words via our Instagram posts. Sam’s is HERE Deon’s is HERE

Sam spoke about this Accumulate journey

Deon spoke about her experience as a participant on our MATTA course.

As part of the evening were just so excited to present certificates to each participant who attended our workshops as well as the highly anticipated scholarships to selected participants so they can continue their developing their creativity in higher education.

Participants were all presented with a certificate by Chair of Trustees Michelle

After a heartwarming speech from our Director and Founder Marice Cumber, our Chair of Trustees Michelle presented the scholarships to each winner along with their delighted sponsor.  They will study, fully funded, on Access to Higher Education courses in Fine Art, Design and Digital Media and Fashion at either Ravensbourne University or Morley College. Huge congratulations!

Stuart won the Accumulate Ian Shaw photography prize and also received an award of a camera and a year of mentoring by tutor Giulio Mazzarini.

Congratulations Alicia and thank you to sponsor Debra from Grove End Housing

Congratulations Ya’aesh and thank you to sponsor Debra from Grove End Housing

Congratulations to Alexandria and thank you to BOP Consulting for their sponsorship

Congratulations also to scholarship winners Hayley and Sana (not pictured) and sponsors AHMM Architects and EC Bid London.

To round off the celebrations, we were treated to a fashion show of participants all modelling the incredible headpieces they created in our series of workshops ‘Wearable Art as Fashion’. The show was led by previous Accumulate scholarship winner Nikol who really got the crowd going! Check out a video of the show HERE

Nikol led the fashion show!

Amazing pieces! Well done to all the participants.

Accumulate, after it all, is about community. We are so thrilled that so many participants past and present attend our events. A true testament to the experiences they have taken part in and the lasting friendships they have formed.

This was a truly special evening. The perfect showcase for all our participants for their achievements this year. We can’t wait to see what’s next for you all.

Photo credits: Ben Peters Photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Soon! Wonderland

COMING SOON!

Accumulate, the Art School for the Homeless presents………Wonderland

On Thursday 6th July we will treat our guests to a spectacular display of ceramics, visual art, fashion, film and photographs created by people affected by homelessness. We are so excited to also include a Wonderland live screen-printing and drawing workshop on the night so everyone can get involved!

This exhibition will display the striking creative work of the Accumulate participants which they have worked so hard to produce this year. We will hear their stories and witness how creativity has made a positive difference to their lives.

 

 

The Accumulate Wonderland exhibition is all about community and working together to achieve better things. It celebrates the creative achievements of a group of people, living in hostels and temporary accommodation, who participated in this year’s Accumulate Wonderland workshops, created their own supportive community and advanced and developed their skills and confidence through creative learning.

This event will also celebrate Accumulate’s  Wonderland community of creative practitioners, cultural and creative organisations, funders and sponsors who work with, collaborate and support Accumulate and help us to achieve so much meaningful and transformative impact and experiences for our participants.

Our participants have worked so hard on their creativity throughout the year

Part of this event will also include the scholarships which will be awarded to selected Accumulate participants so that they can continue their creative education and study, fully funded, on Access to HE courses in Fine Art, Design and Digital Media and Fashion. An amazing opportunity and all part of their creative journey with Accumulate.

It promises to be an inspiring evening. There’s still time to RSVP for your ticket to attend. Drop us a message if you’d like to come along.

  • Email us at info@accumulate.org.uk
  • Follow us on Instagram & Twitter @acccumulate_ldn

 

Creative Futures Update

Breaking Down Barriers

This Summer saw our first Creative Futures event, a two-day workshop of networking and profile building, interview and presentation skills, and matching participants with opportunities in the creative industries. We were thrilled to be hosted by D&AD in their Shoreditch offices.

This initiative, which we operate in partnership with leading creative businesses and organisations, aims to break down the barriers for people affected by homelessness to enter the creative sector, build networks and have access to opportunities.

Creative Futures Event at D&AD, Shoreditch
Photo Credit, Ben Peters

As a result of the summer workshops, our participants were invited to take part in creative sessions led by industry professionals. Check out our days at software leader Adobe and the London-based creative agency Jones Knowles Ritchie.

