Cultivate Create is a creative growing project for North Kensington families with a focus on wellbeing and emotional resilience. It provides a safe, non-judgmental space for families in which to be creative and connect to nature.
Since April 2022 families in North Kensington have been working with creative gardeners Romany Taylor and Mattie O’Callaghan to cultivate an edible garden and nurture the bio-diversity of ACAVA’s Maxilla Walk Studios yard and the adjoining Maxilla Forest School Garden. Connecting together art and nature, we have been running family-led sessions including gardening, natural dyeing, cooking with our harvests, drawing, painting, playing, making, crocheting, weaving, working with clay, sculpting, weaving and storytelling.
We have collaborated with Chelsea Physic Garden, Fulham Palace, The Westway Trust, Meanwhile Gardens, and The Nourish Hub.
Cultivate Create is a partnership with the NHS North Kensington Healthier Futures with support from Ernst & Young.
Stories from the families
Sat out in the garden together we talked through how Cultivate Create had impacted the families in terms of their connection to nature, their relationships, their creativity, their connections to others, and their hopes for the future.
