Beyond the studio: How the RCA and its alumni are shaping creative education in the community

London is known for its world-class cultural institutions. But it is also home to a spectacular array of flora and fauna, and building a meaningful relationship with the city’s natural world is essential to ensuring its future protection.

A new visual arts project for children and young people in Wandsworth aims to do just that with the next generation. Our Beautiful Neighbourhood worked with 52 classes across primary, secondary and SEND schools, involving more than 1,300 children and young people. Pupils explored their local habitats and created drawings and collages inspired by the plants, animals and insects they found.

The project was commissioned by Wandsworth Council and the Royal College of Art’s Community Engagement programme as part of the Welcome to Wandsworth schools programme for The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2025. Seven artists were involved in supporting the project, visiting participating schools to help guide the creative process.

“The main focus for us with this project was to create meaningful experiences in nature and for every child involved to respond to those experiences through making,” says Vanessa Rolf, an RCA alumni and one of the lead artists on the project. “You can’t care about what you don’t know about, so with this project we aimed to give children and young people experiences that would grow their knowledge about both the beautiful wild spaces in Wandsworth and the more familiar, equally vital but possibly overlooked pockets of nature all over the borough.”

Through the eyes of the children, the local natural world is translated into a myriad of fantastical colours and shapes: towering foxes, red birds in flight, burnt orange leaves and gigantic bees. “You can see the personalities shining through every collage and drawing,” says Rolf. “It was lovely to see the care and attention the children had taken to observe, understand and represent their chosen creature or plant.”

The work was photographed and turned into vibrant collage banners, which are now being displayed across Battersea Power Station, Putney Exchange, Southside Shopping Centre, Tooting Market and Wandsworth Town Hall.

For Rolf, getting to work with so many young people was incredibly rewarding, especially since the response from participants was so positive. The pride was palpable; many were pushed out of their creative comfort zone but were rewarded with a renewed confidence in their creative abilities. Hannah Coulson, one of the lead artists on the project and an RCA alumna and current staff member, found that the project also created opportunities for new connections between classmates, families and communities.

Not only did the project create pride in the children's creative abilities, it also fostered pride in the natural world that surrounds them every day. This, says Rolf, is essential if we are to halt the rapid biodiversity loss in the UK. “We are only just beginning to understand the vital role every element of the natural world plays, as species are lost here in the UK at an alarming rate,” she adds. “No one element can be dismissed as a weed or a pest without understanding how vital it is in ways that are often only made visible when they are no longer here.”

Projects like Our Beautiful Neighbourhood demonstrate how creative education in the community can spark curiosity about the world around us. They are also part of a much longer tradition at the Royal College of Art of working beyond the walls of the institution, connecting students and alumni with outside communities.

One of the most significant of these initiatives was ReachOutRCA, a long-running public engagement programme that brought RCA students together with young people and their teachers for creative exchange. Founded by Rolf and with RCA alumna Hannah Murgatroyd, and latterly managed by Coulson, the programme supported RCA students to develop workshops rooted in their own creative practices.

Students were encouraged to translate the ideas, processes and techniques behind their work into accessible activities for young people. In doing so, they not only introduced new creative approaches into classrooms, but also learned how to articulate and share their own practice. For many students, working with ReachOutRCA offered their first experience of teaching or facilitating creative learning. The programme became a formative step for graduates who would later go on to shape arts education in institutions across the UK.

Many alumni who worked with ReachOutRCA have since built careers leading learning programmes at organisations such as Tate, the V&A, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Serpentine and University of the Arts London. Alumni participants include artists and practitioners such as Jasleen Kaur, Jessie Brennan, Jack Ky Tan, Holly Graham, Celia Pym and Katie Spragg.

For some, the experience had a lasting impact on how they approached their own creative work. “I owe my current work and interests primarily to ReachOut,” says Sonya, whose first education project was supported through the programme. “Working directly with adults and children has been the most powerful way for me to connect my practice to others. That project was certainly the most memorable and significant from my time at the RCA.”