Adobe – Video Creation and Editing

In September. our Creative Futures participants attended a workshop hosted by Adobe at their amazing offices learning how to edit videos for TikTok using Adobe software.

Participants Crystal and Anita take part in the Adobe workshop

 

Malin Persson from Adobe who was leading the opportunity said: “It was truly magical hosting the attendees that came to the workshop and the day was just filled to the brim with laughter, creativity, fabulous ideas, new editing skills, and lots of Tiktok videos…the entire Adobe gang truly enjoyed sharing the afternoon with the group, and really hope they got the most out of the day and learnt some new tips and tricks 😊”

Participant Nikol said ‘I felt like a professional team player. It’s good to get a feel of these places because it kind of lights a fire under you.’

Jones Knowle Ritchie – Building your Profile

In October our participants made the most of another exciting opportunity working with the creative agency Jones Knowles Ritchie.

Luke and Anita at Jones Knowles Ritchie

Anita, who took part in the session said “‘The JKR workshop was fantastic. I left inspired by their advice, carefully listening to our ideas and individual feedback. On the way home, I shed a tear. I felt so touched. It was like there was hope that things could somehow work out. It lights me up.’

What’s next for Creative Futures?

It is so heartwarming to hear the fantastic feedback of both the facilitators and the participants in these opportunities. Positive steps, empowerment through creativity and an exciting future for our participants.

We are so delighted with how it has all run that we are going to do it all again in January 2023! Another two-day workshop working in conjunction with creative industry professionals. Want to get involved? Get in touch at info@accumulate.org.uk

Utopia: A New World for Everyone

Design, Make & Build Your New World

Brand new for 2022, this project started in April this year. The brief for our participants, to create their own ‘New World.’ Over ten sessions, the final works will be displayed at this summer’s Waterloo Festival which is attended by around 500 people each year. By completing this series of workshops, participants also have the chance to win one of our annual Accumulate scholarships to attend an Access to Higher Education course at either Ravensbourne University or Morley College!

Workshop poster

We are thrilled to partner with Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects on this project, giving our participants the chance to work with professional architects and designers to bring their vision to life. We are also so grateful to our funders Arts Council England and Foyle Foundation for their support.

Collage inspiration

Building up their own ‘Utopia’ ideas using collages, sketches and mood boards was a great starting point. So much imagination and thought going into each individual design. Each participant has their own sketchbook so they can carry on developing their ideas and creativity in each session and outside the workshops. The group also worked on models creating ‘mini me’s’ that will live in their own ideal world.

Creating mini me’s! Photo Credit: Chez Christiealice

Discussing and presenting ideas to each other is an important part Accumulate, so everyone can engage, learn and support each other. Climate change and sustainability are major themes for discussion in this project, with tutors showing how they incorporate such important elements into building projects and how they would be central to a new Utopia. Participants took this expertise and then discussed how they would like to incorporate it into their own plans before starting to build their own Utopia models with a focus on the environment.

Photo Credit: Chez Christiealice

Photo Credit: Chez Christiealice

As the weeks past it has been incredible to see how much their model-making skills have developed and their confidence has increased – especially when it comes to discussing their own works and explaining their vision to others. They are an amazing group of people, giving so much support and encouragement to everyone. Our creative community is flourishing!

Photo Credit: Chez Christiealice

Within this project, participants have tried their hand at embroidery and textile design, creative writing, music and voice workshops. All of these elements have been incorporated into the final project including a song that the group have written and will perform at the festival!

Working on lyrics in the Music & Voice workshop

Ten weeks of hard work and creativity are now complete and we are so thrilled to be able to present the participant’s final works to our supporters with a private view event on 7th July, prior to the exhibition at the Waterloo Festival. At this event, we are also presenting the scholarships to selected participants so they can continue their creative education. Join us! We’d love to see you there to help celebrate. DM us over on Instagram for all the details!

 

 

 

Banner of Youth

Our Banner of Youth project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, started back in March with a series of textile design workshops taking place over eight weeks taking place in the Fountain Room at the Barbican Centre in London. Our workshop poster below was shared with homeless hostels around London inviting participants to come along and get creative.

