Despacito Art School with Aaron McKay and Thom Eagle

16 + 17 April 2026
10am-3pm
Open School East

OSE Community Gardener Aaron McKay and Chef Thom Eagle joined Despacito in April to explore sculpture, mark-making and photography using organic and foraged materials. Over two days Despacito made a collaborative hapa zome print and large-scale branch weaving, as well as their own cabbage leaf quills, organic photo chemicals, natural dyes and sauerkraut.

Art Materials from Nature builds upon work undertaken by Despacito with artist Jason Evans as part of the project Garden Art at Garden Gate (2022). With Aaron and Thom we shifted our focus to explore hyper-local green spaces and materials that neighbour us in Cliftonville West. 

Aaron is a trained Forest School teacher and worked with Despacito last February to sow the seeds of our community allotment planters, which are hosted at Civic Partner Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden. This April he rejoined Despacito to make intricate printed surfaces, wooden sculptures and jewellery out of used green waste from local gardens. Forest School techniques introduced to Despacito by Aaron centred child-led learning and material investigations, as well as ambitious and collaborative working with hand tools at a variety of scales. 

With Thom, Despacito took red cabbage as their starting point, gradually dissembling the high-pigment vegetable as the workshop progressed. Here, Thom shared recipes for low-cost ferments and pickles through hands-on demonstrations, and taught Despacito how to make low environmental impact inks and photochemicals. 

Workshops were supported by 1-1 Support Facilitators Detchema Baptiste and Lily Dent.

Aaron McKay is a gardener and Forest School teacher based in Ramsgate, Kent, with a specialism in child-led and outdoor learning. Aaron oversees OSE’s allotment planters at Ethel-Athel Alleway Garden. He has previously worked with grassroots, neurodivergent play charity See Me Play at The Garden Gate Project, and with Open School East’s Despacito Art School as part of the programme cycle Home is where the garden is.

Thom Eagle is an award-winning author and cook. His first book First, Catch: Study of a Spring Meal was awarded Best Debut Food Book by Fortnum & Mason in 2019, nominated for an Andre Simon, and named one of the best food books of the year by The Times and The BBC Food Programme. He is currently based in Kent where he writes, grows vegetables, and teaches classes on pickling, fermenting, curing and foraging. 

This workshop is part of Open School East’s 2024-26 thematic cycle Home is where the garden is –  find out more here: openschooleast.org/home-is