LOOKING FORWARD Art Projects

Jenny McIlhatton (@jennyforevelyn )is an interdisciplinary textile artist and the next facilitator in our community engagement programme, Soft Ground. Transitioning from the fashion industry to a participatory practice, Jenny uses fashion waste to explore the meditative power of touch and visible repair. Jenny will be leading the final four weeks of workshops for Soft Ground, taking place every Friday from 15 May to 5 June 2026, 2–4 pm at @set.social.peckham 🔗 Head to the link in our bio to reserve your free spot via Eventbrite and read the full conversation between Jenny and the curator of the programme Sylvia Keck-Soler (@sylviakecksoler ). In this interview, Jenny reflects on textiles as a sensory sanctuary, the ritual of “remaking herself” through hand-stitching, and the importance of creating inclusive spaces where connection emerges through being able to touch. <<I often say that in making the work, I remake myself. If, through a workshop, even one person experiences a sense of calm, joy, or self-understanding, or simply relishes the sensory play of textiles, then that feels really meaningful>>

🌎 ¿Cómo habitamos los cambios que atraviesan hoy nuestros territorios y sistemas alimentarios? Les invitamos a participar en Desastres Lentos: transiciones de la tierra y la alimentación, un círculo de estudio que abre un espacio de diálogo ante los procesos graduales, y cada vez más profundos, de degradación ecológica y cultural que afectan al suelo, los sistemas alimentarios y los modos de vida que los sostienen. Desde una mirada situada en los sures, este programa reúne conversaciones sobre suelo, lengua, desplazamientos, cosmologías y alimentación para imaginar otros modos de habitar, cultivar, cocinar y sostener la vida. A lo largo de cinco módulos y encuentros en línea, compartiremos preguntas, experiencias y resonancias colectivas junto a personas invitadas de distintos territorios y prácticas.  💻Modalidad virtual
🗓️ 22 mayo — 26 junio 2026
⏰ 9:00 a 10:30am h (México)
📩 Registro abierto mediante formulario >> enlace en la biografía — Proyecto producido por Cocina Colaboratorio y Looking Forward, con el apoyo de Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur y la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Slow Disasters: Land and Food Transitions is a study circle that opens a space for dialogue around the transformations shaping land and food today, as part of the Mexican edition of the project.  Grounded in a situated perspective from the Souths, this programme brings together conversations on soil, language, displacement, cosmologies and food systems to collectively imagine other ways of inhabiting, cultivating, cooking and sustaining life. Five modules, online sessions, and an open space to share questions, experiences and resonances. 26 May — 23 June 2026 Open call: [email protected] The study group will be in Spanish, a recording with English subtitles will be made available afterwards. Produced by Looking Forward and Cocina Colaboratorio, with the support of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. @ignaciogutierrezcrocco @la_nutridora @myceliumasmethodology @micadust @calpulli.tecalco @malmoacid @ecosurmx

Slow Disasters: the erosion of everyday landscapes Naming disasters changes the way we inhabit them. Not all disasters arrive as emergencies or visible collapse. Some unfold slowly and silently: in soils that lose fertility, in waters that alter their cycles, in the disappearance of native seeds, in the displacement of ingredients, and in the loss of the desire to care for the land. This is what we call Slow Disasters: a framework for remembering that food systems are living landscapes: territories where life is defended, imagined and renewed. To name them is to recognise that what sustains us is also what must be cared for. #SlowDisasters #LivingSoil #FoodLandscapes #LivingTerritories #RegenerativeFutures SoilMemory

Desastres Lentos: la erosión de los paisajes cotidianos Nombrar los desastres cambia la forma en que los habitamos. No todos los desastres llegan como emergencias o colapsos visibles. Algunos se despliegan lenta y silenciosamente: en suelos que pierden fertilidad, en aguas que alteran sus ciclos, en la desaparición de semillas nativas, en el desplazamiento de ingredientes y en la pérdida del deseo de cuidar la tierra. A esto lo llamamos Desastres Lentos: un marco para recordar que los sistemas alimentarios son paisajes vivos, territorios donde la vida se defiende, se imagina y se renueva. Nombrarlos es reconocer que aquello que nos sostiene es también aquello que debe ser cuidado. Este proyecto es producido por Looking Forward y Cocina Colaboratorio, con el apoyo de Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur y la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. #DesastresLentos #LivingSoil #FoodLandscapes #TerritoriosVivos #RegenerativeFutures MemoriaDelSuelo SlowDisasters

📰 Looking Forward’s Community Engagement Curator Sylvia Keck-Soler (@sylviasolangeslr ) has published an article in the Social History in Museums Journal drawing on insights from last year’s Feedforward series on Creative Wellbeing: “Engagement, Outreach or Participation? Reflections on Community Work and Creative Health in London Art Institutions.” The paper explores the tension between grassroots creative health initiatives and formal institutional structures, highlighting case studies from the Barbican, South London Gallery, Horniman Museum, and Whitechapel Gallery. It argues for a shift in the museum’s role from director to mediator, focusing on resource-sharing and ethical, participatory practices. 📖 Read the full article in Social History in Museums: Curating Communities (Vol. 49, Autumn 2025) by the Social History Curators Group. 📸 Photos: 1. Cover of journal 2. Headway East London, Barbican Centre © Leon Foggitt, 2023 3. Headway East London, Barbican Centre © Leon Foggitt, 2023 4. A workshop at South London Gallery © Charlotte Henry 5. Hands On Base © Joel Knight / Horniman Museum and Gardens @hornimanmuseumgardens #CreativeHealth #CommunityEngagement #Museums #ArtInstitutions #ParticipatoryPractice #CuratingCommunities #LondonArts

