Home is where the garden is - Civic Programme

Home is where the garden is was our programme cycle for 2024-26. This cycle invited artists and community members to collaborate in exploring the evolving and rhizomatic threads that connect our shared civic spaces, through a series of artistic commissions, collaborative projects, public workshops, and community initiatives.

This programme cycle inaugurated our new Civic Programme, which puts community knowledge, expertise and skill at the forefront of what we do, and acts as a period of active research and development for our Associates Programme curriculum. From 2024-26 curriculum research was led by OSE guest artist Hugh Nicholson. The programme builds upon and extends the long-term relationships that we have built with local communities and organisations in Kent.

Our Lead Civic Partner for the programme cycle Home is where the garden is was Despacito Art School, Open School East’s children and young-people’s art collective for children aged 5-12+ from Cliftonville West, Margate.

In Year 1, we worked with Despacito Art School to co-design the visual identity of Home is where the garden is and to co-design a bespoke Mobile Unit with architect Jonathan Boyle (State Studio) and OSE Artistic Director Polly Brannan. At the unit, which travelled by foot across Cliftonville West and Margate, we hosted pop-up poster-making, cooking and growing workshops at local Civic Partner venues with OSE Community Cook Keely Burrows and Gardener Aaron McKay. These workshops acted as outreach for OSE’s wider programmes and enabled us to work with local residents to spotlight key environmental issues facing our area, as well as to platform grassroots, community-led projects championing social and environmental justice.

The Mobile Growing Unit on display at Hawley Square, Margate, 2025.

Out of these workshops we began working longer-term with Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden, who host the OSE Community Allotment Planters – initially seeded by Despacito Art School and maintained by Aaron with support from local resident H.

We also collected local recipes, foraging and growing tips, from which we created the community cookbook Growing Wild – a resource available in Czech, English and Slovak designed to support budget friendly and nutritious cooking, as well as to platform the diversity of planting, growing and cooking knowledge held in our local community.

In Year 2, we continued to develop our relationships with local Civic Partners through pop-up planting, cooking and pickling workshops at Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden and The Sunken Garden. Workshops were led by OSE Community Cook Thom Eagle and Gardener Aaron MacKay. Work in Year 2 culminated in the creation of Despacito Art School’s own sauerkraut, pickles, cheong and cordial, which were served at the 2026 Summer Exhibition and across our pop-up workshops.

Throughout Home is where the garden is, older members of Despacito Art School (12+) worked with guest cooks, gardeners and artists to co-deliver pop-up workshops at the unit. This is part of OSE’s wider work to offer training pathways for young people from Cliftonville West who face multiple barriers to accessing the creative and cultural industries.

Civic Partners

Throughout the project we worked with local community organisations, charities and residents as Civic Partners to ensure our approach reached and reflected the needs of our communities. We will continue to work with Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden as a long term Civic partner at Open School East.

Civic Partners included:
Age UK Thanet
Ark: Cliftonville Cultural Space
Cliftonville Community Centre
Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden
Northdown Primary School
Roma Drom: Cliftonville Culture Centre
Sunken Garden

We also worked with local family members connected to Despacito Art School in informal advisory roles.

Guest artists and practitioners included:

Jonathan Boyle (State Studio)
Polly Brannan
Keely Burrows
Thom Eagle
Aaron McKay

Polly Brannan + Aaron McKay

DIY Poster-Making

Polly Brannan and George Harding