Textile & Design Workshops poster

Workshop poster

 

Working in partnership with our long-term collaborators Museum of Youth Culture along with tutors Sadie Williams and Tori Taiwo, Accumulate participants designed and created fabric patches from surplus textiles inspired by the theme of youth culture and their memories of their own youth.

Working with surplus textiles

Working with off cuts of fabrics and leftover trims our group were able to get as creative as they wanted. It was wonderful to see each individual’s design developing and progressing over time and in these super engaging sessions. Check out these fantastic patches in progress:

 

Each patch was then sewn onto a huge banner entitled the ‘Banner of Youth’, which will be revealed on 7th July in The Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry.  Watch this space!

Banner of Youth in progress

 

 

 

Get An Education to Give An Education

 

 

Get An Education to Give An Education with The Accumulate Art School for the Homeless courses!

Accumulate is now offering specialist online Get An Education to Give An Education courses with all profits being used to fund Accumulate creative workshops for people who are homeless and so it’s a win-win for everyone. The courses are all bookable online (see links below) and not only will you be gaining an education but *paying forward* to help others gain an education too – what’s not to love??

“Ever since I have been declared homeless, my human rights have been stripped away. My voice is either muted or lost. My opinion has no value. I’m treated as nothing more than a dumb person. I truly appreciate what Accumulate is doing and offer (to anyone) Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!”

The Accumulate Get An Education to Give An Education courses are focused on mastering Instagram and gaining the impact you want. Now, more than ever, people and businesses are using Instagram to get ahead but knowing how to do it to get results takes insider knowledge and skills that are really in demand. These Accumulate courses will provide all of this for you, your business, brand or career.

The Accumulate Get An Education to Give An Education courses are delivered by Williamz Omope and Tori Taiwo – creative directors and social media experts who teach these courses at universities, for Accumulate and within the community. Williamz and Tori really know the inside stuff and tricks that the professionals use on Instagram and will be sharing these on the Accumulate courses which will cover:

  • How to take the photographs that gain Instagram attention
  • Understanding image composition for a good photograph
  • Using visual language to tell a story
  • Developing a visual style by using editing apps
  • How to use Instagram – right from the very beginning
  • How to build audiences, brands and businesses through Instagram
  • Mastering the Instagram functions and using them correctly
  • Developing the creative content that generates interaction
  • Reels, IG live and videos for Instagram
  • Timing your Instagram post to increase engagement and what systems to use for this
  • Language and words to use to get attention for your posts
  • How to manage and get Instagram comments to increase engagement and audience
  • The clues and tricks about hashtags and how to use them
  • How to set up an Instagram shop and generate financial gain
  • Creating visual content that turns into online sales

Tori Taiwo leading a Making It On Instagram online course at Ravensbourne University London

All the Accumulate Get An Education to Give An Education courses have limited numbers so you get the attention you need and feel comfortable asking questions, you will also get individual feedback. The courses will be delivered online and recorded so you can also refresh your knowledge after each workshop, there will also be weekly homework and tasks to do so that you progress and put into practice the valuable knowledge and skills gained.

Book Now! Places are limited

To book a course to improve your Instagram knowledge and skills whilst also changing a homeless person’s life through creative education click on the links and Get An Education to Give An Education

Smartphone Photography for Instagram : 3 week course: 14 Sept – 28 Sept, Tuesdays, 6.30- 8.30pm, £150
Instagram for Beginners: 6 week course: 5 Oct – 9 Nov, Tuesdays, 6.30 – 8.30pm, £375
Making it on Instagram (intermediate and advanced): 6 week course: 5 Oct – 9 Nov, Tuesdays, 6.30 – 8.30pm, £375
Making Money from Instagram: 6 week course: 6 Oct – 10 Nov, Wednesdays, 6.30 – 8.30pm, £425

Hope to see you there and please email info@accumulate.org.uk if you would like any further information

Accumulate 2020/21 Showcase Event

The end of June brought us what felt like a rare chance to join together with participants, supporters and friends to look back at an incredible year. The aim of Accumulate, the Art School for the Homeless, is to improve peoples’ lives through creativity and we are proud to say that we have achieved this despite a very challenging year. A year when we couldn’t meet as a group and our participants were more isolated, and feeling even more lonely and vulnerable than ever. Even though our annual jam packed exhibition had to be reinvented for 2021, we still managed a celebration of what we have achieved through our showcase which was held at The Barbican, in Cinema 1.

