Clare Ferdinando, Education Outreach Co-ordinator, talks about ‘Kennington Kids: Raw Urban’
an exhibition showing at Dulwich Picture Gallery in the Linbury Room, 6 – 29 August -Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays 1 – 5pm.
The Education Department has been sending professional artists out to a youth club on an estate in Kennington, one evening a week, for 5 years now. It is an extremely challenging venue and this exhibition is a real testimony to what can be achieved through personal attention, talented teachers and sustained commitment to these boys. Often in trouble and in the media, these young people discover new talents and self esteem through their art work.
The boys from the estate and the Education Department would love you to visit the exhibition of their remarkable artwork.
Comments from the visiting workshop artists
‘Working with the staff and boys at Alford House has been a great privilege. The staff there are an inspiration, and give me great hope for the future, in the light of continual news reports. The boys are full of surprises, and provide a well of possibilities to explore. But most of all it is tremendously rewarding to see them surprise themselves.
‘One of the boys I was helping said: ‘Do you know what, you should be a teacher miss’. From a boy that has difficulties at school, I found this very touching, but also encouraging.’
Isabella Lockett
‘Teaching at Alford House was a challenge, the boys are lively and demanding, but all the more satisfying to work with because of that. These boys have been brought up in an environment where physical danger is a very real and present threat; this is a constant tension that they have to live with, which brings its own emotional burdens.
It made me think about my own values and assumptions, and helped me better understand contemporary social problems. Most of all though, it gave me confidence in talking to boys like this. Many of them are diffident and vulnerable individuals, with a protective hard exterior. I learnt not to be put off by this, and to get to know them as boys.’
Ruth Dupre
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