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 ...

  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 ...

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...

Today, Natalie, co-founder of The NO Collective was invited to speak in an international conference facilitated by The Council on State Support to NGO's under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (CSSN). The conference,  "Coronavirus Solidarity, International Experience" was attended by over 120 participants which represented NGO's across post soviet countries and invited political guests.  Guest Speakers included Professor Ilyas Topsakal on behalf of Istanbul University, Yekaterina Alekseeva, a member of the Russian Federations Civic Chamber, Jedrzej Chodzinski, a member of Krakow City Council, Ajna Dizdarevic from the EU's youth parliament and other key members of society from 10 different countries.  The conversation, led by CSSN's Nargiz Khalaf ranged from mutual problems in civil society caused by the pandemic, singular problems associated with the speed of infection within individual countries and optimistic happenings of internati...

Romford Recorder - Hayley Anderson  The NO Collective based in Romford ventured near Czech Republic’s capital city Prague for a seven day workshop for a funded trip to learn tools and methods to teach young people how to cope in a world of fake news and social media overload. The seminar, funded by the Erasmus+ programme, featured participants from eight different countries, including Denmark, Romania, Poland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain and Portugal. During the trip, the three person UK delegation, (represented by the Havering team), were not only taught by industry professionals in critical thinking and signs of fake news, but were also tasked with talking about the country’s social media cultures. Member of The NO Collective Hannah Wilkes said: “Children use the internet and social media from such a young age nowadays, it is important for us to be able to tell them how to know what is true and untrue online. “It was also inspiring to speak to people from different cultures an...

The NO Collective based in Romford ventured near Czech Republic’s capital city Prague for a seven day workshop for a funded trip to learn tools and methods to teach young people how to cope in a world of fake news and social media overload. The seminar, funded by the Erasmus+ programme, featured participants from eight different countries, including Denmark, Romania, Poland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain and Portugal. During the trip, the three person UK delegation, (represented by the Havering team), were not only taught by industry professionals in critical thinking and signs of fake news, but were also tasked with talking about the country’s social media cultures. Member of The NO Collective Hannah Wilkes said: “Children use the internet and social media from such a young age nowadays, it is important for us to be able to tell them how to know what is true and untrue online. “It was also inspiring to speak to people from different cultures and backgrounds about their exp...

NO are to appear in a film placed on the front page of the Brick Community website.   After participating in 3 seminars with BRICK, a european funded project to highlight issues within building communities in Europe. NO participated in a final workshop creating information and resources for the dedicated project website. The film on the website will feature testimonials from both Natalie and Joe about thier experience of the seminars.   Filmed beutifully in scenic Finland, the piece will hopefully give those who visit the website an insight into what all of us have been doing over the past year.   Please also check out the website for photo's, articles and free downloadable resources to share with your own home communities.   www.brickeurope.org