Accumulate at The Barbican

We premiered our Accumulate 20/21 film, which you can watch HERE, in which we celebrated all that we have done over the past year. From pivoting during lockdown to online workshops, to distributing over 4000 Art Kits to hostels across the UK and launching the Book of Homelessness, it has been extremely busy but rewarding time for all of us.

Participants Stories

During the event, we were honoured to hear from three past Accumulate scholarship winners who took to the stage and spoke so candidly about their own personal experiences of homelessness and how they were empowered to move forwards positively with their lives. It really was very moving to hear these stories and the impact that art and creativity can have. Check out all three videos HERE

Nikol DeHaan speaking at the Accumulate Showcase. Photo Credit, Williamz Omope

 

Mitchel Ceney speaking at the Accumulate Showcase. Photo credit Williamz Omope

 

LisaLouise MacGregor speaking at the Accumulate Showcase. Photo credit Williamz Omope

Scholarship Awards

This event also gave us the opportunity to present our annual scholarship awards, giving the recipient the opportunity to continue their creative education at Ravensbourne University in September. We are so thankful to each scholarship funder for supporting these awards, without who they just would not be possible.

The well deserved winners were:
  • Keattch family scholarship awarded to Jade Amoli-Jackson
  • Say Property travel bursary scholarships to Whitney Stewart and Reuben Dehaan. (The Say Property scholarship is covered through sales of Book of Homelessness, as they bought nearly 200 copies!)
  • Jon Drori scholarship to Anita Karklina
  • The Keattch Family also awarded  £1000 each to Mitchel, Ola, Nikol and Anne to help with their continuing creative studies.

Debra Yudolph from Say Property presenting two scholarships. Photo credit Williamz Omope

 

 Keattch Family presentation. Photo credit Williamz Omope

Huge congratulations to all award winners. We are so proud of you all and can’t wait to see your continuing achievements. Thank you also to everyone who was able to attend this event and who followed along on social media with us. We are so happy to have your support on this very special and happy day.

 

 

 

 

Accumulate April Update!

April 2021 has been a busy month for Accumulate with some exciting new and continuing projects and good news for Accumulate!

Return to The Barbican

We were delighted to be able to return to the learning space at the Barbican Centre early in April to resume our face to face workshops after such a long time. We are equally delighted to have teamed up with the global creative design advertising association D&AD who provided one of their student briefs to design a promotional campaign for lego bricks for this series of workshops.

A new series of workshops began in April 2021

We were very grateful to have a great haul of lego donated to us to use for this project through the generosity of the team at the Barbican and D&AD. The local community in Crouch End were also a huge help donating bricks after a Facebook shout out! The group were so excited to see this mountain of lego and to take part in an Accumulate project that is completely new and different.

Using Lego bricks as our creative medium

 

Our aim on this project is the reverse the hierarchy, bringing top-level creative expertise, teaching and knowledge to people who wouldn’t normally be able to access it. Industry experts Giulio Mazzarini and Natalie Prout from Jones Knowles Ritchie joined us to talk the group through how strategy and creativity work in an advertising environment. We are also very excited to welcome industry speakers from leading creative agencies including Saboteur, GEM, Bullet Proof and We Are Social to join us on this project in the coming weeks to share their expertise and industry insights with Accumulate participants. This will be an amazing opportunity for our participants to gain access to this level of knowledge and also be able to showcase their talent and potential.

Joined by industry experts from JKR Global

At the end of this project in June, there will be an exhibition of the participants work along with three scholarships awarded to selected participants to attend Ravensbourne University! Watch this space!

Donation from Grand Matter

Illustration agency Grand Matter organised a fundraising drive for Accumulate with their super-talented illustrators designing a beautiful collection of blankets which were then sold to raise money for Accumulate. We are so thankful and humbled by this support. Even more so in that it has meant that we can now purchase tablets for the group working on the D&AD project we are currently running, so all our learners can digitise their own creative work. Huge thanks to all the team at Grand Matter.

