About us
Arts in Ramsgate is a not-for-profit arts community centre and gallery in central Ramsgate. We are at 46 High Street, next door to the post office.
We exist to provide a safe, accessible community space where we run inclusive no / low cost art, craft, music, and well-being sessions focussing on collective mental health.
We support and collaborate with local artists and creative people, and in partnership with other community organisations.
Our space is step-free and fully accessible for people who need to use wheels. We are disability, ND, LGBTQIA+ and trans positive and strive to be anti-racist. We are dog and child friendly.
How much do sessions cost?
Access is high priority for Arts in Ramsgate and for that reason most of our sessions and events are completely free, though donations are very welcome if you’d like to support our work.
Though some third-party event facilitators need to charge to cover their time as freelance artists, we have a ‘pay what you can’ policy across everything we do and nobody is ever turned away for lack of funds.
If you want to come to a session but can’t pay please chat to the Jemma the centre manager or send us an email and you can attend for free, no fuss.
Get involved We are interested in co-production with people who wish to collaborate and co-create with our community of regulars. We are also looking for volunteers to help out in a range of roles.
If you would like to work with us please drop us a line.
MONDAY
Sketch Club with Ruth Rollason
11am-12.30pm
A different still life and drawing activity each week. This relaxed session is suitable for all skill levels from beginners looking to learn new skills and to self-directed practitioners.
All materials are provided but you are welcome to bring your preferred kit if you like.
Sessions cost £10 which pays the tutor. 20% will go to Arts in Ramsgate to help fund our work. You can pay by cash or card.
Nobody is turned away for lack of funds, if you can’t pay please come along anyway.
No need to book, just drop in.
Neurodivergent Friends Thanet
Monday 14th April, 7-9pm
Free social drop in meet up for neurodivergent folks. Fun activities like crafts and games provided in an ND friendly environment.
Complimentary refreshments will be provided including teas, coffees, hot chocolate and biscuits. Tap water will also be available.
For safety and safeguarding reasons, this event is 18+ only.
IS BOOKING REQUIRED?We recommend booking in advance. We limit the number of tickets available to book for safeguarding reasons. Therefore, once maximum capacity is reached, we won’t be able to let anyone else in. You don’t have to book a ticket to come, but it’s the only way to absolutely guarantee your place for the meetup.
Booking link to follow. For now you can reserve your place by emailing: info@ndft.org.uk
For information about nearby transport links go to our ‘contact’ section.
We are 100% Neurodivergent & community-led, inclusive and intersectionality-informed, for Neurodivergents from all backgrounds, whether diagnosed, self-diagnosed or questioning.
TUESDAY
Mental Health Recovery Sessions
with the NHS Kent & Medway Recovery College
These free sessions are open to anyone needing a bit of extra mental health support in a friendly, social setting. Activities are co-designed by people with lived experience and clinical staff to encourage gentle healing and are suitable for all skill levels.
Introduction to Recovery College
Tuesday 21st January
10.30am-12.30pm
Drop in for a tea and a chat to find out more about Recovery College and meet the friendly team.
Tree of Life
18th & 25th March & 1st April
10.30am-12.30pm
The Tree of life is an enjoyable look at your life, personal resilience, hopes and dreams. You will be guided to look at how we have used our resourcefulness to develop strategies and strengths to overcome adversity in our lives and how we can recognise ways to use these invaluable skills in the future. All equipment is provided, although you may wish to bring along pens/felt tips. (Maximum of eight students)
No referral is required but you will need to book by clicking here to email your locality coordinator.
You will need to be enrolled to the NHS Kent & Medway Recovery College, click here to do this online.
We can help you sign up if you need a hand, pop in on a Friday between 2pm and 4pm during term time.
WEDNESDAY
Singing Mamas
with Amy
10.30am - 12.30pm
Every Wednesday
Singing Mamas is a national, grassroots not for profit community interest movement set up to improve women's wellbeing, and babies and children are welcome. Singing is a proven way to improve mood, reduce stress, soothe your nervous system and find connection with yourself and others.
No experience of singing or music making is needed. All songs and harmonies are taught by ear, line by line with call and response at a comfortable pace until everyone knows them by heart.
Join us for some beautiful simple harmony singing every Wednesday in term time.
Sessions cost £7 or £6 if you block book.
Some free spaces are reserved for those who need them, click here to email Jemma to book your free place, no fuss.
