Culture at home

I’ve been struck by the creative ways people and organisations are bringing us art and culture in the ongoing lockdown.

Goldsmiths’ local education partners are sharing some great online resources.

The Horniman Museum has been sharing videos from their Schools Team to support families with the challenges of home learning. Each edition of their Home Education series explores different objects from the Museum’s fascinating collections.

The famous Walrus at south east London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens

And the excellent Migration Museum – newly installed in their home in Lewisham Shopping Centre when lockdown measures began – has a range of online resources on offer which are well worth exploring. Their 100 Images of Migration gallery includes striking amateur and professional photos exploring what migration means to people across the UK.

Images from Goldsmiths CCA creative learning project, DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP

I was delighted to see that Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art is offering people a chance to enjoy art online, including through CCA Streams, a seven-week programme of online film aiming to help keep us engaged with artists’ ideas at this time.

The gallery is also running DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP – a new initiative to support creative learning at home. Weekly posts on their Instagram account suggest creative tasks you can do at home with everyday materials.

And Goldsmiths researchers are sharing thoughtful content on how we might use this time in lockdown. Rose Sinclair, Lecturer in Design at Goldsmiths, is using some of her time at home to re-look at objects she owns and share the stories behind them. She encourages us all to look again at the objects we’ve collected in our homes to rediscover their heritage and life.

It’s great to see how people are continuing to adapt – and help others adapt – to this difficult and unprecedented period. I hope that those of us in a position to explore content like this can learn and find some joy here.