‘A Postcard to the World – ONE YEAR ON’- A Mail Art exhibition documenting Londoners’ feelings about the Olympic & Paralympic Games
Friday 26th July to Friday 20th September 2013 at Canada Water Library, 21 Surrey Quays Road, London, SE16 7AR.
Private View on Thursday 25th 2013, 6:30pm – 8.30pm

One year on from the opening ceremony of the Olympics and the start of the Postcard to the World project, CoolTan Art’s final exhibition will review the artwork created throughout the last year and explore opinions on the legacy of the Games.

Tuesday 16th July 2013, 6-9pm

Please join us to celebrate our move to new premises!
We had outgrown our previous home and have now found a fit-for-purpose building located at:

Third Floor
224-236 Walworth Road
London
SE17 1JE

The new building has two large art workshop spaces, computer room, a dedicated gallery space and a fully accessible kitchen.

(image: Aaron Pilgrim)

From our early days in a disused suntan lotion factory in Brixton in 1990, via various venues in both Lambeth and Southwark, we’ve come a long way, growing steadily in terms of services offered and the number of participants involved.

Saturday 22nd June 2013 11.45pm
Starts: Tate Modern, Turbine Hall entrance, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Ends: Maudsley Hospital Denmark Hill, SE5 8AZ
Cost: Free/Donation

Join CoolTan Arts for a fun guided midnight walk – an exciting evening of summer solstice lunacy!

The walk will visit a number of local buildings with an unusual design or purpose and look at the mysterious psychological effects that these locations can have on people. There will be stops at the Marshalsea, where Charles Dickens’ father was imprisoned; the Heygate Estate, a huge neo-Brutalist estate currently being demolished; Camberwell House, a former asylum; and Cross Bones Cemetery, a disused post-Medieval burial ground that was once on unconsecrated graveyard for sex workers.

The summer solstice is the perfect time for the walk as it’s traditionally been a time when the forces of nature are at their most powerful, and the boundaries between the physical and spiritual world are at their thinnest.

On Tuesday 11th June CoolTan poets and a selection of players from the Southbank Sinfonia gave a small public performance of music and poetry at St John’s Church, Waterloo.

The event was the culmination of collaboration that began in March this year between CoolTan Arts and the Southbank Sinfonia, an orchestra of young professional musicians described by The Times as ‘a dashing ensemble who play with exhilarating fizz, exactness and stamina’. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, Southbank Sinfonia is internationally recognised as a leading orchestral academy, providing graduate musicians from all over the world with a springboard into the profession.

Saturday 12th October 2013,  11.30am-approx 4pm
Starts: Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, SE5 8AZ (outside the main entrance)
Registration Fee: £10 (£5 unwaged)

Join CoolTan Arts’ Sponsored Walk, celebrate World Mental Health Day and help us raise money to keep CoolTan Arts open and helping people with mental distress.

The walk will be a fun interactive event with talks, discussion and performance along the way.

Everyone is welcome!

Our volunteer coordinator Clara Jones will be cycling 100km in aid of CoolTan Arts on Sunday 30th June, as part of Financial Times London Cycle Sportive supporting Access Sport.
Clara’s route heads out to the North Downs offering some stunning views over the Kent/Surrey countryside and Biggin Hill, then the lanes between Reigate and Dorking where it then takes on the 2012 Olympic climb at Box Hill.

Clara says, ‘I wanted to support CoolTan and raise some money from something I enjoy doing – I helped with the CoolTan Arts Community Legacy walks last year during the Olympics, and I was inspired to take up a new sport, joining Dulwich Paragon cycling club in Jan.

On Thursday 29th May, we received a very generous donation from The Landscape Institute of a server and a laser printer. Both of these will make life significantly easier for all at CoolTan.

We would like to say a big thank you to to The Landscape Institute and to Jim Riches (Landscape Institute) and Carl Collins (Arup Associates) for coordinating the donation.

May’s CoolWalks were well attended and enjoyed by both participants and project volunteers.
We held public walks starting at Peckham, Canada Water and John Harvard Libraries, each with a different theme.

