London Art Fair Archives

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

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

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

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

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 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 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 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

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A HAPPY 2018 TO EVERYONE!

Tag Archive for: London Art Fair

Accumulate starts 2018 full of creativity!