art

This is the finale

14 March 2024

Croydon’s London Borough of Culture year is coming to a close, and to celebrate, This Is Croydon has curated a series of eclectic music events called Croydon Remix for the closing weekend, which runs...
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An inclusive space for creativity

29 February 2024

Autistic Youth Hub is a relatively new local collective, which launched last summer as a supported space for young adults who self-identify as autistic or similarly neurodivergent. As part of This is Croydon, the...
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Welcome to Little Manhattan

14 February 2024

Last week we visited the Little Manhattan exhibition, at the Croydon Clocktower, which celebrates Croydon’s striking skyline, and captures the memories of those who lived through the regeneration of the area between the 1950s...
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Curating Creative Croydon 23

9 November 2023

Who doesn’t enjoy some outdoor art to brighten our streets? We were delighted when Croydon BID asked us to curate a second season of the Creative Croydon exhibition, after we brought the work of...
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The evolution of pink

1 November 2023

I recently visited local artist Kate Marsden in her studio at ASC Grafton Road. For those of you who don’t know ASC Grafton Road, it is home to over 100 studios for artists and...
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Turf, Textiles, and Tufting

26 October 2023

This week we catch up with our current social media header artist, Divya Sharma – a multi-disciplinary artist whose current work leads with the medium of textiles and threads, she has a studio in...
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This is Liberty

24 August 2023

The next London Borough of Culture festival on our radar is Liberty. The free arts festival celebrating the work of deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists hits our town for three days from Friday 1...
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This is Croydon Stands Tall

17 August 2023

You may remember back in February us talking about giraffes covered in art roaming our streets. No? Well if not see here. Since then Croydon BID and Wild in Art (who are the organisations...
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The wilder side of Croydon

6 July 2023

Earlier this week we headed to Thornton Heath Library for the launch of the Rural Croydon exhibition by artist, photographer and writer Ameena Rojee. Commissioned by This Is Croydon in partnership with The National...
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CR0 Summer Exhibition

29 June 2023

Last week I headed to a new art gallery in town – well a new gallery to me anyway, because actually Croydon Art Space has been just a short walk from East Croydon Station, on...
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The organic art of Melanie Russell

25 May 2023

This week we chat with Croydon-based artist Melanie Russell whose art we showcased on our social media headers earlier this year. A Streatham resident, Melanie works in a studio at ASC Art House, Grafton...
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Your art roaming our streets

23 February 2023

Last October we went along to Croydon’s LSBU (aka Electric House) for the launch of the Croydon Stands Tall project, delivered by Croydon BID in collaboration with Wild in Art. Croydon Stands Tall is...
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Mindful art

2 February 2023

Earlier this week I headed to the edge of Shirley to visit Bethlem gallery and museum. The listed deco building that the two organisations share sits within the sizable grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital...
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Look up for Creative Croydon

30 November 2022

If you’ve been out walking in Croydon over the last couple of days, you may have noticed some new art springing up around the town centre. Through the Croydonist, one of my passions is...
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Life in pen and paint

10 November 2022

This week we chat with our current social media cover artist, the South Norwood based Jonny Kemp. He’s been having a very busy 2022, so you may recognise his work from South Drawood – his exhibition...
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Rosie’s pill packet pottery

6 September 2022

This week we chat with local artist and curator Rosie Crane Eckmire ahead of her Pill packet pottery workshop this Saturday, 10 September, which explores the therapeutic properties of clay. The workshop at Turf...
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Fairytale escapees

14 August 2022

What does a huge paint brush, gargantuan tentacles, a floating pencil and a destructive beanstalk have in common? Well if you’ve been walking around the centre of Croydon over the last couple of days...
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Comics galore and more

6 July 2022

This Sunday (10 July) the South London Comic & Zine Fair lands at Stanley Arts. Organised by a team of three Croydon locals, Hannah Lee Miller, Rebecca Jones, and Pete Morey, the fair promises...
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Peacock’s flora and fauna

12 May 2022

This week we catch up with our current social media header artist Cordelia Peacock on how she became a mixed media artist, her intuitive creative process, inspirations in nature and art, and more. Croydonist:...
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Living Streets, Local art