Last Month on our Substack 👀 Looking Forward Art Notes (thisislookingforward.substack.com) ✨ is a journal for rethinking how we engage with art, culture and life. We’re catching you up on everything you might have missed from March and April, from critical art reviews to interviews with the artist-facilitators leading our wellbeing programme Soft Ground: 📘Keerthana Kunnath: Gender, Diaspora and Visual Agency @kee_kunnath ▶ Kunnath's work as a provocation against heteronormativity, reimagining what it means to be a woman in South Asian society. 📸 Photo 1: Keerthana Kunnath, Njan (I), 2021. 📸 Photo 2: Keerthana Kunnath, Aval (Her), 2021. 📕Making Home: Labour, memory, and belonging at the Museum of the Home @museumofthehome ▶ The domestic space as a site continually constructed through everyday practices, personal histories, and social conditions. 📸 Photo 3: Beryl M as part of �Hackney elders project by Sophie Verhagen, 2007. 📸 Photo 4: Mina Salimi, Still from Shelf Life (2019) 📸 Photo 5: Museum of the Home, Home Galleries. Photo: Em Fitzgerald. 📙Realism of the Psyche: The enduring influence of Ken Kiff @ken.kiff_estate ▶ Ken Kiff’s position in 20th-century British art and his philosophical framework of “Psychic Realism”. 📸 Photo 6: Ken Kiff, Talking With A Psychoanalyst: Night Sky, Sequence 113, acrylic on paper, 1975-80. 📸 Photo 7: Ken Kiff, Man on Street, lithograph in colours on wove paper, 85.5 x 62 cm, 1991. 📗Weaving Neurodivergence, Textiles, and Community: A conversation with artist-facilitator Kim Chin @_kim.chin ▶ Exploring neurodivergence and the importance of collaborative practice in an increasingly isolating world. 📸 Photo 8: Kim Chin, What does Home Mean to You? 📕 Practices of Repair: Sue Mayo on storytelling across materials and social worlds @breaks_and_joins ▶ A conversation on community theatre, creative facilitation, and the politics of participation. 📸 Photo 9: Sue Mayo, Rooms with a View. 🔗 Link in bio for free direct access ➕ Subscribe to our Substack for the full conversation, directly in your inbox

It’s time for a Substack Roundup 👀 Looking Forward Art Notes (thisislookingforward.substack.com) ✨ is a journal for rethinking how we engage with art, culture and life. We’re catching you up on everything you might have missed in the past couple of months, from film write-ups to artist interviews: 📘 Amaal Said's Open Country @amaalsaid ▶ Somali mother and her British-born daughter walk together through the English countryside, carrying with them a distance that cannot be mapped. 📸 Photos 1 and 2: Still from Amaal Said, Open Country (2025) 📕 The Row: Quiet luxury and strategic anonymity @therow ▶ A case study on how The Row leverages its established cultural authority to maintain its elite position. 📸 Photo 3: The Row's homeware collection displayed on a rail designed by Julian Schnabel. Milan Design Week, April 2025 📗The Plant Commons: Reviving indigenous foodways in South Africa with Loubie Rusch @loubie_rusch ▶ A conversation with wild food expert Loubie Rusch on locally adaptive Cape plants and the work of reconnecting communities with South Africa’s biodiverse landscapes. 📸 Photo 4: Loubie Rusch and Dr Nicola Kühn sorting Sandkool. Photo: Melissa Baird 📘Soil at the Kitchen Table: The transpedagogical practice of Cocina CoLaboratorio @ehm90 @cocina_colaboratorio ▶ Designer and food activist Emilio Hernández discusses Cocina CoLaboratorio's work in Mexico, where gatherings around soil become tools for collective ecological learning. 📸 Photo 5: Biocultural Living Archive, 2021. Photo: Tess Plein 📸 Photo 6: Learning at the Ejidal Lands, Slow Disasters Project, 2025. Photo: Mariana Martínez 📙How Can I Be Well in Community? Interview with Birungi Kawooya @birungiart ▶ Exploring textiles, Afro-somatic practice, and neurodivergent care. 📸 Photo 7: Birungi Kawooya, Weaving Interdependence. 🔗 Link in bio for free direct access ➕ Subscribe to our Substack for the full conversation

