Kailam has been working with Audri, our sculpture tutor  to make a new range of Robots! These will be on sale at Bromley By Bow Centre on May 5th

Since September 2010 Arteast has been developing Fabric Designs, the Fabrics are being made into a range of products, from Bags to Aprons and more!

Arteast has created a new “Tool Box” design fabric, which has been made into Bags by our friends in the Sewing group led by Shathi and Jaqui. In the picture above Justin is printing some of the “Tool Box” images onto the fabric.

The Bags will be available in our online shop very soon.

Arteast always has three dimensional works ongoing in production, as part of ongoing commissions or as part of developing skills in creative skills, this Tiger Head was made by Abdul and the tutor Audri as part of a display for Chinese new year.

Arteast were commissioned to create a sculpture for the Children’s Art Zone reflecting the theme ‘Up in the Air’ in partnership with Emergency Exit Arts (EEA). Members of the group designed and created an interactive 3D Space Tree which consisted of a plywood structure, supporting a scaffolding pole and topped off with a clothes drying whirly gig. The sculpture was designed to be interactive for young children so they could write on the walls including messages from space, postcards from earth and draw pictures of aliens they had met.

Members of Arteast were involved at different stages of development, including design and implementation. This was an exciting sculptural art form that enabled them to improve skills such as building, painting as well as to display their artwork at Trafalger Square. Members found the work challenging but rewarding.

Liberty Festival London is an annual celebration in Trafalgar Square, celebrating the participation of disabled and hearing-impaired people in London’s culture. The festival provided a platform for Arteast to showcase their talent to a wide audience and build on their experience of creating a large outdoor sculpture. It provided a track record for future commissions and applications including High Street 2010 Application and the Lord Mayor’s show. A total of £500 profit was gained.

The Arteast group have the skills to facilitate workshops in contexts where they are in direct contact with members of the public.

‘ Sometimes I was drawing stuff, it was good fun…I liked all the stuff I did for it’ (Jane, Member)

‘I like to be messy and with the painting you get to be messy’ (Jim, member)

‘I liked doing the sawing, it was good. I liked doing the painting too’ (Khilam, Member)

TOOL BOX design bags

In January 2011, members began to develop new bag designs made with tool designs imprints. Members of Arteast members were involved in designing and making the new product line with a view to sale in May 2011. This project has strengthened members’ confidence and ability to work closely with other groups as the bag sewing was undertaken by the centre’s multicultural Wednesday sewing group. Members have designed 6 to 8 prototypes using a range of designs, colour schemes and materials and are planning to make 20 bags per month, selling at £15-20 per bag. Members are planning to display these designs at their Pop Up shop in May 2011 and products will feature on the two Arteast web pages:www.folksy.com and www.arteast.co.uk

‘It’s a good idea the way they’ve done it, it is clever’ (Tyson, Member)

The 5th May 5pm – 7pm sees the long-awaited launch of Flyover Arts www.flyoverarts.com

Arteast is producing a new line of Spring Collection bags featuring the Tool Box design motifs, come to the launch!

In March 2011 the Arteast Group went to Brighton, so that the group could have a day out and see the exhibition they had helped to organise. Here Belal, who had helped to stretch the canvases onto the stretchers, is pointing out one of the paintings he helped to get ready for presentation.

Educational Trips

Arteast takes every opportunity to develop individuals and foster team spirit by organising trips. In September 2010 the group went to Trinity Buoy Wharf to run an arts workshop creating a large banner for an Orchestral event at the site.

Yasmin has been coming to Artreast since 2009. The feed back from Yasmin suggests that she has enjoyed learning new skills such as silk screen printing and has helped deliver commissions sich as printing tablecloths for sale at Open Studios. Anne Marie, the art tutor remarks that she has a good eye for colour, she concentrates on her work and has made beautiful cards using coloured ink. Yasmin shows talent in her painting and art work.

‘I think printing is good fun; I do not go anywhere like Arteast and I like meeting people and love painting here.’

‘I feel more comfortable with a lot of people around me in the class than before, I feel like I can express my creativity at Arteast.’

Tyson is 25 years old and has been a member of the Arteast group for 4 years. Tyson enjoys working on some of Arteast’s challenging projects such as using his artistic and creative skills to develop the two Arteast webpage. He is currently working on pricing some of Arteast’s items for sale online. He is an active member of the group and among other things, has provided support for the second Rothchild show, and assisted in the designing of an Arteast pop up shop. Tyson is looking forward to some of Arteast’s upcoming events:

‘If we get funding from the Lord Mayor’s Show I would be excited about getting involved.’

In his spare time he enjoys media work and has a passion for music:

‘I’ve been DJ-ing since I was 19 and currently DJ-ing for the Bubble Club on a monthly basis. I got into the Bubble Club through my work on the painted banners that Arteast provided for them.’

‘I enjoy coming to Arteast’ and ‘I enjoy drawing designs’ for the group.