We’re very excited to announce the launch of our new educators network ~ Lacuna ~ in collaboration with Turner Contemporary & Arts Education Exchange.

The network is aimed at teachers and educators across the region to share and develop their knowledge and approach to creative learning; underpinned by creativity, curiosity and critical thinking and making use of the cultural context of Thanet. 

We aim to invite an open dialogue across sectors and communities, building on the area’s rich tapestry of history and innovation to nurture a culture of learning. With our combined expertise, knowledge and resources in social practice, education and access we want to open up opportunity, discourse and practice.

Upcoming events:

Lacuna 4:

Join Open School East Artistic Director Polly Brannan & Super Slow Way Director, Laurie Peake for the fourth Lacuna session that considers the Artist’s Role in Society, exploring the question:

What happens when artists are embedded and working with & not for local communities?

Please find dates & timings for the session below – if you would like to attend please use the button below to reserve a free ticket:

Date: Wednesday 26 April 2023

Time: 5.00pm – 7.00pm

Venue: Turner Contemporary

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Through the session, Laurie Peake will present two key innovative social practice models & artworks that have become some of the most significant social practice works in the UK today which include Jeanne van Heeswijk’s 2up2down (Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial) which created the Community Land Trust and bakery, Homebaked, in Liverpool, where the community took matters into their own hands to re-imagine and reclaim their homes. Also, US artist and pioneer of public art and socially engaged practice, Suzanne Lacy’s Shapes of Water, Sounds of Hope (commissioned by Super Slow Way) that looks at how a post industrial town comes together in extraordinary ways, over 3 years to create a mass participation artwork at Brierfield Mill, Pendle. We will explore communities & young people’s perception of where they live & what change they can make, carving out their own future, on their own terms.

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Laurie Peake is a curator who works with artists to help people transform their own neighbourhoods in projects such as Suzanne Lacy’s Shapes of Water, Sounds of Hope in Pendle, UK and Jeanne Van Heeswijk’s 2Up 2Down in Liverpool, UK. She is currently Director of Super Slow Way, a cultural development organisation which is one of Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programmes, located along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal corridor in East Lancashire.Previously, Laurie was Programme Director at Liverpool Biennial for 10 years, where she developed strategic partnerships to deliver temporary and permanent commissions with international artists in public spaces across Merseyside. Projects such as Antony Gormley’s Another Place on Crosby Beach, Jaume Plensa’s Dream and Jeanne Van Heeswijk’s 2Up2Down which created the Community Land Trust and bakery, Homebaked, in Liverpool, were all notable for their transformative effects.