Conversations grew from exchanges between Visual Communication students and residents of Arlington House Homeless Hostel, Camden. The site of this collaboration was Creative Studio 5 – a space where people from Arlington come together with a common motivation to make art – and facilitated by Federico Gallo (MA Visual Communication, 2008). 

Over weekly visits during May and June 2019, the project developed through collaborative workshops, impromptu performances, collective drawing and – most importantly – conversations. In the weeks following the workshops, students created individual responses from their experiences of this journey. Some were moved by a particular conversation or by an artwork, others were able to make profound connections with their own culture – or have simply been inspired by the spirit and magic of the residents. 

On 21 November, as part of ‘Creative Space,’ Annual Autumn Exhibition at Arlington, Conversations will be exhibited as a collection of audio visual responses by the students. Through installation, music and art, the event will be a celebration of the many stories and the vibrant creativity that thrives inside Arlington.