Contact Amy for more details at amasingingmamas@gmail.com
Follow her on Instagram @ama_sings_eastkentcoast
or book a taster session via https://bookwhen.com/singingmamaseastkent
The School of Noise
with Dan Mayfield
*SCHOOL OF NOISE WILL RETURN IN 2025, date TBC*
Click here to join our email newsletter to find out when
Listen & Play
Listen & Play classes support babies and toddlers to develop their listening and musical skills as they begin their journey through the sonic world around them.
During these classes, babies, toddlers and their caregivers can listen to lots of different sounds, dance, move, and play music together.
The classes include lots of percussion instruments to play on, visual projections, lights and bubbles!
‘The School of Noise is one of those ideas that you just KNOW is right: bringing back a sense of wonder & accessibility to music-making. Music is organised noise and organising noise is fun!’ — Jarvis Cocker
Just drop in. £5 / pay what you can per session.
Nobody is turned away for lack of funds.
Babychanging facilities are available.
THURSDAY
Science of Sound Home Ed session
with School of Noise
10-12pm
Thursday 6th March
School of Noise science of sound workshops combine interactive presentations with hands-on object-based play and experimentation.
Students can enrich their learning journey by conducting scientific experiments on how sound is made (vibration, frequency, amplitude), how it travels (different mediums, longitudinal/pressure waves), and where it ends up (reflection, absorption, hearing).
A range of scientific and musical equipment is provided for participants to use including a theremin, tuning forks, telegraph key (Morse Code), Chladni plates (making patterns in sand using vibration), real fruit and vegetables that can trigger musical sounds and more.
£10 per family
Booking essential
Contact Amy to book, places will go quickly amasingingmamas@gmail.com
Craft afternoon with Christine
1-4pm
Join Christine and her craft crew ladies for this low cost afternoon crafting session. Learn to make your own cards, keepsakes and gifts.
This session costs £3 plus the cost of your kit (from 80p)
Run on a not-for-profit basis by volunteers, proceeds go directly to the organisers who use the income from sessions to cover their costs.
To find out more, contact Christine on WhatsApp: 07773 528 829
No need to book, just drop in on the day.
FRIDAY
High Street Social Club
with Jemma
** OUR FRIDAY DROP-INS ARE PAUSED FROM FRIDAY 7th MARCH DUE TO ILL-HEALTH, WE WILL RECONVENE SOON, PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR FURTHER UPDATES **
FREE social drop in 11am-4pm
Every Friday except half term*
Whilst we await the outcome of several bids to fund our workshop program Fridays are a social drop-in where people bring their own projects to work on or use our materials to draw, paint and make. Support is available for your creative projects.
You are very welcome to just have a sit on the comfy couch, have a natter, and meet new friends. Everyone is welcome and this is a zero pressure environment.
Refreshments are provided and our heating will be on.
Sign up to our email newsletter to be the first to hear about new workshops when they are added to the timetable as well as upcoming events.
Send us a message, email us or just drop in on a Friday to find out more.
*We will not be open on these half term dates:
Fri 21st Feb
Fri 11th & 18th April
Fri 30th May
Fri 25th July
Get in touch to hire our accessible white-walled high street gallery space for an exhibition, shoot or event. All income from space hire funds our inclusive low / no cost art, craft, music, and wellbeing community programme.
Space hire fees:
- £100 per day for recurring bookings
- £20 per hour for recurring bookings
- £150 per day for one off bookings
- £350 for the gallery for the week
Special accessible exhibition space offer for artists: £50 per week to exhibit in our space with full access over the weekend which you will self-invigilate.
We consider other types of exchange if you are an artist who would like to exhibit in our space and cannot afford the hire fee.
You can ‘dry hire’ the space only or we can quote to support you with invigilation, assistance hanging your show, event support for your private view, marketing and promotion.
Our venue has flat access and an accessible loo with with baby changing facilities.
Facilities include a kitchenette. A projector and a PA system are available for use.
Email us or send a message on WhatsApp for a quote.
VolunteerEveryone is welcome at Arts in Ramsgate and we are looking for volunteers of all types to help with various jobs.
To find out more, drop in on a Friday during term between 2pm and 4pm for a chat or send us an email
Donate
Raising funds is an ongoing and challenging task. We are grateful for any donation to help us keep our doors open and the lights on!
Every penny directly funds our community work, you can send us any amount big or small easily, using PayPal:
Donating art and craft materials
Please check before dropping in donations of art and craft materials as we may not be able to accept them. Please, never leave items outside the door.
