A small selection of work collected as part of the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities project will soon be on display at the Greenwich Tourist Information Centre. The project, which ran for over a year, was a participatory arts project that involved a variety of forms of engagement with residents and visitors to the borough to investigate the psychogeography of place. 

The work on display showcases some of the research materials collected alongside responses to the project created by participants during workshops hosted by the Avant-Gardeners. The exhibition will also spotlight the work of photgrapher, Jack Goffe, who photographed the wharves in East Greenwich at a time when the area begins a period of radical change. Limited edition prints of Jack's works are available for sale through the Greenwich Tourist Information Centre and a price list for the works is available here

Images collected from the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities exhibition will be on display at the Greenwich Tourist Information Centre at the Old Royal Naval College from Tuesday 26 February - Sunday 24 March.

Opening Hours 10am - 5pm

Address Pepys House, 2 Cutty Sark Gardens, London, SE10 9LW

The Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities 

Avant-Gardening exhibition/residency at Greenwich Heritage Centre

Tuesday 4 December 2012 - Friday 11 January 2013
Open Tuesday - Saturday 9am - 5pm(Closed 25 Dec, 26 Dec and 1 Jan)

How do you view the area where you live?

How do you respond to the history or of the area; its stories and anecdotes?

Have you got a tale to tell?

Artists’ collective Avant-Gardening has been out and about in the Royal Borough of Greenwich; talking to residents and visitors about their responses to the area for collation into a new mobile archive, the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities,  which is one of the centrepieces of an interactive exhibition/residency at the Greenwich Heritage Centre in Woolwich. 

Designed and built by designer Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities along with Greenwich Garden by designer/maker, Hilary Blackburn, will be focal points of an exhibition and programme of creative workshops and interactions which will add to the growing collection of materials being curated into the cabinet.

We will be showcasing a selection of work contributed by participants in various workshops around the borough and also encouraging visitors to add their own voices during our exhibition workshops which will see the contents of the cabinet expanded out into the gallery space to create a living archive that represents the personal responses of the community

During the residency at Greenwich Heritage Centre we will be curating a smaller version of the exhibition which will be on display at the Discover Greenwich Information Centre at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich during February 2013.

Workshops and activities will be programmed throughout the residency and to keep track of all activities you can download the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities app which will be live for the duration of the exhibition and give you regular updates on the activities and the work created by participants during the residency

The app is downloadable for Android from Google Apps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.avantgardening.android/>

An iOS app is available to download for iPhones by visiting this link: http://goo.gl/ngxNj

Workshops scheduled to date include:
Cabinet of Curiosities Fanzine workshop                                                                                                       Help the Avant-Gardeners to create one of the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities fanzines that will be produced and digitally distributed weekly throughout the exhibition. 

Tuesday 4th December 11am – 3pm

Wednesday 5th December 2pm - 5pm

Friday 7th December 2pm - 5pm

Thursday 13 December 10am - 1pm

Friday 4 January 10am - 1pm

Thursday 10 Jan 10am - 1pm

Winter lantern workshop                                                                                                                                    Join us making Greenwich related lanterns to light up the long winter nights. The lanterns will be part of the exhibition until 21st Dec when participants will be invited to join us to light up the longest night and take their lanterns home for the festive season

Wednesday 12th December 2pm - 5pm

Friday 21 December 2pm - 5pm

Download the app or visit our blog http://greenwichcuriosities.blogspot.co.uk/ for details of more workshops as they are confirmed

The Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities is supported by the National Lottery, through Arts Council England

The Greenwich Garden is a temporary space created for play, debate, gardening and social interaction that will spring into life between 25 July and 12 August 2012 when we will be offering a wide range of interactions and workshops ranging from kite making to seed ball production, gardening workshops to lantern making, fanzine production to natural dye workshops. We will also be hosting informal debates and salons in the garden and inviting local people to propose their manifesto for public spaces and a greener Greenwich. 
Located in an almost forgotten urban oasis and against a facade of Greenwich’s iconic buildings, designed and built by award-winning designer Hilary Blackburn, we invite you to join us and to become an integral part of the design and development of the space. As the residency progresses The Greenwich Garden will fill with colour as more community groups and local residents plant their miniature gardens which will be a repository of their hopes and aspirations for the future. The gardens created will, at the end of the residency, be donated to local community groups to enhance their green spaces and carry the wishes of the participants back into the community to create a legacy for the future
The Avant-Gardeners are currently planning a wide-ranging programme of activities and a full timetable will be available online shortly.