One walker said, ‘This walk definitely made me happy as I met cool people and saw a beautiful part of London I had no idea about and learned some interesting facts.’

Image: Vera Dohrenbusch

A volunteer on the project said, ‘What could have been the dull stuff has been quite inspiring – each person investigating according to their own interests; photographs, maps, history, literature, art, green spaces, gardens.  Meeting up to walk potential routes makes you feel very connected to the area, and brings to life the stories uncovered in the research.’

Volunteers on the project have started a blog full of fantastic photography to document the walks, you can view it here.

Join our new Cooking and shopping Workshop: CoolTan 11:30am – 2pm
Tuesday and Thursday in the new Community Kitchen.

Especially for people who experience mental distress from SE1, SE16, Se5 and SE17.

Starts NEXT WEEK – Tues 4th June (you can start later in the year, but places will go fast!)
Thursday sessions start Thurs 20th June

• You do not have to have a personal budget to access this workshop
• BUT we do need to register with us before you can come along
• £3 for participants per session
• Pay in advance for 12 weeks and receive one week free

Weekly workshops to share and learn the skills to cook your own healthy and nutritious food on a budget.

A review by Tim Russell with pictures …

The CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle celebrated the origins of May Day and the arrival of Spring on 18 May when we walked from Tate Modern to Burgess Park.

Photos by: Amy Bradshaw

Our first stop was Quilp Gardens, where we learnt about the origins of May Day and its folklore. After making some garlands we moved on to the church gardens of St George the Martyr, to hear about how the Italians celebrate May Day, going right back to the Roman festival of Floralia.

As part of the celebrations of  CoolTan’s move to the new building, a new exhibition, ‘Skyscape’, will have its opening party on  Tuesday 16^th July 2013 from 6-9pm.

by Aaron Pilgrim

The exhibition itself will run from 16^th July to 12^th August, and submissions of artwork on the theme of  ‘Southwark Skies’ (interpret that as you wish!) are wanted from participants, staff, volunteers and any other interested artists.

The submission deadline is 10^th July and there is a registration cost for each piece of art of £5(unwaged)/£10(waged) . Your work needs to be already framed.

Friday 7th June, 2-5pm at CoolTan Arts

As some of you know, we are currently in the process of applying for a Quality Standard from Investing in Volunteers.
As part of this process we will be holding a focus group for all of CoolTan’s volunteers, to find out what we are doing well and where we still have room for improvement.

A Quality Standard from Investing in Volunteers will help us provide you with a better volunteering experience and will also help us raise funds for projects at CoolTan.

Come along, let us know what you think and help us fill in our self-assessment form.

Starting Thursday 27th June, 6-8pm at CoolTan Arts

We are offering CoolTan Arts’ Participants, Volunteers and Staff Members an opportunity to become part of an inclusive community music group.

No Singing Experience Required!

• Ten sessions of vocal Improvisation, sound and rhythm making
• Live performance
• Recording
• Confidence and self-esteem building
• Opportunity to continue the group as a volunteer-run project

Find your voice, express yourself and improve your well being

Alex Langford will be taking part in the Northants 35 mile Ultramarathon on Sunday 2nd June in aid of CoolTan Arts.
Alex says,“CoolTan … offer people with mental health issues a range of creative workshops. They also offer self-advocacy classes, which teach people how to speak up about their situation, and ask their care team questions like ‘what drugs am I on?’, ‘why?’ and ‘do I have a choice?’ … these are topics I feel passionately about. We should have way more of them, which makes the total cut in NHS funding that CoolTan suffered recently all the worse.

CoolTan Arts is starting a new Product Design Course
Tuesdays 1-4pm, 10 weeks, starting  from Tuesday 7th May

This course will give you the opportunity to research and design products for sale at CoolTan.

You will learn how to work using a design brief, carry out research into similar products and potential outlets, develop and refine your ideas, learn new techniques and make product prototypes. Products could include: greetings cards, bags, jewellery, art and craft kits and prints.

This course will give you the skills you need to make and sell your work and could help you progress on to art and design college courses.