Donations of useful creative materials are gratefully received but with limited time and storage space we unfortunately don’t have capacity to sort through bags of random things.
Together with our community we work to improve mental health, encourage social cohesion and build cultural and civic participation for under-served people.
AiR is a low pressure environment and there is no obligation placed on people who come. ‘Participation’ might mean popping in for a chat or relaxing on the couch with a cuppa.
We strive to improve access for people who have been ignored, excluded or discriminated against. We are a trauma informed space and subscribe to the social model of disability.
In response to the needs of the people who come to us and world we live in, we are always in a process of unfolding and changing.
Our community programme has become very popular and so, to help us to increase our capacity and improve the quality of experience and support for our participants, we are being taken under the wing of Madlove, a mental health charity run by artist activist the vacuum cleaner, AKA James Leadbitter.
To enable us to flex and change in response to needs expressed by our regulars, the original organisation founded in 2016 Arts in Ramsgate CIC has been dissolved, and we are now running as High Street Social Club for the Arts in Ramsgate. Which is a huge mouthful! But choosing this long official title means we can still be known as Arts in Ramsgate to our community. In a chaotic world, this familiarity and continuity feels really important.
We can’t wait to build on the radically supportive relationships we have fostered to become the organisation we have always known we could be. Watch this space.
Jemma Cullen, Arts in Ramsgate director
October 2024
Glimmers
Autumn and winter 2024
A ‘glimmer’ is a feeling of safety and connection or joy, it is the opposite of a ‘trigger’.
Inspired by the paradigm shift taking place in the field of mental health regarding the role of trauma in our lives and bodies, we ran GLIMMERS in collaboration with artist Rebecca Strickson and forty of our regulars, with twenty extra joining us for a community meal. Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded the project, the brief from them was inspire hope in our community within the first one hundred days of the new government (we overdelivered and ran to November).
Our participants got to meet a raft of local artists, some back by popular demand, and try new things. Together, week by week, we did a deep dive into the theme of hope. The joyful aspects as well as what happens when you lose hope - and how you might navigate to through that very difficult terrain. These sessions were intimate, joyful, sorrowful and life-affirming. Together, we learned to recognise ‘glimmers’ .
After playing crystal singing bowls for the first time, one participant said ‘I think I know what poisitive vibes are now, I think I have only known negative vibes really, depression. Now I know what positive vibes actually feel like’.
After our sound art and abstract expressionism workshop, a participant said ‘you create therapy for us every week. I really can’t wait to come every Friday and try a different thing’.
Here is an archive of the workshops which were part of this project, and the artists we worked with:
Friday 11th October
Sparkle and Joy Quest with Rachelle Francis
Friday 18th October
Allhallowstide beer can votive workshop with Billie M Vigne & Hetty Bax
Friday 25th October
Drypoint etching workshop with Mat Pringle
Friday 25th October
Free community meal with chef Gita Sahni
Friday 8th November
Gong bath and crystal singing bowls sound healing with Cherelle Sappleton
Friday 15th November
Beginners’ abstract expressionist painting & sound improvisation workshop with Meera Palia & Tom Adams (see video below)
Friday 22nd November
Movement for Joy! with Jodie Cole
It’s My Life, Don’t You Forget
Spring 2024
It’s My Life, Don’t You Forget was a 10 part, process-driven project developed by Open School East for their associate 2023/24 programme, guided by internationally recognised artist and disability advocate James Leadbitter (working under the name ‘vacuum cleaner’).
The project was designed for the community at The Beacon, an NHS mental healthcare space in Ramsgate, three of the sessions were delivered at Arts in Ramsgate for Beacon outpatients as well as the community of regulars at Arts in Ramsgate.
The Associates delivered a programme of 10 workshops in spring 2024 to foreground outpatient and staff members’ needs and creative ideas, utilising each Associate’s artistic practice and specialist skills, that includes poetry, performance, audio and video production, animation, painting and textiles. Each workshop created a space in which participants could platform and share their own experiences and advocate for their needs.
Through an engaging and varied programme, It’s My Life, Don’t You Forget sought to improve the quality of life for Beacon outpatients and AiR regulars, to trial partnerships with cultural partners to benefit mental health in Thanet, and prepare a new wave of early-career artists to work in ways that can support mental health (and mental health care provision settings), centring lived experience and the interests of the patient.
