My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
Yes
I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.
Yes
My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.
Yes
My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.
Yes
If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.
Yes
My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), evidence of access to a lease for the space you are leveraging, and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.
Yes
I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.
Yes
Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?
No
I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions.
Yes
First Name
Paul
Last Name
Crook
Pronouns
He/Him
Email address
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
0
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
No
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
No
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Lead Organisation Name
South London Gallery
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
1966
Initiative Title
New Ways to Play at Art Block
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.southlondongallery.org
Initiative Stage
Pilot-Stage (The first activities have happened, and you have proof of concept)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
A major artist project reimagining the space of Art Block – the South London Gallery’s dedicated off-site creative space – aiming to engage local young people in inclusive, experimental and physical forms of play.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve and who will benefit the most from your solution? How close are you to the problem and/or community impacted?
Art Block is the South London Gallery’s dedicated space on Sceaux Gardens estate for local children aged 6-16 to make things and play. Encompassing after-school sessions, artist projects and community events, Art Block benefits over 170 children and young people per year, most of whom live on Peckham and Camberwell housing estates. Launched in 2017, the programme has demonstrably increased children’s happiness, confidence and career prospects, as well as parents’ mental health. However, while physical activity forms a major part of younger participants’ play, we have witnessed a significant reduction in physical play among older participants as they graduate into secondary school. Competitive and skills-based approaches to sport in formal education are reducing the appetite for physical play among young people at Art Block, particularly among female attendees aged 11+. Yet as being active has been recognised by the NHS as a major contributor to positive mental health, the lack of participation in physical activity among older Art Block participants is compromising their wellbeing. As a child-led space for play, Art Block has an underexplored potential to operate as a space that reimagines what physical play can be for those deterred by a focus on competition and attainment. Art Block is a unique but underused resource for combining art and sport to challenge barriers to participation in free enrichment activities. However, as a former shop unit, Art Block is not a purpose-built space designed for physical activity. We therefore seek to find ways to reimagine the space through an artistic redesign so that it can reach its potential in facilitating a creative approach to sport led by inclusivity, experimentation, and play.
Your approach: How are you/ will you addressing the problem outlined above? How does your solution unlock or reimagine access to spaces for sport and physical activity? What role do landowners, local authorities, or other decision-making stakeholders play in your approach? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
To address the barriers faced by 11+ female Art Block attendees, we will commission a local artist to redesign the space by adopting an innovative and unconventional approach to sport and physical play. Typical games and sport equipment have proven less engaging to older, female attendees at Art Block, decreasing their motivation to play. To make the space more inclusive, the artist will apply their socially engaged practice to reimagine Art Block as a space for new forms of play that foreground inclusion, wellbeing and social connection. The redesign will be led by the interests of young people. Art Block attendees will participate in weekly artist-led workshops throughout the year, where they will explore design options, attend visits to play spaces, and create play equipment prototypes ahead of the final design. Young people will play an integral role in reimagining Art Block, creating a space they can call their own. We will also work closely with Sceaux Gardens Tenants and Residents Association, a longstanding partner of Art Block who has played a major role in its evolution. The project builds upon the success of previous Art Block artist projects that integrated sport. In 2023, artists YARA + DAVINA worked with young people at Art Block to explore their personal and collective goals through art and football, culminating in the creation of bespoke goalposts, custom footballs, and a temporary five-a-side football pitch. Similarly, artist duo Something & Son led a project centred on radical trust, where young people at Art Block voted to install a temporary swimming pool, enabling several young people to swim for the first time. Both projects were hugely popular among young people and confirmed the unique wellbeing benefits of sport and creativity.
Collaboration with young people and the community: In what ways does your initiative engage young people and community members closest to the problem? What role do they play in building the solution you deliver?
The project builds upon nearly a decade of relationship building with Art Block participants and their families. The children and young people who attend Art Block are primarily residents of housing estates in the immediate vicinity of the South London Gallery. The area is proudly diverse, with over 80% of participants from Global Majority backgrounds. Yet it is also an area that faces high levels of deprivation: it is within the 20% most disadvantaged area nationally and 75% of Art Block participants eligible for free school meals (over three times the Southwark average). Free, open access to spaces to play have proven critical to those in the area, particularly as housing is often overcrowded and access to green space in limited. The project will elevate the existing deep trust between Art Block staff and communities by providing them a rare opportunity to enhance the space in ways that work for them. In line with Art Block’s youth-led ethos, young people will play a key part in the redesign’s development, working with the artist to shape its design and implementation. The artist will host pilot sessions with young people in Autumn 2026, where they can familiarise themselves with Art Block attendees and young people can inform the content of the subsequent workshops. Young people will then attend as many of the weekly after-school workshops with the artist as they wish. During these workshops, young people will shape the artist's ideas to ensure the redesign of the space fully addresses their needs and play interests. The nature of the physical changes are therefore intentionally open-ended at this stage as they will be fully guided by the young people through long periods of consultation, culminating in a redesigned space they can call their own.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in unlocking spaces for and access to physical activity and sport so far? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had , and or what impact do you envision having in the future?
