Community Wall Displays

Our Community Wall is a display area between the Clore Learning Space and the museum shop. It is used for a range of displays – sometimes as part of a larger exhibition inside the museum – or as a separate space. It is curated by the museum curator with input from Learning.

Clay for Dementia has been running at the Garden Museum since January 2018 after a pilot project with Arts 4 Dementia during autumn 2017. During the pandemic, we took our sessions online. Sessions are an opportunity for people with dementia and their carers to spend time together being creative with clay.

Clay for Dementia is taught by artists Katie Spragg and Monica Tong who both trained at the Royal College of Art (where Katie also currently teaches) and supported by friendly and knowledgeable volunteers.

The ceramics on display on our Community Wall take inspiration from some of our exhibitions including those of Jean Cooke and Frank Walter. Jean Cooke’s painting, Hortus Siccus (1967) was a specific reference, and participants used dried seed heads to print onto clay with coloured slip.

If you are interested in finding out about Clay for Dementia, please contact Janine Nelson, Head of Learning janine@gardenmuseum.org.uk

Thank you to the Wixamtree Trust and Karin Parkinson for funding Clay for Dementia 2023 – July 2024 and to Clore Duffield for our Travel Fund.

Morley College is a local adult education provider on Westminster Bridge Road. We have worked with the textiles department at Morley College on two previous occasions, hosting exhibitions in 2014 as part of our WWI Centenary project and more recently in 2017 on a theme of Cabinets of Curiosity and the Tradescants.

The theme this time related to the sustainable textiles course set up by Zoe Burt at Morley College. It coincides with the Garden Museum creating a Dye bed in our Healing Garden in the local park. Morley College has a dye garden which serves the Textiles department with plant material for natural dyeing.

The Learning team worked with pupils from the school council at Soho Parish Primary School in January, introducing them to four art activities related to nature and the Garden Museum. The pupils then planned an Arts Week with their teachers which resulted in an exhibition at school followed by a display of the work on our Community Wall at the museum.

The school council was invited to curate their display and be ‘Young Curators’. They worked in small groups in school to plan the layout of their museum exhibition. We provided the dimensions of the wall, questions about layout and some options. The Deputy Head filmed the pupils discussing their ideas and shared it with the Learning and Curatorial team at the museum. The Curator then used it as a basis to design the exhibition layout. The display was up from June to July.

Branch Out is our popular, free weekly programme of activities for the public. Sessions are occasionally run by museum staff but more often we invite freelancers, artists, makers, designers, and organisations to share their knowledge and enthusiasm in hands-on activities exploring gardening, art, floristry, plant science, history and design. This display celebrated our first year of Branch Out sessions which are funded by ACE.