To keep up to date with all the latest news please keep an eye on the following websites

www.avantgardening.org

www.streamarts.org.uk

http://greenwicheast.blogspot.co.uk/

The Greenwich Garden is a collaboration between Avant-Gardening and Stream Arts and is made possible through funding from Awards For All and Arts Council, England. The work will be exhibited as part of City Noises, an EU funded exhibition that will be resident at  Area 12, Greenwich Peninsula between 25 July and 12 August 2012

Google Map link to site for The Greenwich Garden

Diamond Jubilee Weekend is undoubtedly THE weekend to shake out the picnic blanket and head to the local park. In Greenwich on Saturday 2 June 12.00 - 17.00 the place to be is the East Greenwich Pleasaunce where Avant-Gardening will be joining the party and collecting more stories for the Cabinet of Curiosities and launching our new community focussed summer project

For more details about Picnic in the Pleasaunce click here

The first stages of our project, The Place Where Plums Grow, which aims to bring a selection of fruiting trees back to the Woolwich Common and Plumstead Common areas of south London is featured in this weeks edition of Royal Greenwich Time

In the coming months we are looking for more community groups, businesses or schools that may be interested in being involved when we roll the project out in the autumn. We are shortly going to be inviting local business to sponsor a tree and get involved with their local community by supporting the planting of trees and the development of a rich community education programme that will look at the history and folklore of orchards. We will also be developing an education strand looking at the role of trees in supporting bio-diversity, caring for your orchard and collecting delicious recipes to enjoy the fruits of the community's work 

More information about The Place Where Plums Grow can be found on the project page

Time to take another look at the Royal Borough of Greenwich! We are running a programme of workshops across Greenwich to explore the local area to create materials for the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities. The workshops will be informal explorations of the borough where participants can join in mapping the borough, creating pages for the first of our fanzines celebrating the borough, have their tales recorded or just share a story or anecdote about the area. We would also love to see any photographs that people may have of the area or other artefacts that we could document for inclusion in the Greenwich Cabinet of Curiosities and the exhibition at the end of the year. All workshops are free and open to all

Greenwich Heritage Centre, Woolwich - Thursday 5 April 1pm - 4pm

Charlton House Cafe - Thursday  12th April 3pm - 5pm

West Greenwich Library Sat 14th April 1pm - 3pm

Greenwich Heritage Centre, Woolwich - Saturday 21 April 1pm - 4pm

Plumstead Library - Friday 27th April 3pm - 5pm

West Greenwich Library (as part of Adult Learners Week) - Thursday 17 May 3.45pm - 5pm

This Saturday, 19 March, join Avant-Gardener, Lara at the Barnfield Community Feast, where she will be planting and distributing seeds to grow in the community garden.

There will be plenty going on on the day, which is a celebration of the three years of Well London working on the estate. The feast will include a variety of stall from local organisations and community groups and there will be a talent show organised by BTEC Performing Arts students from Plumstead Manor/Negus School

Celebrating Barnfield and Long Walk Community Feast Event

Sat. 19 March, 12 - 5.30pm

Barnfield Estate, Barnfield Road, Woolwich. SE18 3HU

A new project page has been added for the Flowers in the Wood project. We are asking residents of the Flowers Estate in Abbey Wood to share their thoughts about the green and open spaces on the state and how / if any of these spaces could be utilised for food growing or to improve the bio-diversity of the area

The Avant Gardening map highlights where we are Avant Gardening

View Avant-Gardening in a larger map

Avant-Gardening have been commissioned by the Arts Council/Well London to run a programme of food and growing projects on the Barnfield Estate in Woolwich. Outreach sessions will begin in the spring with a full programme of community based events taking place in the publicworks designed Mobile Porch during the summer

More information will be available in the projects section shortly