Alongside programmes like ReachOutRCA, the RCA has also been developing new ways to support creative educators within the institution itself. One example is the college’s Master of Education (MEd) programme, a relatively new course that builds on the success of the internal Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Education (PgCert) for RCA staff. Running since around 2018, the PgCert supports tutors and lecturers across the college to reflect on and develop their pedagogical practice.

“The launch of the MEd opened up this opportunity for reflection and development to external participants,” explains Coulson, who co-leads the PgCert and co-leads two units on the MEd. “We bring the PgCert and MEd cohorts together for workshops and discussions, which creates a really rich learning environment. It means everyone taking part can engage with a wide range of perspectives and experiences.”

The influence of this considered approach to creative education can also be seen in initiatives conceived by RCA graduates themselves. POoR Collective - a design practice co-founded by MA Architecture alumni POoR was co-founded by Shawn Adams, Larry Botchway, Ben Spry and Matt Harvey - emerged from a shared belief that design can be a tool for empowerment. The team work with and for young people, residents and local communities to design tangible outputs in their local environments, such as murals and pavilions, as well as developing programmes to upskill and empower young people. In doing so, they challenge assumptions about who gets to shape the built environment and whose voices are represented in architecture and urban design.

POoR also collaborates with the RCA on an architecture outreach programme for secondary schools and FE colleges. A key feature of the programme is training and empowering current students and recent alumni to lead the programme.

“Our core ethos has always centred on empowerment,” says Adams. “We see design not simply as a means of producing objects or spaces, but as a tool for agency.” During his time at the RCA, this perspective sharpened as Adams became increasingly aware of the barriers many young people face when trying to enter creative professions. “Creative education can be a powerful leveller,” he adds. “When people are given access to design skills, critical thinking tools and platforms for expression, they are better equipped to shape conversations about their environments.”

Another initiative shaped by RCA graduates that seeks to open up access in the creative industries is STORE, an association of artists, architects and designers working between London and Rotterdam. The organisation focuses on supporting more young people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply to creative courses, while also addressing the wider social imbalance within art, design and architecture education. STORE’s work spans educational programmes, socially engaged practice and public events and has benefitted from the input of more than ten RCA alumni over the years, who have taught and led projects there.

“For the young people we teach we can see the positive impact of taking a design from concept drawing through to a physical object,” says Kevin Green, a Sculpture MA graduate and Project Manager at STORE. “We can also see the value they gain from getting better at something; the confidence this gives some of the young people we teach is striking.”

STORE is increasingly looking at how they can embed meaningful educational opportunities into the public realm. Green argues that there are far too many one to two-day educational projects run by architecture practices as part of community outreach. “It would be good to see more one to two-year projects that can really have an impact on a young person's trajectory,” he says.

ONELAB, a design college for SEND learners founded by RCA Fashion alumni Miles Dunphy and Elsa Ellies, offers a more long-term approach and is rethinking what creative education can look like for young people today. Based in Tower Hamlets, it operates as an independent college with a Department for Education number, offering a learner-centred approach to creative study.

Students work towards University of the Arts London and Pearson qualifications while developing practical creative skills in well-equipped studios and workshops. The curriculum is delivered by a multidisciplinary team of educators and designers — many with connections to the RCA and Central Saint Martins — who share a commitment to social impact and inclusive innovation. With demand for SEND provision in the UK only increasing and the current system of support in crisis, the potential for ONELAB’s model to grow beyond the London borough is huge.

Together, these initiatives reflect a wider ecosystem of creative education shaped by RCA students and graduates. “The College champions creative education for all and its positive impact on our local communities,” says Hannah Lambert, RCA’s Community Engagement Manager. “We're keen to work in partnership wherever possible to maximise our impact, whether that be working with Wandsworth Council on brilliant outreach projects such as Our Beautiful Neighbourhood, or sustain meaningful relationships with talented alumni such as POoR Collective and ONELAB.” As these collaborations grow, they point to a future in which creative education is more accessible and rooted in the communities it serves.