Join PhD student Kam Rehal for a collaborative art workshop in the Vine Road Community Garden. Participants are invited to take part in Kam's research, which will involve a collaborative drawing activity and a chance to discuss your experiences of growing.

Looking for Participants for new research exploring how individuals relate to their plot-holding practices:

Allotment groups from across the UK are invited to take part in a new research project. I am looking for plot-holders to participate in a collaborative drawing / mark-making activity and at the same time join in a conversation that supports us to discuss our perspectives and experiences of growing, connecting to the land, and being part of an allotment community. The workshops do not require Participants to have any previous experience or expertise in art.

What happens in the workshop?

I arrive on site with the materials and tools we'll be using within the collaborative mark-making and conversation workshop. These are a big folding table we can all meet around, papers, pens, inks, clay, plaster and drawing and printing tools. The mark-making activities are related to some of the physical activities and processes of plot-holding — digging, planting, picking, sharing — but don't worry, it's not hard work! We come together to draw, and at the same time speak about our connections to plot-holding, collaborating on a group drawing and a group conversation. The workshops will be taking place with different allotment groups across the summer.

What next?

The collaborative drawing method is being tested as a way to support an open group conversation, where members of an allotment group can spend some time creating something together, whilst giving voice to their individual thoughts and experiences. The aim of the research project is to gather a range of perspectives from allotment groups across the country, providing a rich and diverse set of conversations that relate to specific sites, places and practices. Once the conversations have been collected, I will invite participating groups to think about how we might share these with everyone that has participated in the project.

You can find information about the event and images of previous workshops here: https://growingdrawings.com/

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