Students digitise their creativity

Accumulate Art Kit workshops continue

Our Accumulate Art Kits project is still going strong. We ran an excellent ‘Train the Trainer’ session this month with the team from London architecture firm AHMM who put together and led a model making activity with a group of support workers from homeless hostels across the country.

Train the Trainer session with AHMM

This session was so well received by the group and they are now ready to run their own sessions with clients from the hostels they work in using the kits that we provide. We are so pleased to have AHMM join us, giving their time, expertise and support.

Accumulate in Positive News

We were very excited to see the graphic novel that we published last year, Book of Homelessness, featured in an article by Positive News! You can read the full article HERE. We had such a great response to the feature with a great surge of support. The money we have raised from the sales of our book has meant that we have been able to fund a scholarship for an Accumulate participant to attend Ravensbourne University to study on the Access to HE course in Design & Digital Media. As our founder, Marice Cumber told Positive News ‘This is a very special thing. It means that the creativity of a group of people affected by homelessness will support someone else who is homeless to change their lives through creative education.’

Feature in Positive News

Click HERE to read more about Book of Homelessness and purchase your own copy

 

Follow @Accumulate_Ldn on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook!

 

 

 

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Phenomenal response to Book of Homelessness!

An Amazing Response!

When Accumulate set out on The Book of Homelessness project we had no idea that the response to it, once published, would be so phenomenal! Sales have been so significant that we sold out of the first print run within 2 weeks and so have reprinted in double quick time!

The Book of Homeless

 

Life Changing

What’s even better is because sales are so high we are now able to fund a scholarship for an Accumulate participant to progress their creative education and study, fully funded, on the Access to Higher Education course at Ravensbourne University in London. It is truly wonderful that the creativity of people who are homeless will actually change another homeless person’s life through creative education.

 

Hear my Story

The stories in The Book of Homelessness are emotional, raw and direct. They tell the stories of people who have been forced to leave their homes, countries, relationships, families, care and prison. But they are also stories of hope, resilience and determination from people who are using their creativity to tell their own stories and to help change perceptions of what homelessness is.

Self Portrait by Ria Wallace

Sharing the profits

Profits from sales of The Book of Homelessness are shared with the Accumulate participants, so that they can earn money through their creativity, and Accumulate so that we can fund another scholarship to change a homeless person’s life and provide more creative workshops for people who are homeless.

Image and text by Mitchel Ceney

Press Response

The response from the press to The Book of Homelessness has been just as incredible and for that we have been so grateful, helping us spread the word far and wide. If you want to see what is being said about the Book of Homelessness is publications such as The Guardian, Big Issue and Creative Review pop over to out Press Coverage page on the website here.

 

The Book of Homelessness Launches!

The Book of Homelessness is the first ever graphic novel created by people affected by homelessness that tells the stories of their lives.

The book of homelessness cover

“This is a remarkable collection in any context. The fact that these beautiful, personal works are the expressions of our neighbours who are homeless makes it untenable to ignore them ever again.”
Colin Firth

Accumulate is really so very proud to say that The Book of Homelessness will be published on November 19th 2020 and is now available to purchase.

The Accumulate Book of Homelessness project started in January with a series of writing, drawing and illustration workshops that were held at the Autograph gallery in Shoreditch. These workshops enabled the Accumulate participants, who came from hostels, shelters and temporary accommodation, to explore their own narratives and build up the skills and confidence to communicate their stories and experiences visually and in the written form.


The group very quickly began to bond and form a community. Every single participant was eager to tell their story and how it affected who they were. The stories that they produced are personal, raw and honest. They are of pain, of abuse, of dysfunction, of families, of war, of rejection, of misplaced love, of overcoming difficulties and of fighting and succeeding.

Together these stories show the complexities of homelessness, what causes it and the struggles that people have undertaken.

The illustrations, photographs and words are sensitive and emotional.  They communicate the conflicts, loneliness and abandonment felt by the authors.


The Book of Homelessness is a powerful and beautiful book. It will be published, as a limited edition, on November 19th 2020 and can also be pre-ordered here.

All profits from sales of the book will be shared with its authors and Accumulate so it can continue to provide creative workshops for people who are homeless. We really hope that you can buy this book and be inspired by the stories, talents and integrity of the Accumulate participants.