Since 2021, West London Welcome, a community centre run for and with refugees, migrants and people seeking asylum, have been visiting on the first Monday of the month to spend the morning with local artists from Art Jar.

Here, Rachel Le Mesurier from West London Welcome tells how the group have been enjoying a wide variety of creative activities inspired by the gardens and what the partnership means for participants. 

Tell us about yourself and the group, and what brings you together. 

We are Harriet and Rachel and we run a weekly drop-in lunch in Chiswick, a satellite group of the charity West London Welcome. West London Welcome is a community centre run for and with refugees, migrants, people seeking asylum, and other locals. We work together with local people to provide a safe, positive experience of community to reduce isolation, build inclusion and confidence, and challenge injustice. Every week we provide community support, English classes, advice, hot food and social and creative activities. We take a holistic approach to supporting the needs of our members, from the practical and social to the emotional and playful. 

The Chiswick area is home to two large hotels which are used as temporary accommodation for families, unaccompanied teenagers, single and pregnant women – all of whom are seeking asylum and have made long and difficult journeys to reach the UK to escape extreme situations in their home country. Members of this community are particularly vulnerable and have often experienced trauma. 

Tell us about your project at Chiswick House & Gardens.  

On the first Monday of every month, we meet up in the Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House & Gardens to participate in a creative workshop run by Aysha and Nadine from Art Jar. The workshops offer a chance to socialise, relax and to be creative in a new environment – it’s a welcome relief from the hotel where there is no communal area or outdoor space. The Learning Centre is so warm and welcoming, and arriving each month in the Kitchen Garden and seeing the seasonal changes – spotting what new flowers have emerged or which veggies are ready for harvesting – is always a happy talking point. 

Chiswick House and Gardens is such a good place for me. I am always happy when I am here. It is a place for learning and for relaxing my mind. Every month, I can come here and enjoy with another people and so many different things to do.

– Workshop Participant 

Art Jar have designed the workshops really sensitively to enhance and reflect the beautiful surroundings of the Kitchen Garden. We sketch outside in the summer and have used natural materials collected from the gardens. It is always a soothing and mindful experience – with all senses involved. Several of our group have said it’s one of the rare times they can really switch off their mind as they focus on making and forget for just a couple of hours the weight of their worries. Then after the workshop we enjoy a delicious wood-fired pizza lunch thanks in part to the generosity of the Chiswick House Café. 

 Thank you for inviting us to spend a very nice time with everyone, and for teaching us new things, making us forget about our problems for a while.

– Workshop Participant 

What do you and the group enjoy about the project?  

The Monthly Mondays have become such a highlight! We have experimented with many craft techniques gaining practical skills in screen-printing, Jesmonite casting, silk painting, pottery and much more. It’s also an excellent opportunity to practice English by following simple instructions and chatting and learning about the passing seasons and nature in the garden. The workshops are designed so that everyone has a feeling of real accomplishment and can produce something functional and aesthetically pleasing to take away at the end of the workshop. 

 I loved this place. Since I can interact, feel creative, be able to play with colours, feel useful doing something unusual when I feel able to do it. And above all loved the way you treated me when you taught us and the patience you have.

– Workshop Participant 

For many of our group, attending the workshop is the first time they have left the immediate proximity of the hotel – to discover that the beautiful gardens are available for them to visit for free and within easy walking distance is always met with delight and surprise. For families it offers space for their young children to run around and enjoy the play area.  I know Chiswick House & Gardens has become a very special place to many in our community. 

Artists Nadine and Aysha, founders of local arts organisation – ArtJar, also tell us what makes working here so special 

It is wonderful to work with Chiswick House & Gardens Trust and West London Welcome. We thoroughly enjoy our Monthly Mondays. Seeing the garden’s transition throughout the year has provided us with plenty of inspiration for our sessions. In the warmer months, we’ve taken the art outside to create art trails around the Kitchen Garden, where the whole family has gotten involved! The beautiful gardens have been the perfect setting for nurturing creativity and well-being.

Monthly Mondays is a co-developed project in partnership with West London Welcome, Art Jar and Chiswick House and Gardens Trust and is part of our community engagement programe. 

Support our Monthly Mondays and other community projects by becoming a Chiswick House & Gardens Trust Member.

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