Given the increase of natural disasters in places such as Australia, Asia and more recently the South of Europe as well as the overall 'weird' weather that the UK has been facing in the past months (i.e, the supposed tornado of London from a few weeks back), now more than ever are people aware of climate change and the need to stop it.  But how can we? That is the average human being. The main perpetrators of excessive emissions of greenhouse gases is not the average person but large corporations. With certain billionaires at the helm of these corporations, who place a thrill ride to space over saving the planet, it seems that our plea to prevent the earth dying is being ignored by those who have the most power to stop climate change.  Whilst things look bleak on this front there is still much that we as individuals can do to prevent even the smallest amount of harm being done to our planet. Importantly if we, the average human beings, all chip in as much as we can, we ...

Press Release: 20 November 2020   Illusionarium, the Havering festival of illusion and light will return for 2021 and there is up to £3,000 available for commissions in Romford Town Centre! Romford BID, Havering Changing and The Mercury Shopping centre have joined forces to support a festival for the borough in January, come rain or shine and they are asking local businesses and residents to be part of the fun.   The first opportunity in the build up to the event includes the opportunity to create a public artwork to be displayed as part of a family trail in Romford TownCentre, and the festival team are urging local businesses and creatives to apply.   “A light festival is a great opportunity to celebrate during the dark months of January and February and we would love to see as many local people and businesses to get involved as possible. We know that we have a huge community spirit in Romford and Havering and would like to help make that truly grow in the new year!” say...

It’s been bubbling up in the background for a while, but we can finally announce the creation of a ‘brand-spanking-new’ social artists network in Havering ! Created by the self-proclaimed-uber-social local collectives Brennan and Burch, Bluerskies Mindful Creatives & The NO Collective. Our first socially distanced gathering will be in two weeks where we will watch some short films at The Romford Film Festival and have a chat! Simple but effective! Wednesday 18 August 5:45pm (films start at 6pm) to 8:30pm Premiere Cinemas The Mercury Shopping Centre Mercury Gardens Romford RM1 3EE We have been craving a creative network locally for a long time, and hopefully we will do our local artists justice. Booking is essential, but payment is not! For now our network will be ran voluntarily, and we will always do our best to keep it cheap and cheerful! Especially considering our creative economy at present! You can find more about YAYmates in our community page on our website click HERE #com...

Natalie, our co-founder was interviewed as an Alumni of NCC Havering Colleges - now the largest further education institution in East London! The NO Collective work with NCC Havering Colleges regularly finding work experience placements for creative students (of which generally placements are lacking!)  the work placement team are hugely passionate and caring and we always feel it is right to help out where we can in helping the educators who educated us! Hopefully this interview along with dozens of 'where are they now' pages will help to inspire young adults to find the right path for them! In the interview she outlines what she loved about college and how to progress your career in an organic and passionate way! “I found my calling when I was at the college and I truly found my independence. Up to this point I had followed the average academic path through GCSEs and A Levels, but college was a very different place that gave me passion for what I was doing and taught me that ...

Thank you to everyone who has so far logged into view our 'Digital Decapod Exhibition' - celebrating our members work and ten years of our humble collective.  "launched on 01/07/2020, our organisation's 10th anniversary, Digital Decapod is the first virtual exhibition curated by The NO Collective. Named after the family of multi-legged crustaceans, this group exhibition is celebratory of it's members strength in individual practise and stability in shared ethos. Our members bring huge support to the organisation's endeavours ,and in their combined sterength, continued momentum and dedication to creative practice, we are continually proud" - Natalie Bays, co-founder The NO Collective We also had our very first 'Private Zoom' as a collective where we spoke about the work exhibited, the collective's jouney over the past ten years and also the upcoming activities that NO are producing.  The Exhibition includes works from: anika manuel // char...