💭 The second iteration of Feedforward series 🌀Curating in a Climate Crisis 🌀, bringing together curators and researchers to address the role of curatorial work within the climate and ecological emergency, was held on the 19th of March, hosted by Gasworks. Here is a glimpse of the conversation and you can read more about the session on our website. (🔗Link in bio) With thanks to the participants: ▶ Anna Bates: Curator of Product and Furniture (1900 - Now) at the V&A; lead for Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures. ▶ Madeleine Collie: Curator at Stanley Picker Gallery and founder of Food Art Research Network. ▶ Laura Herman: Curator of Digital Art at the V&A and co-founder of Utrecht University’s Inclusive AI Lab. ▶ Janice Li: Head of Curatorial Programme at Future Observatory, Design Museum. Feedforward is a peer-to-peer format developed by Looking Forward, in which curators, artists, and cultural practitioners come together to reflect on the ethics of cultural work. Feedforward creates a slower, care-based space for sharing questions, resources, and practices. #LookingForward #Feedforward #Curating #CuratorialPractice #ClimateCrisis #ArtAndEcology #SociallyEngagedArt #CulturalPractice #Curators #ArtAndSociety #ArtForChange

Sue Mayo (@breaks_and_joins ) is a theatre artist with a background in community practice and the third facilitator in our community engagement programme, Soft Ground. Her work brings together storytelling, textiles, and participatory methods to explore repair across personal, material, and community contexts. Sue will be leading a series of workshops as part of Soft Ground, taking place on Fridays from 2 to 4 pm at @set.social.peckham . 🔗 Go to our link in bio to reserve your free spot and read the full conversation between Sue and the curator of the programme Sylvia Keck (@sylviasolangeslr ). In this conversation, Sue reflects on storytelling as a tactile and collective process, and on how creative practices can open space for reflection, connection, and shared experience. <<When our hands are busy, imagination is released, reflection becomes possible, and the noise in our heads quiets down.>> #softground #collectivecare #communitypractice #sociallyengagedart #textilepractice #storytelling #participation #lookingforward

Kim Chin (@_kim.chin ) is a London-based interdisciplinary artist, textile designer, and educator. They are facilitating our community engagement programme, Soft Ground, a four-month programme of free weekly drop-in textile-based art sessions drawing from neurodivergent practices, disability justice, and collective care. Kim will start her series of workshops this Friday, March 20. Their next sessions will take place on March 27, April 3, and April 10, from 2 to 4 pm, at @set.social.peckham . 🔗 Go to our link in bio to reserve your free spot and read the full conversation between Kim and the curator of the programme Sylvia Keck (@sylviasolangeslr ). In the spotlight, Kim reflects on how textiles, intergenerational exchange, and community-led practice can create spaces for connection, grounding, and shared experience. <<For many neurodivergent people, time isn’t always experienced as a linear concept; it’s often led more by how we feel. Instead, life can move in cycles or pulses, guided by what your body feels is right.>> #softground #collectivecare #textilepractice #neurodivergence #disabilityjustice #sociallyengagedart #embodiedpractice #lookingforward

🔗 While we prepare to host the second session in a couple of weeks, you can read the summary 💬 of the first session on our website. Link in bio. Participants in the session: ▶ Abbie Adams: Future Observatory Curator, Design Museum. ▶ Marleen Boschen: Adjunct Curator for Art & Ecology at the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational and Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ▶ Louis Buckley: Senior Curator, Nature + Love Project, Horniman Museum and Gardens. ▶ Daisy Gould: Curator and Researcher, PhD Candidate at The Courtauld Institute of Art and formerly (through late 2025) Assistant Curator of Live Programmes at Serpentine Galleries. ▶ María Montero Sierra: Associate Lecturer at Royal College of Art, Media Studies, School of Architecture; PhD Candidate at the University of Warwick and formerly Head of Program of TBA21–Academy. 🔗 While we prepare to host the second session in a couple of week, you can read the summary 💬 of the first session on our website. Link in bio. Feedforward is a peer-to-peer format developed by Looking Forward where curators, artists, and cultural practitioners come together to reflect on the ethics of cultural work. Feedforward creates a slower, care-based space for sharing questions, resources, and practices. #LookingForward #Feedforward #Curating #CuratorialPractice #ClimateCrisis #ArtAndEcology #SociallyEngagedArt #CulturalPractice #Curators #ArtAndSociety #ArtForChange

Birungi Kawooya (@birungiart ) is a British-Ugandan artist, wellbeing researcher and facilitator. She is opening our community engagement programme, Soft Ground, a four-month programme of free weekly drop-in textile-based art sessions drawing from neurodivergent practices and trauma-informed methodologies. Birungi facilitated her first workshop in the series last Friday. Her next workshops are scheduled for February 27, March 6 and March 13 from 2 to 4 pm at @set.social.peckham . 🔗 Go to our link in bio to reserve your free spot and read a conversation between Birungi and the curator of the programme Sylvia Keck (@sylviaslr_projects ). In the spotlight, Birungi reflects on how textiles, sensory practices, and Afro-somatic approaches create spaces for collective care, grounding, and embodied research. <<My main question is: how can I be well in community? That question originally came from a place of burnout, not realising how much I’d overworked myself. I wondered, how can I unlearn internalised capitalism and patriarchal norms? I conceive and deliver Mindful African playshops to share how we can embed sensory play and imagination in our lives.>> #softground #collectivecare #textilepractice #neurodivergentcare #sociallyengagedart #embodiedpractice #lookingforward