The Mildmay Collective aimed to challenge the quality and type of arts activities in care homes by establishing a working studio at Mildmay 6 where residents were actively involved in making and producing works for an exhibition at Printhouse Gallery in Dalston on 23 April 2015. The residency was active for just under a year, it launched in June 2014 and finished in May 2105. I co-led the project with Amy Pennington.

The motivation behind this project was that often we see arts practice in homes being dummed down for the residents, the quality suffers as it gets lumbered under the umbrella term “community arts”. We were keen to challenge this notion and produce pieces of the highest quality for a professional gallery show. Having developed numerous projects in care settings before this we both realised that a key aspect to ensuring quality was time. It was important that the project allowed enough time to produce artworks worthy of the exhibition, hence the extension of the residency from half a year to a year.

The Residency

The concept of the project was to have a living and thriving studio in a care home that would encourage a new perspective on what arts can be in these settings, working closely with residents, families and staff. In this sense the project was a resounding success. For a year we hosted a studio at Mildmay 6, Notting Hill Housing, where between us there was on average an artist there for 4/5 days a week. This, not only, gave residents something to look forward to, someone to talk to and a creative outlet but, importantly for the work, a chance to create real bonds between the artists and the residents. For a long time we would simply go in and chat to the residents to get to know them. This was a crucial step in the residency and one that continued throughout, in order to establish the necessary trust to broach personal and, at times, painful topics and discussions which fed into the work. We knew we did not want something superficial and that for that we would need time to develop these relationships. This was the reason we decided to extend the project. Just as the residents seemed to be getting so much out of the work we were nearing the end and it seemed a great shame to stop short when things were only just getting going.

As part of the residency we invited other artists (Lowri Evans, Arturo Roura and Gabriella de Gaetano) to come and deliver mini residencies. We also held regular themed evening parties with the residents.

Wheelin n Dealin Exhibition
The final outcome of the project was a public, professional exhibition at the Printhouse Gallery in Dalston. The gallery is a fifteen minute walk from the home and this was key as we were keen to expose the work to the local community and within the existing arts scene. We presented a selection of work that had been developed throughout the residency. The work was up from 28 April to the 28 May. The opening was attended by residents of all three Mildmay homes, families, staff and the public. Articles in both the Islington Gazette and Tribune featured after the exhibition and in Tomorrow Cares.

One of the key artworks of the exhibition was a vending machine which housed a collection of smaller artworks for sale at an affordable price: branded t shirts and tote bags, memorabilia badges from the Southend trip, knitted scarves and dog coats and postcards amongst other things. We commissioned Eyup Digital to design an app to work with the machine which was displayed on a tablet so viewers could find out what each artwork was and the story behind it.