My experiences of art and culture in Sweden have always been genuinely rich. The Swedish way of life includes culture and heritage everyday. From simple home design, to extraordinary happenings on the streets, to events in diverse areas and international exhibits. Lets take a quick dive into Swedish life with some Street Art, Home Design and Svenska London. In june 2015 I took a day trip to a small town outside of Gothenburg one day with a couple of friends. On the advice that there was some beautiful street art PLUS amazing fika and vintage clothes shops - this place did not disapoint!  At the time i was working on a street art programme in Romford and this city had decided a year prior that they would regenerate their town through art and culture starting with a ‘painted town’ festival called ‘No Limits’ where a couple of new large-scale international artworks would be erected in the town every year until the artworks became a tourist destination themselves. Something, ten years ...

  Why Festivals?      Speaking anthropologically, festivals exist for religious reasons, celebrating gods together as offerings and possibly displaying our collective obedience and love to those above – but over centuries the idea of a festival has transcended into celebrations of our united consciousnesses and cultures. A way to bring us together without defining who has a seat at the celebration table.     If you remember your junior school history projects, you may remember that in Ancient Greece, celebrations of art culture, music and theatre were commonplace, of course, always in line with celebrating a God (although, I would question whether that was just an early day political PR tool) and from this you could say that music festivals easily derived from this model of ‘Koilon (or Theatron)’.     A lot like the Milton Keynes Bowl that hosted the UK’s first outing and live recording of Greenday’s ‘American Idiot’ album – the Theatron...

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...

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...

Nicholas Joubinaux and Tim Ridley have been chosen to travel to Azerbaijan from the UK in April 2019 to create new art works in reaction to links between the two countries. A live crescendo of the three year long ‘InAzerbaijan’ project, audiences in both countries will celebrate these artist’s photographs, drawing and paintings in exhibitions in both capitals.  Joubinaux will display artworks from London and Baku in both digital and hand printed format, showcasing culture and architecture in both cities. Ridley will be presenting miniatures created in oil and with similarity in style to Azerbaijani and Persian miniatures.  The first exhibition will be held on Thursday 11th April at ‘Floors, the living space’ in Baku. The archive of works will also be preserved on the ‘InAzerbaijan’ educational website for years to come for young audiences to see.  “Im excited to capture the capital, Baku, which I hear has delightful spectacle and scenery”   Nick Joubinaux The In...

Namaz Kerimov   Most people around us think that politics are not related to our everyday life. In some opinions it is related only to politicians, businesses, political parties and government institutions. But unfortunately sometimes we do not understand that it is about life and it affects all of us. Society changes according to politics. It is hard to know sometimes how our life has changed until we stop for a moment and look at how different it is from ten or even five years ago. Think of our country today and 15 years ago. We’ve all heard a reference to how women never used to wear short dresses or have cell phones or even that so many bars were open to the public. Local people have changed in correlation with the government changing and new European values bringing new styles to our society. These values are imposed on us, especially the generation now that knows nothing but this. Politics has shaped us and changed us, not as individuals but as a society. Right now I liv...

Name:  Charlotte  Age: 18  Hometown: Romford, England  As a member of a society that relies on laws and regulations made by a single government, politicians and their policies have a great influence on my life. At this moment in time various political debates are going on throughout the world which will impact people’s lives. The one that will seemingly have the greatest impact on England itself is the vote to leave the European Union. I know little of what the outcome of this vote to leave will be. And it seems that during the debates conversations were more of a grudge match between Boris Johnson and David Cameron than a discussion of our future. There seemed to be both pros and cons of leaving the European Union and although they are constantly reported in the media I still only know for a fact that when we leave the European Union in 2019 things will change. Although I do not live In America it is the USA elections that recently sparked my interest. I payed close...

 Kamran Azizli  Azerbaijan enjoyed the boost of huge oil revenues for a full decade after the 1,760-kilometer-long (about 1,100 miles) Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline began operating in 2005. However the low price of oil has hurt the Azerbaijani economy particularly badly. Throughout 2016, almost all of Azerbaijan’s economic indicators have been on a downward curve. Oil export rates have fallen. But now, Azerbaijan is entering a new historical phase. The oil boom which boosted the economy has ended. The end of Azerbaijan’s energy boom requires economic reforms. Statistics and forecasters give optimistic prediction about the future of economy in the country. Future development plans are mainly focused on the development of non-oil sector considering the natural resources of the country. The future perspectives of economy are tourism, agriculture, and IT field for development beside oil and gas industry in the next 20 years. Tourism Tourism industry is crucial for diversifica...

Name:  Charlotte  Age: 18  Hometown: Romford, England  The ultimate future for the British economy is uncertain, very uncertain. Having crawled out the recession by the skin of our teeth an even larger money monster is crawling out of the sewers, of course I’m talking about Brexit. Unfortunately I missed the Brexit vote by a year or so meaning that I had no say in the matter but knowing what I do now all I can comment on is there seems to be a rocky path ahead for the British economy and by rocky I mean Brighton beach type of rocky. Now you may have noticed me using a lot of analogies and metaphors and that is for a reason because I am uncertain as to how to continue talking about the economic future brexit may bring because I just don’t know. Whereas there have been promises for great economic prosperity advertised on the side of a bus it is almost certain that none of that will come into fruition. Instead it is likely that we will be stuck in a form of purgatory fo...