Along with seven other Kent based mental health and arts professionals, AiR director Jemma Cullen has been part of the Advisory & Accountability Group for the project which is in place to help shape and adapt a collaborative approach, so that planned activities could reflect more creative ways of working with NHS users and staff members at The Beacon and AiR. The A&AG group met monthly to engage in critical discussion around the project with Open School East and the vacuum cleaner. The group act as caretakers of the project, supporting through training sessions, skill sharing and mutual mentoring.
Alongside artist and designer Rachelle Francis, Jemma ran a preparatory workshop for the associates; ‘A peer support group for people who need to look after themselves so they can look after other people’.
High Street Social Club
Winter 2023/24
Everyone knows what it's like to feel lonely. For some people, for all kinds of reasons, it can be a particularly tricky problem to solve. And that's why Arts in Ramsgate joined forces with lead partner Discovery Planet and Dr Nadia Brookes, Dr Vanessa Abrahamson and Dr Stella Bolaki of the University of Kent with the support of a Creative Lives Know Your Neighbourhood grant to set up the High Street Social Club which through a series of free workshops and events reached 650 people.
Across three months we enlivened the high street with a programme of free workshops for our regulars and new attendees and volunteers drawn to our services by the project.
With artist and designer Rebecca Strickson we learned ‘The Art of Words’; wording, design, colour theory and layout to create welcoming invitations and a bright window design to welcome people to our club. At Christmastime we also made block colour Christmas wreaths from cut paper in a Strickson style.
Using layout skills we learned with Rebecca, printmaker Mat Pringle guided us to we carve lino to create our own linocut prints.
With metalsmith Billie M. Vigne we fashioned embossed ‘beer can votive’ offerings for our Christmas tree from used drinks cans we opened up and flattened, tooling patterns, words and pictures into the metal.
With Clair and Carli of the Lunatraktors we danced and sang and celebrated Yule.
In ‘The Art of Books’ with Stella Bolaki we learned to hand sew books, inspired by unique publications from the University’s special collections whilst over at AiR, Jemma Cullen guided a group through the Power Threat Meaning Framework to create and take ownership of own mental health stories in ‘The Story of You’.
In ‘The Art of Mapping’ at Discovery Planet, particpants created a community map of Ramsgate, capturing all our favourite spots whilst over at AiR, sound artist and musician Dan Mayfield The School of Noise gave a hands-on demo of his amazing sound making equipment including a Themein and an Omnichord as well as a guided sound tour of the neighbourhood.
In ‘The Art of Feeling Good’ with Jasbir Dhillon, inspired by her Punjabi Indian heritage, we made a community mandala from flower petals, drank ginger and lemon tea whilst we swapped stories with strangers by the light of a diya (a traditional Sikh mustard oil lamp).
In the final run, as requested by regulars, with photorealist artist Lynne Webster (and AiR board member and volunteer) we learned to improve our drawing skills.
The High Street Social Club continues every Friday 11am - 4pm. Whoever you are and whatever your story you are invited you to join our club to use your own lived experience to help us remove barriers and help people feel welcome.
Ramsgate Reconnects
Ramsgate Festival of Sound
Summer 2023
What does it mean to ‘regenerate’ a town? And what does regeneration mean for Ramsgate? These sonic workshops took place to amplify the voices of townspeople.
With the help of composer, sonic artist and Neurodivergent advocate Louis Palfrey, in this collaborative, temporary installation we used conductive paint and the power of touch to bring aspects of the decision making process to life.
This commission for the Ramsgate Festival of Sound was a chance to respond to the council’s plans for ‘Ramsgate Future’. We immersed ourselves in a symphony of sounds as we worked together to create a tactile sonic map, thinking through the impact of change and connection together.
This was an independent event not affiliated with Thanet District Council or Ramsgate Town Council, though members of the regeneration team were in attendance to help talk us through plans and report back to the council.
Ramsgate Rocks
Spring 2023
Arts in Ramsgate is on Ramsgate High Street which is a part of a ‘Heritage Action Zone’. With funding from Historic England designed to involve communities in the history and heritage of their local areas, we were able to deliver a series of workshops, a lecture and community group exhibiton to explore the fascinating history of our little corner of the high street, and think about the lives that have been lived there. Both human and dinosaur!
Inspired by an evening lecture by ‘Mr Ramsgate’, local history enthusiast Ralph Hoult we explored the geography of the area in a drawing workshops Drawing Ramsgate with artist and eduator Laura Owen.
Poet Connor Sansby taught us how to write Haiku, to encapsulate our favourite memories of bygone Ramsgate using a specific number of syllables, and perhaps a seasonal reference.
