TELE HILL ARTS CLUB
A new community arts program for Lewisham






This Spring we launch the Tele Hill Arts Club. A community driven series of creative intergenerational workshops for Lewisham. The multi-media workshops will lead to an exhibition held at the Hill Station Community Café from the 11th of July until the 9th of August.

Workshops will be led by local artists:
Communal Clay, Molly Bonnell and Nic Sanderson
Who is this for? 
Tele Hill Arts Club empowers Telegraph Hill residents to transform the community space at Hill Station Community Café to reflect its diverse locals. Through 9 artist-led workshops in textiles, furniture design and ceramics, local families with very young children, young people aged 12-15, and older residents will co-create artworks for exhibition and use. Tele Hill Arts Club fosters intergenerational connection, local pride and inclusive skill-building with accessible approach at its core.

We are also upskilling staff from Hill Station Community Café who are being supported to become assistant creative facilitators. They will be attending each of the creative workshops providing essential support to our the lead facilitators. 

Sign ups to the furniture workshop will be possible in early April via the project’s physical hub, The Hill Station Community Café and on local notice boards throughout Telegraph Hill. 

THE ARTISTS
















Molly Bonnell

London-based artist, facilitator and curator. Their practice is collaborative, responding to how we care and are cared for by society, our planet and others. Their experiences of chronic illness and disability shape their work, which explores themes of health, accessibility, materiality, play and craft. Grounded in activist and intersectional methods, and they primarily collaborate with those who have had barriers to accessing creativity. They often share their multidisciplinary practice through workshops, and have a particular interest in glasswork, sculpture, textiles, and writing. Alongside their art practice, Molly is on the team at Hill Station Cafe and developed this project in collaboration with the cafe to platform and celebrate the creativity of South East London.
→ For this project, Molly will be collaborating with young people from Somerville Youth Club.

Nic Sanderson

Working primarily through sculpture, Nic Sanderson approaches objects not as symbols but as active agents within processes of meaning-making. Materials are understood as carriers of memory that exceed human authorship: they retain traces of prior use and context while remaining partially unknowable. This dual condition of intimacy and resistance is central to his work. He is concerned with how materials can produce effective proximity while withholding full legibility.   Rather than constructing fixed narratives, Sanderson’s sculptures generate encounters in which meaning emerges through material histories and the viewer’s perception. By gleaning discarded or overlooked objects, the work foregrounds the temporality embedded within material culture. These works open a dialogue between past and present. In this sense, objects operate as extensions of human presence, persisting beyond the body and articulating forms of collective memory. He lives and works in South East London.

→ For this project, Nic will be collaborating with local Telegraph Hill residents and families. You can sign up for his workshops here.


Communal Clay

Communal Clay CIC offers low cost and free workshops to the local community. Our aim is making clay and sculpture more inclusive and accessible to everyone. We chose clay as although ceramics can be seen as an inaccessible and an expensive material, clay itself is widely accessible, and exists underneath our every step. Our approach is sustainability conscious and has led us to digging our own wild clay and using plant waste, shells, bone and other organic matter to create homemade ash glazes. Run by Tabitha Weddell and Alice Kasahare.

→  For this project, Communal Clay will be collaborating with members of Just Older Youth.


THE ASSISTANT FACILIATORS



With an emphasis on supporting non-traditional pathways into the arts, this project upskills staff from Hill Station Café to become assistant creative facilitators. They will be paired with one of the 3 artists and will support the facilitation of all of the creative workshops. This includes:

Ally Andrews
 Dave Cuvelot
 Elaine Shaw    
 Frankie Sally 
 Mari Fullerton
 Phoebe Rayner
 Seamus Hughes
Tina Gregoriou
Tinai Zivengwa




our COMMUNITY PARTNERS














The Hill Station Cafe

Built by local residents who shared the same vision of a flexible space for people in and around Telegraph Hill, this local hub hosts a community cafe employing local people, site-specific art installations, performances, events and workshops, a space for rehearsals and meetings, and the Hill Trader shop. Our ambition is to connect our diverse local communities through creativity, playfulness and pleasure.



The Somerville Youth Club

Since 1971, Somerville has been a place where children and young people can play freely, take risks, build skills, and grow together. Today we are building on that legacy to create a youth-led hub of creativity, adventure and community care. Through adventurous play, arts, making and repair, food growing and sharing, music, sport and social action, we support young people to develop confidence, resilience and leadership. Our work is rooted in relationships, creativity and the belief that young people should be active shapers of the world around them. Together with our community, we are growing Somerville as a place where young people lead, where practical skills and imagination come together, and where collective action helps create healthier, fairer and more resilient neighbourhoods.

Just Older Youth (JOY)

JOY is a user-led group run by a dedicated team of volunteers providing affordable exercise classes and social meetups to older people in South East London. We host a monthly social, Cuppa Club at The Hill Station Cafe. They also organise special events such as Tea Dances and benefit concerts, as well as trips to places of interest and days at the seaside. All activities bring people together and promote fun and fitness in a friendly social environment.



THE workshops






Gleaning Telegraph Hill: Sculptural Furniture Workshops with Nic Sanderson

Join Nic to create new sculptural furniture for the Hill Station Cafe using existing furniture and reclaimed materials found in the Telegraph Hill area. You will learn about carpentry, repurposing and material memory. 

  • Saturday 16 May (1-5pm)
  • Sunday 17 May (1-5pm) 
  • Saturday 23 May (1-5pm) 

Hosted at The Somerville SE14 5JN

FREE

No previous experience required.
Materials and refreshments provided.

Artworks made in the workshops will be used to decorate the cafe and will be exhibited in early July

There are only 15 places available for this workshop series, and we are expecting the signups to be oversubscribed. Please only sign up if you are available for all 3 workshops.

→  You can sign up for these workshops here.


Ceramics with Communal Clay and
Just Older Youth

 →  For these workshops, Communal Clay will be collaborating with members of Just Older Youth.

Textiles with Molly Bonnell and
 The Somerville Youth Club

 → For these workshops, Molly will be collaborating with young people from Somerville Youth Club.

PROJECT TIMELINE








May -June
Artist led workshops take place

11th July
Exhibition opens and 
project celebration at Hill Station Cafe

11 July  - 9 August 
Exhibition running at Hill Station Cafe

6th August
 Zine Launch 

9th August
Exhibition Ends



get in touch







If you have any questions about the project, email telehillartsclub@gmail.com

For updates on the project, sign up to our newsletter or follow us @telehill_artsclub