Creative in Colindale

Sophie Winch on art in the park and space for expression

A table covered in a range of art materials — Family art sessions – (Credit – Joan Rosalie)

A Colindale arts group is opening up opportunities for local people while challenging perceptions about the area.

The Colindale North Creatives Community, established last year, is working to showcase and nurture creativity in Colindale.

For years, Colindale has suffered a “stereotype and a stigma”, Joan Roselie, a founding member of the group, tells Barnet Post.

“People see what they perceive as ‘just council housing’” and think there’s “not a lot going on”, but Joan feels this is a grave misrepresentation. In the summer of last year, she decided to do something about it.

“I sent an email to the residents associations:,” Joan says, “‘Why don’t we just start by painting in the park?’”. She put up posters in her community, and set up materials in the Grahame Park open space of Heybourn Park. The result, she tells me, was “amazing”.

People who had previously felt that they couldn’t draw soon discovered there were “no rules” to the art being created; ‘Art in the Park’ became a haven for free creative expression.

As the weather changed, however, art in a colder park felt less enticing and the newly founded group had to adapt. Funded by the Community Infrastructure Levy, indoor spaces were booked and the project grew.

The group started off small, but with the acquisition of more materials, more spaces and support from other organisations, it has developed into a cultural hub, fostering creativity and art across Colindale.

Their Art in the Park exhibition, curated by Joan’s daughter Giorgia Spina in July, hosted 90 attendees and their regular creative sessions see participants from the ages of 7 to 70 coming to create art. “Some mums come with their children,” Joan says.

Jonas, eight, is a regular at these sessions; his mother has told Joan it’s “his space to just be comfortable, to work and express”.

“It’s a nonsense that [children] are naughty and uncontrollable,” Joan says, “give them something and they’ll sit and put marks on paper; they’re so comfortable when you give them materials”.

Colindale North Creatives also provides an “escape” and respite from exams to older schoolchildren, and gives older people whose children might have left home a sense of community and a creative outlet: “the things they’ve produced have been phenomenal”.

Art, Joan is keen to express, is not just painting; the group creates poetry, collage, and photographs too – “anything that’s cultural.”

As the initiative grew, it partnered with other groups and charities, such as green space hub Cultivate Colindale, in August of this year for a community art session. The Colindale North Creatives Community has also received support from charities, local councillors, and Middlesex University, whose lecturers attended their summer ‘Art in the Park’ exhibition.

“It’s reached so many strands of organisations,” Joan tells the Post. She says that, as it’s developed, it’s become clear how beneficial the connection this art initiative provides for people is, “socially and mentally”. Morena Sasso, a regular participant, says that she’s wanted to be an artist for a long time, and the group has given her the confidence to “actively pursue that path”.

Another, Paola Oliani, says it’s given her a space away from the growing influence of AI, allowing her to feel that she still has “a purpose”.

This autumn, Colindale North Creatives is taking submissions for Rooted & Arriving, a new zine which brings together stories of “belonging” in Colindale: “we’re inviting people to tell their story”.

Funded by Artsdepot’s through an Esmée Fairbairn foundation grant, and facilitated by the artist Nyree Meason (a Middlesex University alumna), it aims to reflect the experiences of people both rooted and arriving in Colindale: “what are the places [you] look upon fondly? Why Colindale? What have [you] got from it?”.

The project, Joan says, aims to help people who are unsure how to begin, and welcomes submissions of any sort – “your form of creativity that represents your story”.

Rooted & Arriving is hosting sessions on the 27th of September, and the 4th and 11th of October, from 12:30 to 3:00 pm each day / You can follow Colindale North Creatives on Instagram here: @colindalenorthcreatives / And the Rooted & Arriving project here: @colindalerootedandarriving

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