Publish date: 13 June 2024
In 2023, for the sixth-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, our Creative Therapies team created the “Home is…” blackboards, a community arts project which was inspired by Candy Chang’s “Before I Die” walls.
The project consisted of having multiple blackboards across 13 community venues and public sites, which allowed the public and the community to share what “home” meant to the them through words in different languages, drawings and mark making.
The boards were an invitation for members of the community to reflect on what “home” is, in spaces they already access or engaged with. This project was a result of different discussions happening within the service reflecting on the theme of “home” which was prevalent in the community at the time. It also aimed to connect the service with members of the Grenfell impacted community with whom the service did not have a relationship.
The board installed under the Westway on Bramley Road measured 2.4x1.2m. All the other boards measured 60x60cm. The creative therapies team created the boards and the community connectors then delivered them with the needed materials to the community spaces that had agreed to be hosts. In addition to this, workshops were help in the community and online as reflective spaces to allow further exploration for those who wanted to join and participate.
The boards were distributed to the organisations the week before the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire and collected approximately one-week later. The board which was under the Westway was installed on 8th June 2023 and remained there until 13th July 2023. The boards at Kensington Leisure Centre were in place on 11th, 12th and 13th June while local residents, bereaved and survivors could access the Grenfell Tower site.
The “book” is a collection of the boards and importantly the themes that emerged from the community’s response to what “home is……”
You can view the “book” here where there is a more detailed breakdown about each theme.
Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service would like to thank the community organisations that hosted the blackboards and to everyone who contributed their thoughts and responses.