21 April 2022

This week we chat to South London visual artist ELNO who has recently worked with local teenage girls and non-binary teens to create a new mural in South Norwood, organised by the Croydon Living...
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Concrete rainbows and curious curtains

5 April 2022

This week a new group art exhibition opens in the Whitgift Centre, at the Project Space, upstairs at Turf Projects. Named ‘Never Mind The Concrete’, it’s been curated by well-known Croydon artist and photographer...
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Eco-art action

24 March 2022

If you’re a regular reader you’ll know we are running a series of Croydonist features on the climate, where we look at some of the things businesses and individuals do in Croydon to help...
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A queer hurrah

20 January 2022

The start of the year always seems a bit drab and dreary. January blues, followed by the biting chill of February. However, this year there’s the sparkle of balls, screenings, Q&As galore, storytelling and...
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Children, centre stage

13 January 2022

For our first chat of 2022 we catch up with the multi-talented Salihah Agbaje. From arts practitioner, children’s author, and podcaster, to passionate educationalist, and founder of Theatre in Education organisation Spoken World Productions,...
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Shades of creation

21 December 2021

Croydon is jam packed with creative talent and it’s a pool that is ever expanding. On a recent trip to the Clock Tower Market in South Norwood I was pleasantly surprised by how many...
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Having a bit of a do

17 November 2021

This week we catch up with arts organisation Drunken Chorus, as their free-to-attend inclusive festival of theatre, dance and cabaret, A Bit Of A Do returns to Stanley Arts. We chat to joint directors Chris Williams...
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From portraits to abstraction

22 September 2021

This week we chat with our current social media cover artist, Miguel Sopena. Miguel is an artist and photographer originally from Valencia, Spain, who works out of Turf’s artist studios. He trained as a...
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Location, location, location

12 August 2021

This week we catch up with our recent social media header artist Jason Chow. Jason is a self taught illustrator who runs Prints Jason. During the second lockdown he had lots of spare time...
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Shaniqua’s Voices of Croydon

30 July 2021

This week we catch up with Croydon’s first Poet Laureate, Shaniqua Benjamin, ahead of her online exhibition launching at the Museum of Croydon on Monday (2 August). The exhibition called ‘Voices of Croydon’ is...
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The right conditions

21 July 2021

Last week I popped by the new Conditions Shop to meet artist, educator and Conditions Studio co-founder Matthew Noel-Tod. Haven’t heard of Conditions? Read on… Conditions Shop is a new store which opened earlier...
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Painting the town with music

13 May 2021

Last autumn Centrale & Whitgift put out a call for local artists and collectives to submit ideas to be included in an art trail stretching across their shopping centres with the theme of ‘Croydon...
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The Purley Pear Tree

22 April 2021

In recent years Croydon town centre has been synonymous with street art, and the art has gradually expanded north, to West Croydon and up – indeed Thornton Heath has a pretty awesome street art trail...
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Croydon’s Skye

1 April 2021

What better way to kick off a (fingers crossed) sunny but also (according to my weather app) snowy Easter weekend, than by hearing about a Croydon illustrator who creates some very joyful and Spring-like...
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Croydon’s original mural artist

25 March 2021

Whilst I was reading about architect Jane Drew, who we featured last month, I happened upon a friend of hers and fellow Croydon-born creative, Barbara Mildred Jones. Despite being a rather influential post-war artist,...
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Frida and Friends

7 January 2021

For our first creative chat of 2021 we speak to local maker Rosie Naismith, who I discovered last summer when I purchased one of her awesome Frida Kahlo fabric face masks. Better known by...
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A unique Lemon

12 November 2020

A few weeks ago we met the lovely lady behind Love a Lemon Ceramics at a workshop for local creatives at Croydon Clocktower. As soon as we saw Lemon’s beautiful and quirky bespoke ceramics...
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Hidden qualities and unknown heroes

22 October 2020

In June this year when we met Croydon community arts company SDS we were also introduced to visual artist Tatenda Michael Manyarara who regularly works on commissions for the organisation. We were immediately taken...
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Carole through the Looking Glass

3 September 2020

This week we discovered a beautiful set of photos by local photographic artist Carole Evans, that she is turning into a photobook via Kickstarter, to document the history of her community during lockdown. Titled...
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Taking pride in our LGBT+ history

