A Place to Call Home (2021-2022)

A Place to Call Home celebrated the creativity of 51 state and independent schools across the borough of Wandsworth, as they joined together to explore the subject of community.

The project was led by local artist Alexander Mourant, working with Wandsworth Council’s children’s services and arts service, and pupils from 51 local schools. Over 2,000 children were encouraged to reconnect with their sense of being part of their local community in response to the distance and isolation felt during the pandemic.

Pupils from years 5, 6 and 7 were provided with materials, lesson plans and workshops to encourage them to express themselves creatively. Each class produced an artwork panel, which formed part of a group installation exhibited in a unit generously donated by Southside Shopping Centre.

The exhibition was free and open to the public from Friday 5 to Friday 25 March 2022, 9.30am to 5pm each day including weekends. As well as viewing the work of the 51 participating schools, visitors could contribute to the exhibition by adding their own personal portraits, messages to the community and by adding words to the community word cloud.

A Place to Call Home was the first project delivered as part of a new collaborative partnership between the borough’s state and independent schools. The partnership makes creative and academic resources and opportunities open to all the borough’s young people, and enable teachers to share best practice, offer further opportunities for students to collaborate, and target high attaining pupils as well as those most in need of extra support. The aim is to make the partnership mutually beneficial for pupils, teachers and school leaders, with local hubs created to encourage communication and connections between schools.