On June 17th, Natalie, our co-founder and MD was asked to host an international conference on the importance of cultural regeneration and creativity in public spaces. Organised by OCA Magazine and The Eurasian Creative Guild, 11 countries were represented in the call with over 25 participants joining to speak about their work and to gain inspiration for post-COVID-19 projects from each other. The main discussion points meandered around how although artists are innately flexible to their working conditions, our inspiration within public art is the positive change for its audience (the people) and members of the public should be central in reviving a creative presence in towns and cities around the world. Whether this be by online discussions, postal activities or socially distanced gatherings, the people are the beating heart of the city and there is duplicative and catalysing power between residents and artists working together. You can watch the full conversation at ‘ECG TV’ the offic...

As part of The Mercury Romford’s programme of events engaging people with autism and additional sensory needs, we were invited to perform as Edwardians to create a story time experience with Beatrix Potter. Set in an English Country Garden, children could also explore the link between drawing, storytelling and the joy of animals with some specific worksheets for all ages.

IN AZERBAIJAN, the first web portal about Azerbaijan in the UK, was launched on Friday at The Embassy of Azerbaijan. Created by The NO Collective (UK) and supported by CSSN Azerbaijan the portal was demonstrated to the pleasure of educators, youth groups and the Azerbaijani community.  Addressing a plethora of special guests, the First Secretary of State, Polad Mammadov, commended the project for its special purpose, “[by] aiming to educate school age children.. projects like this will help us to facilitate and strengthen the people to people connections of both of our countries”.  Described as a “wonderful gift” he continued to describe the importance of the timing of this project, launched as Azerbaijan celebrates it’s 25th year of independence.  Attendees of the launch included young creators of the website and its content from the social enterprise, The NO Collective. Natalie, a co-founder of the collective celebrated the professionalism of all of those who have worke...

Why REACT? For what reason do things need to change? Celebrating our ‘reaction’ questions our need for a process. When revolutionaries, artists, politicians and the public have been fighting for so long to create social change, what is left in our world worth changing? Are our #FirstWorldProblems worth complaining about?  Freedom In Speech is a word based event inviting creative's from a range of specialism's to come together to celebrate our use of language, and the power of words. Set in R-CAP's alternative exhibition environment - surrounded by socially engaged artworks, this event will bring together, spoken word / performance / speech / dance and music to celebrate the journey of the means to our ends. FREEDOM.  Freedom In Speech Itinerary: 7:30 – 8:00 (come in with music & Projections: Chomsky) Part 1: 7:50pm – Short introduction 8:00pm - Denise Mortimer: Fabulousness Speech : 20 minutes 8:20pm - Joe Abel: Reading: 10 minutes 8:30pm - NO Collective: Performance pi...

he NO Collective opened the Romford Arts Festival 2013 with a special ‘fact- checking tour guide’ performance leading audiences from The Brentwood Road Gallery to the launch party in central Romford: “Moving on from the Lupa ‘Culture Capital of Romford’ series, NO continue to explore the identity of this micro-culture with an investigation to the history and traditions of the market town. Working in collaboration with the marketing prospect of the cultural resonance of the town, the culture crawl incorporates the findings of the Lupa investigation with a new avenue of historical value and its relevance within culture, and within, specifically, this town.” Starting at the gallery with an informal briefing on the ‘crawl’ NO took the local art world to familiar places inviting them to listen to a mix of truths about the history of the town. (It was important that the audience is a local community as they will NOT take facts given to them at face value). The interest in mixing truths inves...

A performance e xploring adverse changes and public participation within a towns planning iniciative. Slide 1   …So as you can see, if we increase the build around flagship points such the Quadrant Arcade, this will positively affect the local area’s consumption rate – increasing economic growth and eventually pushing house prices upwards – increasing the average mans asset and capital. Without this much needed change, the local town becomes stagnant – and with the local council’s intention of turning the Old Romford Market Town into a metropolis, we can establish much needed foreign business and a more concentrated town centre, encouraging a fireball of capital intrinsic business from Central London and in turn pocketing those middle class shoppers. Also within creating these much-needed 8,000 new homes in the historic town centre, we can create an interesting skyline with blocks ranging from 14 to 26 stories.  There are even thoughts in the pipe line of commissioning a Gugge...