PERMACULTURE Symposium

As part of London Festival of Architecture, join us for this symposium exploring how we can carve out permanent space for culture & community to belong in our cities.

Our cities are not blank canvases, yet regeneration too often treats them as if they are - clearing and displacing with the promise of value rising from the debris.

With creative and community spaces under increasing pressures nationally, Croydon-rooted artist-led space Turf Projects convenes an urgent symposium of organisations navigating this precarity.

Drawing on real-world experiences, we'll dream of ways to embed permanent spaces for culture and community in our cities, asking how spatial decision making shapes who gets opportunities and feels valued.

What does it take to carve out space to belong - and keep it?

The symposium is part of Turf Projects’ wider PERMA-CULTURE campaign, advocating for a permanent home for Turf and grassroots culture in Croydon.

Turf is currently facing displacement by an impending Westfield development. Support our quest for a permanent home for art in Croydon by sharing here.

A panel discussion between cultural organisations who are experiencing or have experienced precarious spaces.

We’ll discuss:

• Regeneration politics and artist displacement - who gets to take up space? What defines and restricts this?
• The instrumentalisation of temporary arts activity - if / how this turns into permanence... and who for.
• Strategies for permanence, stewardship, ownership and solidarity.

Sister Midnight have spent the past few years navigating the journey of creating a community-led space in Catford.

They’ll talk through how they got from A to B, the challenges you might face when trying to set up a permanent space, as well as some practical approaches on how to tackle them.

Founded in 2013 by Croydon locals, Turf is Croydon’s homegrown artist space and the first entirely artist-run contemporary art space in the borough. Based in Croydon’s Whitgift Shopping Centre, we put on free exhibitions & workshops, provide affordable artist studios, run a free creative project space for locals & host a number of other local creative organisations and collectives. A registered charity, Turf aims to provide paid opportunities for artists and creatives who might otherwise be undersupported.

A request from the Turf team - if you book, please turn up!

Around 30% of people booking free tickets don't attend.

As a charity, we aim to support people who need creative opportunities the most. Our free tickets are limited and in high demand. Every person who doesn’t turn up means someone else can’t attend, so please let us know if you can’t make it to free up a space.

If you don’t attend twice or more without letting us know, you may be restricted from booking again.

• To help us support you best, please let us know if you have any access needs when booking.
• For access info about getting to Turf and the Turf space, click here. Note the toilets for this event are on a different floor to the event, accessible via an exterior lift.
• Our unit in the Whitgift Centre is 7 minutes walk (0.3 miles) from West Croydon Station and 8 minutes walk (0.4 miles) from East Croydon station.

Turf aims to be a space where all are welcomed & respected. We ask all attendees to align with this spirit when booking and support us in creating a welcoming & collaborative atmosphere together. We ask that everyone is;

• Kind and respectful in our language and behaviour towards others. Turf is a space which is anti racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism.
• Considerate of others’ time; allowing others room to speak & engage.
• Respectful of the space itself as belonging to many people, treating the space & objects with care.