The project will elevate the existing impact of Art Block on the lives of young people and their families in Peckham and Camberwell. We have delivered over 700 sessions at Art Block for over 500 local children and young people since 2017. An external research study by Shared Intelligence in 2024 outlined that Art Block demonstrably increases children's confidence, happiness and creativity; supports parents' mental health through the provision of 560 hours of free childcare per year; and provides a space where children and their families feel safe among growing fears of crime in the area. This is echoed in feedback from local parents: - “I would have never let her play on the playground outside, but because of Art Block a sense of community has been built and now I feel safe to bring my kids there.” - “We don’t have access to a garden [at home], and this allows him to be free and creative, and to run outside.” Access to free and safe spaces to play is increasingly difficult in the area. The project will amplify the ongoing need for Art Block by ensuring that it is inclusive for all and reaches its potential for supporting young people's wellbeing. We anticipate that over 150 young people aged 6-16 will be involved in the project throughout the year, with over 1,700 engagements in the project (including repeat attendees) during the grant period. The project particularly aims to benefit teenage girls by making their voices heard in the redesign of Art Block, supporting them to articulate what they want from a play space. As the redesign is intended to be permanent, we anticipate that the number of beneficiaries will increase year on year as new young people register with the Art Block programme.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
The project capitalises on the experimental and socially engaged lens of an artist, who will reimagine sport in ways that make play more accessible for young people who face barriers to participation in structured team sports. Through Art Block, the South London Gallery has developed a strong track record in delivering pioneering programmes for children and young people that are child led and centre creativity and play. Since the launch of Art Block in 2018, numerous museums and galleries in the UK have similarly integrated play-based wellbeing activities into their learning programmes, motivated by the increasing number of research studies confirming the wellbeing benefits of engaging with art. However, while Art Block has featured several artists’ projects that incorporate sport into play-focused artist projects, sport is rarely featured as a method of play with comparable benefits for wellbeing within the cultural sector. As such, a dedicated art and sport project at Art Block will not only build upon our track record of delivering sport-centred activities for young people; it will pioneer a new approach exploring the unique benefits of combining art and sport through radical, creative and experimental concepts of physical activity. These activities will reimagine Art Block and its green spaces through the implementation of purpose-built play equipment, transforming an already innovative space situated within a local housing estate in ways that are guided by the needs of the young people who live nearby. In so doing, the project will challenge barriers to participation in both sport and art, through its opposition to competition, skill-centric attitudes, and gender-based preconceptions that determine how young people consider which forms of play are for them.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your initiative up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?
We will work closely with a number of organisations to develop our idea. We will partner with sports coaching and mentoring organisation, BADU, who have expressed their interest in consulting for the programme. BADU will be our critical friend, advising us on the redesign of Art Block and on best practice for integrating sports activities into creative programmes for young people. We will also consult Harris Academy East Dulwich and Sacred Heart Catholic School – two local schools with whom we have longstanding relationships – to gain a greater understanding of how young people engage with sport and play within formal education settings. This period of consultation will coincide with significant research into potential artists and will determine the specification for the artist we invite to participate in the project. Once recruited, the artist will then spend the first few months undergoing a research and consultation phase to design the project. They will familiarise themselves with the space, meet with young people at Art Block, liaise with our partners at BADU and local schools, and pilot activities to ensure their proposed programme of workshops and interventions have the desired impact. Through the project, we will develop a model of integrated art and sport programming that can be replicated in both sectors. We will host a conference at the end of the programme to share knowledge with other arts organisations and encourage them to build physical play into their learning offers. As Art Block has a reputation for being a leading example of child-led programming within museums and galleries, it is well positioned to influence other cultural organisations within the sector.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
The project will be managed by Polly South (SLG Communities & Learning Manager) and Eireny Akubeze (SLG Communities & Learning Coordinator), and will be overseen by Paul Crook (SLG Head of Communities & Learning and the organisation’s safeguarding lead). With the support of a dedicated team of Communities & Learning Assistants, Polly and Eireny lead the delivery of weekly after-school sessions at Art Block, where the SLG has been running after-school and weekend creative programming for local children and young people since 2017. During this time, the team has fostered deep-seated relationships with local residents, community organisations, youth groups, and housing associations. This includes the Sceaux Gardens Tenants and Residents Association, who will play an advisory role for the development of any exterior play equipment within the housing estate. BADU is an award-winning sports and coaching organisation in East London. Using sport as a vehicle to educate, empower and uplift young people, their work is focused around three strategic pillars: sports and physical activity; community and placemaking; and mentoring and workforce development. With over 18 years of experience in the field, BADU will play a critical role in the early planning of the project, ensuring that sport and physical activity are fully integrated into every aspect of the project. Teachers from Harris Academy East Dulwich and Sacred Heart Catholic School will also adopt advisory roles on the project. The South London Gallery has a strong relationship with both schools through the multi-year project, Your Space to Make, an after-school programme for young people aged 13-16. Both schools will promote the project to their pupils, supporting us in the recruitment of workshop participants.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
July – September 2026: Research into project artists; consultation with BADU and local schools; invitation sent to artist October – December 2026: Artist pilot sessions with young people ahead of finalising workshop content January – September 2027: Artist delivers weekly after-school workshops at Art Block to design interventions into the Art Block space October 2027: Fabrication and physical changes made to Art Block November 2027: Project evaluation December 2027: Host conference to share project learnings across with those in the culture and sport sectors