27 August 2020

One of the events we particularly missed because of Covid this summer was Croydon Pride. It’s become a firm fixture in our calendar since 2016 and we love it for its celebratory feel, where...
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To Croydon, with love

20 August 2020

Now we do like a zine at the Croydonist. An independent publication is always a labour of love, and when we saw ‘A Love Letter to Croydon’ by Waddon-based photographer Ameena Rojee we knew...
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Colourful brutalism

13 August 2020

There’s so much more to brutalist architecture than grey concrete, but seeing the buildings photographed in vibrant colours is definitely unusual. Croydon-based photographer Christopher Hope-Fitch does just this with his personal project ‘Brutalism in...
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Connected by a Thread

15 July 2020

This week one of our favourite Croydon-based creatives – free embroidery artist Tina Crawford – joins us as guest writer to talk about her rather extraordinary art piece she created during lockdown.  ‘Connected by...
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The space between

30 April 2020

The creative work of Eleanor Suess is hard to categorise as her practice straddles the disciplines of both architecture and art. Eleanor describes herself as an architect, artist, and educator. As well as working...
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A vision in wool

16 April 2020

I didn’t realise until recently that tucked behind Factory Lane and a stone’s throw from Ikea, there are over a hundred studios for creatives in a development called Art House Studios in Grafton Quarter....
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A virtual wander, a visual wonder

26 March 2020

As we adjust to our new life indoors, we are running a series of ‘Croydon at home’ articles to help us all to still fly the flag for Croydon from our sofas. This week...
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Light and shade, delight and detail

12 March 2020

As you’ll all well know by now, one of the things we love about Croydon is its iconic 60s architecture – we’ve talked about it here, quite a bit over the last few years. Imagine...
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Art is…

29 January 2020

If I say the name Rich Simmons most of you will think of some of our most iconic Croydon street art. Rich’s art is sometimes political, sometimes controversial, and always stunning – he has...
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An expanding art scene

8 January 2020

What better way to start the new year than with some new art? We’ve been quite taken by some new artworks we’ve seen around town (digitally and physically) created by design duo Samantha Warren...
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Tis the season for Turf

18 December 2019

If you are like me and are rather disorganised when it comes to Christmas, and still have gifts to buy for friends who like art, then this is definitely for you. Turf Projects have...
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The odd birds and other characters

20 November 2019

I very much look forward to posts from Angela Crow on Instagram. The vibrant diversity of her art often combining pattern, landscape and the human figure (with the occasional animal) lights up my feed,...
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What a waste

9 October 2019

As part of our Croydonist climate series we catch up with one of our favourite Croydon artists, Tina Crawford ahead of her exhibition at the Museum of Croydon. As a free embroidery artist Tina...
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One woman, a riot of colour

21 August 2019

SimOne is an artist in demand – recently exhibiting in a collective show in New Cross and working on pop-ups all over London, from Peckham to Google’s HQ. You’ll probably recognise her vibrant work from...
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Amping up Croydon’s art scene

13 June 2019

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to a brunch to celebrate the official unveiling of the new art by Gavin Kinch, set over three floors of AMP House on Dingwall Road –...
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The orchid muse

15 May 2019

Liv Healey is an artist with a fascinating and unusual muse – the orchid. Describing the flower as ‘diverse and detailed’, she creates exquisite and unexpected paintings and drawings centred around this exotic plant....
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The ladies behind ladies first

7 March 2019

It’s International Women’s Day, and there are various fantastic celebrations taking place in and around Croydon today, this weekend, and beyond. One such celebration is a new photography exhibition called Ladies First. Which gallery,...
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The art club scene

21 February 2019

Like us you may have noticed striking black and white posters mysteriously popping up around town recently. Or like us, you may have started following an uber cool new instagram feed with censored faces...
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Crafting and grafting for Croydon

24 January 2019

Croydon’s creative community is thriving, and many local organisations are putting on awesome events for our enjoyment. Most weekends (and weekdays too) we’re spoilt for choice on events to attend, whether it be a...
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First up, The 3rd Man

3 January 2019

First up this year we talk to Croydon stencil artist The 3rd Man, whose vivid paintings focus on the human form. His work is predominantly canvas-based but you may have spotted a few of...
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