Channel is Somerset House’s new curated online space for art, ideas and the artistic process.
Schedule:
Workshop 1: Saturday 29 March 2025; 12.30-16.00
Workshop 2: Saturday 5 April 2025; 12.30-16.00
Workshop 3: Saturday 12 April 2025; 12.30-16.00
Location: Makerversity, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
Cost: This programme is free to attend. Travel expenses of up to £15 per day will be covered and lunch will be provided.
Application Deadline: Friday 21 February 2025
Shanti Bell is a multidisciplinary artist based in London creating experiential sculpture. Her practice explores the relationship and overlap of sculpture and the human form by creating interactive, immersive, and wearable work. Through her work, she looks to creatively navigate emotions, delve into the intricacies of human connections, and explore the ever-evolving dynamics of family and personal relationships. Bell’s experiential sculpture invites audiences to connect, question, and reflect and seeks to offer viewers an opportunity to discover a piece of themselves within sculptures, that speak on shared existences.
Shanti Bell completed an MA in Fashion at the Royal College of Art where she was generously supported with a scholarship from the RCA and the British Fashion Council. Before this she attended Central Saint Martins where she studied Fashion: Print. Bell’s past works have seen her collaborate with diverse creatives and platforms such as BOLD Agency & Somerset House, Wayne McGregor & The Royal Opera House, Netflix & The British Fashion Council, and The Design Museum. She has been featured in publications like Vogue, System Magazine, 1 Granary, and AnOther Magazine. Most recently, Bell had a solo show titled The Room that Shared, with the curatorial platform MAMA, and was awarded the Black British Artist Grant by Samuel Ross, which supported the development of this project.
Antoinette Vandy is the CEO of AGREKA Build, a company revolutionising the construction industry by transforming agricultural crop waste into sustainable building materials. Based at Makerversity, Antoinette leads the development of WHEATEX, an innovative insulation material that embodies circular economy principles and aims to decarbonise the built environment.
With over a decade of experience in architecture, regenerative design, and design-led research, Antoinette has worked with global organisations on sustainability and urban development projects. She contributed to Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy’s sustainability strategy in the Champagne region, consulted with The Crown Estate on city development in Cambridge, and advised the German Senate on high-density, mixed-use developments.
Antoinette’s commitment to community-led regenerative design has seen her commissioned by E.On energy company, the Goethe-Institut Nigeria, and The Africa Centre in London. She has delivered impactful projects through films, installations, and workshops across cities such as London, Lagos, Kano and Berlin.
Her work has earned her notable recognition, including the LVMH MaisonZero Award for ‘Regenerative Luxury,’ the MullenLowe Group Award for ‘Fresh Creative Talent,’ and a commendation from Lord Norman Foster for the RIBA Travelling Prize.
Through AGREKA BUILD, Antoinette combines her expertise in design, sustainability, and innovation to create transformative solutions for a net-zero future.
Cassie Quinn is the founder of CQ Studio, an award-winning regenerative textile lab, a graduate of the MA Biodesign and a PhD Candidate in regenerative systems cleaning textile wastewater using algae at Central Saint Martin’s Living System Lab. Her work combines traditional textile skills with novel biomaterial research. CQ Studio conducts R&D of regenerative, local textiles and utilises waste to create new materials and systems of production including using mushrooms to clean wastewater to make plastic-free bio-embellishments (this is currently patent-pending). She uses various techniques from hand-embroidery, biomaterial exploration, regenerative design and plant pigment extraction to create her work. Her work has been presented at exhibitions and showcases including Wallpaper* Magazine, Future Fabrics Expo and the IUCN World Congress with LVMH.
Alongside the research of innovative materials, she delivers workshops as part of the Sustainable Fashion Factory series for organisations such as Soho House, Victoria and Albert Museum and Prince’s Trust. She has also been awarded accolades for her work including the prestigious Innovate UK: Young Innovator Award Winner 2022/3, EU Commission Worth II Partnership Project, and Mayor’s Entrepreneur Awards for Creative Industries
What will I be doing on the Programme?
This programme is a series of three practical workshops, each exploring design, research, practice and regeneration through a unique practice.
Workshop 1, led by Shanti Bell: Saturday 29 March 2025; 12.30pm-4pm
Build a Wall Workshop: Creatively breaking down and overcoming boundaries through sculpture
What is your story? This workshop will guide you to develop and produce visual ideas and outcomes that express your narrative and journey. Referencing The Great Salt Hedge and the visual barrier it represented, this workshop will touch on the themes of identity and overcoming the barriers we can face as creatives and seek for you to break down these boundaries and challenge them creatively and sculpturally.
- Introduction: Taking references from the Salt Hedge exhibition a group discussion and visual mind mapping on the themes of narratives, identity and overcoming barriers
- Demonstration: Exploring different ways you can work within physical barriers and creative limitations to create innovative expressions of your personal narratives that push the boundaries of materials
- Hands-On Activity: Leading from this working with wood offcuts to create small-scale 3D sculptural walls that are expressive of a barrier you have had to overcome
- Discussion: Reflect on all outcomes, through a visual gallery-style presentation of the wall sculptures
Workshop 2, led by Cassie Quinn: Saturday 5 April 2025; 12.30pm-4pm
Making Flags Workshop: Using block printing techniques with botanical dyes
This workshop will allow participants to learn how to blend contextual identities and heritage with the practical craft of block-printing. Using the histories and heritage behind botanicals and the process of natural dyes, participants will be able to experiment and create their own unique, symbolic flag.
