Description

ACAVA (Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art) is an educational charity founded over forty years ago. We are one of the largest artists' studio providers in the UK, with a portfolio of 20 buildings, supporting over 500 artists in London, Essex and Stoke-on-Trent.

Our purpose is to promote education in the arts and culture by working with communities and artists in ways that are socially inclusive. To deliver our mission, we collaborate with numerous partners, including: artists; galleries; schools; HEIs; the NHS; local authorities; trusts and foundations and statutory funders. We offer complementary programmes, including: professional development; artistic commissions; exhibitions; artist-led projects; curatorial development; open studios; talks; workshops; placemaking consultancy and long term participatory arts programmes.

ACAVA is a pioneer of art in the community. Delivering arts in health and wellbeing settings has been a core strand of our work for over thirty years. We aim to achieve sustainable life-long opportunities for people to engage, create, and benefit from high quality arts and cultural experiences.

We have operated from our studios and community workshop in North Kensington for 20 years, during which time we have built long lasting and trusted partnerships within the local community. Located adjacent to Grenfell Tower, since the devastating fire in June 2017, we have worked closely with local people, third sector and voluntary organisations to support the recovery of those impacted by the fire.

The C-19 pandemic has compounded the effects of displacement and trauma already being experienced by local people, and we have been commended for continuing to deliver programmes co-designed with local people throughout. These include the acclaimed Grenfell Memorial Mosaic, the NHS North Kensington Recovery programme funded Maxilla Men’s Shed, and Young Artists, a new initiative for local primary aged children, selected for funding by local people via the Grenfell Projects Fund.

Location