EVENT DETAILS
Workshop
16 May 2025,VENUE INFORMATION
Royal College of Art
RCA DesignBar, Dyson Building, 1 Hester Road
SW11 4AN
RCA Well-Making Café
BOOKING INFORMATION
See times, booking instructions and workshop descriptions in 'About' section below.The RCA’s Applied Arts students host a pop-up ‘Well-Making Café’ in the College’s DesignBar space in Battersea. With workshops ranging from rope making to mandala weaving, the café is a place to craft and connect as a way to improve mental health and wellbeing.
About
The RCA hosts a pop-up ‘Well-Making Café’ in their DesignBar space in Battersea. The café is a place to craft and connect, celebrating the diversity of backgrounds and concerns of RCA Applied Art students and inviting visitors to take part in craft-making as a way to improve mental health and wellbeing.
Workshops include:
– Rope Making with Plants (led by Anna Matthew) 11.30-3pm drop in booking not required
– Listening Through Clay (led by Annabelle Hall) 12-12.30pm, 1-1.30pm booking required via email community@rca.ac.uk
– Monument to the Future that Never Was (led by Evguenia Ignatenko) 11.30-3pm drop in booking not required
– The Wonders of Mandala Weaving (led by Xue Yang) 11.30 – 1pm, 1.30-3pm booking required via email community@rca.ac.uk
– Mexican Molcajete Pinch Bowl Workshop (led by Mar Villegas) 11.30-3pm drop in booking not required
Well-Making is applied and engaged research that involves working collaboratively and creatively with partners, participants and community groups.* It encourages reflection and close attention to the processes, places, people and materials involved in collective making.
The 2023 Creative Health Review, published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing and the National Centre for Creative Health, characterises creative health as employing creative methods and activities to enhance health and wellbeing. Creative health contributes to illness prevention, promotes healthy habits, supports the management of chronic conditions and aids in treatment and recovery throughout life.
The Well-Making Café activities are being organised by staff and students from the Applied Arts department at the Royal College of Art. This encompasses students and staff from MA Jewellery & Metal and MA Ceramics & Glass.
*Hackney, F., Rana, M., Gant, N., & Hill, K., (2022) Guest Editorial In. Well-Making and Making-Well: Craft, Design and Everyday Creativity for Health and Well-Being. Special issue for the Journal of Applied Arts and Health. Intellect, p. 283 – 290 https://doi.org/10.1386/jaah_00111_2