- Introduction: With reference to the Salt Cosmologies and SOIL exhibitions, group discussion around identity and heritage followed by exploration and discussion of the botanical colours used in the workshop, where they are sourced and their historical significance
- Demonstration: Exploration of symbolism and motif-making in flag making and techniques for mark-making and design creation
- Hands-On Activity: Making the blocks to print personal motif design, printing and finalising the design
- Closing: Discussion and group sharing
Workshop 3, led by Antoinette Oni: Saturday 12 April 2025; 12.30pm-4pm
Straw Marquetry Workshop: Crafting Ecology and History
This workshop explores straw marquetry as a sustainable craft while reflecting on Somerset House’s colonial past and its environmental impact. Participants will transform wheat straw (the UK's most abundant crop waste) into art, learn about biomaterials, and explore themes of ecological and community restoration. A film on the invasive plant species, the common water hyacinth, will be screened; complementing this hands-on experience and conversation.
- Introduction: Overview of straw marquetry, sustainability, and historical context.
- Film Screening: Short film on invasive species and environmental entanglements.
- Demonstration: Techniques for preparing and crafting with straw.
- Hands-On Activity: Create personal marquetry pieces.
- Discussion: Reflect on themes of identity, ecology, and restoration.
- Closing: Showcase participants’ work and group feedback
What experience do I need?
This entry level programme is designed for motivated individuals with an interest in textiles, design, craft and science. You should be happy to contribute to creative discussions and work with others, open to trying new things with a desire to explore your own creative process. We don’t ask for any prior experience, but when applying, it’s important that you can demonstrate an interest in exploring creativity through making.
Who can apply?
This opportunity is for young people ages 18-25 who are interested in textiles, design, craft and science. This programme will prioritise people from underrepresented backgrounds*.
Please note, it is important that you can attend all 3 days of the project. Applicants must be able to travel to Somerset House in Central London daily. Please look at the ‘what does attendance cost’ tab below for details about travel expenses.
*The Inclusive Talent Engagement team at Somerset House acknowledges that particular people are underrepresented in the creative sector. Particularly those who identify as:
- Ethnically diverse and/or Global Majority
- Living with a disability
- Working class and/or from a lower socio-economic background**
- LGBTQIA+ and/or non-binary
We also acknowledge that people face barriers in many ways not mentioned above, including:
- Affected by a long-term health condition or impairment
- Affected by homelessness
- Care-leaver/carer
- Unemployed and/or have received welfare benefits
- Migrant or refugee status
**Fair access to working in the arts remains one of the most urgent issues facing the sector today, with those from lower socio-economic backgrounds still vastly underrepresented amongst the artists and employees of UK theatres, festivals, galleries and arts organisations of all kinds. Our team has drawn from Jerwood Arts’ ‘SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN THE ARTS A TOOLKIT FOR EMPLOYERS’ to define how to determine who falls into this category. We acknowledge this needs work and often, things aren’t always black and white, for now this is the framework we are using to determine this;
Some questions that might help define lower socio-economic background:
1.Type of school attended at age 11-16
2 Were you eligible for Free School Meals (FSM)
3 Did your parents go to university?
4 Parents occupation when you were aged 14
5. Did your parents receive income benefits for a long period?
6. Were your parents unemployed either for long periods of time or intermittently?
What does attendance cost?
The week is free of charge to participants. Reasonable travel expenses of up to £15 per day will be covered and lunch will be provided. These are the ways that we can support your travel to and from Somerset House:
- Pre-book your train tickets to a London station (maximum £15 per day)
- Purchase a 1-week travel card
- Loan a pre-topped up Oyster Card
- Help you to plan your journey to and from Somerset House
- We are not able to reimburse travel costs and can only buy tickets in advance on your behalf.
About Upgrade Yourself
Upgrade Yourself is Somerset House's creative skills programme aimed at deepening and widening engagement. Managed by the Inclusive Talent Engagement team, the Upgrade Yourself programme exists to break down barriers and build confidence for underrepresented, aspiring creatives aged 16-30.
Using the creative community at Somerset House and beyond as a resource, our programmes provide emerging talent access to skills, experiences and progression routes to pursue careers in the creative sector.
About Makerversity
Makerversity is a pioneering community of over 300 world-leading entrepreneurs, creators and innovators. Member companies work at the intersection of design, engineering and digital practice, developing ground-breaking solutions for the world’s biggest societal challenges, including climate change, health and inequality. Makerversity supports these early-stage teams with specialist prototyping facilities, affordable workspace, and a business support platform.
Makerversity’s ethos is to ensure all creative talent is included in exciting careers. Makerversity offers two free residencies, Makers with a Mission and Under 25s, enabling those at the beginning of their journey, or without the means to participate, to access opportunity. In addition, Makerversity members provide training for young people through innovative learning programmes. Based at Somerset House, London’s working arts centre, Makerversity members are redefining our future.
Website
Access
The workshops will take place in Makerversity, in the New Wing at Somerset House. The space is on the basement floor and accessible to wheelchair users. There is an accessible toilet close by. Full details about accessibility at Somerset House are here.
If you require additional support to take part in this programme, please let us know in your application.
To apply for this opportunity, please submit an application via this form:
We are happy to accept applications in a format that suits you. If you would prefer to submit your application as a video (max. 5 minutes) or voice note (max. 5 minutes), please submit your recording to engagement@somersethouse.org.uk or via whatsapp to Sophie @ +44 (0) 7774 048 882
Large Format of application form
The Salt Stair restoration and associated programming has been made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.
