Street SmART

Sydenham Arts' flagship new programme finding creative and artistic ways to improve safety for women in our neighbourhood.

What's it all About?

Drawing of 3 women

Street SmART is a new project focusing on innovative ways to use the arts and creativity to help improve safety for women, including raising awareness around current issues, making practical interventions such as empowering local businesses with knowledge, and opening up conversations about how we can make our streets safer for women.

We will be working with artists and creatives, as well as local businesses, and the wider community over the next 12 months. we'll be focussing on 3 stages:

RESEARCHING
Includes a focus group and a survey to gather data about the experiences of local women.

CONSULTATION & WORKSHOPPING
We will be consulting and engaging with organisations and groups for training, workshops and development sessions

IMPLEMENTING
Awareness and visibility - Women's Safety Charter, artistic outputs, community empowerment.

Local people will be involved at every stage, helping us to find creative and engaging new ways to approach the topic.

The project is funded by NCIL (National Community Infrastructure Levy) Fund.

Programme Goals

Street SmART programme goals

Women’s Safety Charter
Recognised locally as demonstrating best practice for improving Women’s safety.

Artistic outputs
Visual Arts, Poetry, Theatre... Leading to improved awareness and knowledge of local people around the issues of Women’s Safety, and the new initiatives which will be in place.

Businesses & Local Community
Feel more able to support in improving local safety. Local people confirm initiatives have improved safety for women locally.

Preorder our safety initiative stickers or cards!

Painting of a women walking along in the shadows of a tree.

Preorder a complimentary 'Safe Space' sticker or an 'In Case of Emergency Card' for your venue or when you're out and about in Sydenham by filling in this short form.

Pre-Order Here

Events & Workshops

There are currently no events.

Past Events

Take a quick look at some of our past events and activities so far as part of our programme.

  • Workshops

    We held a number of creative workshops, allowing space for freedom of expression, discussion of issues and topics, and to collect ideas for new initiatives which can form part of our work locally.

    • Art for Change

      December 2022 - We shared your ideas and created our own empowering artworks, with tips and techniques by artist Henna Bakhshi. Art for healing. Art for change. "I believe art has the power to change hearts and minds. I hope my art helps you see that we are not alone, that there is always hope and that together, we can make change happen."- Henna Bakhshi.

    • Feminist Art Collage

      March 2023 - To celebrate International Women's Day, local artist Amelia Grace Eve led a session to begin the creation of a large scale embroidered artwork. Local women took part in creating impactful collage and silhouette pieces, which will be combined to create a symbolic artwork at a later date.

    • Mapping Sydenham

      July 2023 - We came together to create a giant map of Sydenham, which highlights local opinions about various areas, and what we can do to make them safer for women and girls.

    • Poetry Writing

      November 2023 - We came together to explore how women and marginalised genders can think about articulating responses to street safety, public sexual harassment, and its impact on our local community. We considered examples of resilience to these issues and left with a renewed sense of urgency and empowerment.

    • Business Meet-Up

      April 2024 - Participants discussed strategies for local organisations and individuals to unite and become better informed and confident in promoting women's safety. The event also emphasised the concept of organisations becoming 'safe spaces' for fostering safety and support.

    • PSHE Session

      May 2024 - We visited Sydenham School, where facilitators Esme Allman and Eve Atkinson conducted a PSHE workshop for sixth-form students. Using theatre, they role-played scenarios of harassment, opening up conversations, and engaging the students in reflective collages.