RCA and Wandsworth: celebrating a year as London Borough of Culture

For the past year, Wandsworth Council has created a vibrant programme in collaboration with arts, culture, business, voluntary and community partners which has celebrated our local communities and showcased the talent of the borough. 

Below we reflect on the projects the RCA has contributed to and commissioned for the programme, generating one-off events and longer-term impact.

As part of London Craft Week in May 2025, RCA Applied Arts students led a series of public workshops through a Well-Making Café, bringing hands-on craft experiences to the Wandsworth community. It encouraged reflection and close attention to the processes, places, people, and materials involved in collective making. The event proved so popular that it will return again this year.

Supported by the Community Engagement Seed Fund, the Winstanley Estate in Clapham Junction was at the heart of many of this year’s community-led initiatives. RCA staff and students delivered a series of projects that explored ideas of belonging, place, identity and memory through sound, design, storytelling and participatory art.

Every secondary school and college in Wandsworth was offered a tour of RCA2025, the graduate showcase, giving young people in the borough a direct window into the RCA's creative community and the possibilities of an arts education.

October brought free, open-access drawing workshops to the Hangar as part of the RCA's participation in The Big Draw programme. Under the theme of Spooky Skies, the sessions welcomed participants of all ages and abilities to pick up a pencil and make their mark. Art materials, inspirations and a Halloween playlist accompanied and the session was led by Sarah Staton, RCA Sculpture Senior Tutor, and supported by students from the Sculpture MA programme.

In partnership with Wandsworth Council, the RCA commissioned Fashion MA graduate Elyse Blackshaw to create original artworks exploring the theme of creative health. The resulting works were displayed on public banners outside Wandsworth Town Hall during Wandsworth Arts Fringe and the previous summer. The project engaged 378 pupils across years 3–6, reaching 15 classes from 10 schools.

Co-commissioned with Wandsworth Council, this project saw creative studio ONELAB(founded by RCA alumni) deliver workshops across five schools, placing the voices and visions of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) at its centre. The outcome was a series of bold, joyful stickers celebrating creativity and inclusion, which were displayed in five Wandsworth libraries.

The RCA hosted Iman Rahman as part of the London Borough of Culture's paid internship programme, which placed local young people aged 18–25 within arts organisations across the borough. Over six months, Iman gained experience across the RCA's Engagement, Brand & Marketing, Executive Operations and Technical Services teams.

In October, the RCA's DesignBar became home to The Battersea Society's Community & Connections photography exhibition, welcoming submissions from amateur photographers across the borough. The judging panel brought together RCA expertise in the form of Photography MA Senior Tutor Hermione Wiltshire and MA Photography and MFA Arts and Humanities alumna Aisha Seriki.

In February 2026, a new permanent artwork joined the landscape of Battersea Park. Apparition, a public sculpture by MA Sculpture graduate Samuel Domínguez, was commissioned in partnership with the Friends of Battersea Park and unveiled as one of the programme's most lasting legacies.

Commissioned by Wandsworth Council and the RCA as part of the Welcome to Wandsworth schools programme, Our Beautiful Neighbourhood set out to explore local biodiversity through visual art. A team of seven artists led creative workshops with over 50 primary, secondary and SEND classes between October 2025 and January 2026, engaging more than 1,300 children and young people. Pupils explored their local habitats, discovering the plants, animals and insects living alongside them, and developed observational skills through drawing and collage. Their work was brought to life in five public banner exhibitions, accompanied by an original sound piece and a downloadable colouring-in map.