In Dancing in Circles, Lunatraktors Carli and Clair helped us explore the joy of being part of the Ramsgate community with song, dance and... body percussion.
This programme culminated in a group community exhibition Ramsgate Rocks where we showed our newly learned skills to the public alongside old footage and photos as we shared memories of the town over cups of tea and biscuits.
Ramsgate Winter Lantern Parade
Christmas 2022
The Ramsgate Winter Lantern Parade was launched in 2017 in collboration with artist and Great British Carnival founder Teresa Askew. The event has been managed by AiR volunteers every Christmas until the Covid pandemic halted proceedings.
In 2022, supported by The Big Lottery Community Fund, Ramsgate Town Council and Thanet District Council the event returned under the theme Safe Harbour. The team delivered three months’ of workshops for participants of all ages and backgrounds followed by a dazzling parade of over 500 people carrying hundreds of handmade willow lanterns, a magnificent cardboard replica of the St. George’s Church beacon built by local artist Janis Gibbs, newly formed community samba band ‘Samba Ya Wantsum’, a giant lobster and the Whitstable giant, proceeding from Arts in Ramsgate on the High Street to the main sands for carols and Christmas songs conducted by choirmaster Emily Peasgood, accompanied by a brass band.
Arts in Ramsgate and The Great British Carnival plan to run the event annually, funding permitting, expanding the project to include a number of Ramsgate community groups.
Click here for more information
Photos by Vicki Couchman
The Plants Talk Back
Margate Now
Autumn 2021
Commissioned for Margate Now by Open School East founder and curator Anna Colin, led by Jemma Cullen / Arts in Ramsgate in collaboration with GOLD (Getting on with Learning Difficulties), artists Rosie Carr, Holly Hunter and writer and comedian Trevor Neal ‘The Plants Talk Back’ was a two-day site-specific exploration and speculation at the Sunken Garden (though it was rained off and took place indoors at The Nayland Rock Hotel) to investigate just how entangled we are with our natural environment, and each other.
Day one was a drama improvisation workshop led by Trevor Neal (’swing your pants’) involving Arts in Ramsgate regulars, members of GOLD and members of the public to create a casual and celebratory public performance.
Day two was a sound workshop led by local artists Rosie Carr and Holly Hunter with members of GOLD and Arts in Ramsgate. By harnessing plant and human bioelectricity using Playtronica devices, we speculated about what plants might say and gave voice to flora from the garden. The workshop was followed by a public live improvised performance of our ‘plant orchestra’.
Across both days, sixty participants took part in workshops and 300 people attended performances.
Click here for more information and documentation
Don’t Mock the Donkey
Autumn 2021
Arts in Ramsgate was used as a location by director Samin Saadat and crew to shoot their Arts Council England funded Persian and English language short film Don’t Mock the Donkey.
Saadat ploughed his lived experience into the script, choosing the Kent coast as a location at a time many ‘small boats’ were arriving on Kent shores.
Click here to view the trailer
Jane Hetherington
Lynne Webster
Jemma Cullen
James Leadbitter
Our constitutional aims
As a not-for-profit, we are registered with the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies as HIGH STREET SOCIAL CLUB FOR ARTS IN RAMSGATE CIC (15907695)
We have a set of agreed aims for our work called a constitution - which you can view and download here. We are permitted to fundraise to fulfil these aims on behalf of our community, overseen by our board.
All funds raised are ploughed directly back into the community work we do, protected by an ‘asset lock’, meaning money raised cannot be used for any other purpose.
We are ‘limited by guarantee with a large membership’. We consult our ‘membership’ (our regular community participants) about our programming and decision making and work in the spirit of co-creation. We have meetings on Fridays at least four times a year, please get in touch if you would like to be involved and have a say in running Arts in Ramsgate.
Public liability insurance, safeguarding policies and risk assessments are available upon request.
Who do we exist to serve?:
-
Historically excluded communities and people experiencing poverty and loneliness
- Artists and creative people
- People with mental health difficulties, disabilities, learning disabilities and
people who are neurodivergent
- Other arts and community organisations
- Local people
What are our constitutional aims?:
To run High Street Social Club:
a disabled run, inclusive, accessible community social space to alleviate loneliness, promote good mental health and support community cohesion.
To commission and support artists and other practitioners to run art, music and wellbeing workshops and co-created projects, exhibitions and residencies with our members.
To work with partners and local officials to involve our members in the regeneration of the town.
To allow artists and other community organisations to use our space as a gallery, event or meeting space at low or no cost.