Lola Ralph on Chill Club
Lola regularly attends Newington’s Chill Club, a youth club for young people aged 10 – 18 years where she gets involved in a range of creative activities.
She talks about the different activities she has enjoyed including working alongside different professional artists such as Rebecca Strickson and Zoe Murphy, where she has made t-shirt designs, a club banner and Christmas wreaths and more recently designing a toiletries bag for free hygiene products that were given to the members of the club.
Lola also talks about attending various community events in the Copse, a local woodland area, attending this summer’s holiday activities programme and this year’s Roundabout Theatre that visited Newington. Through the club she has also had the opportunity to take part in a number of workshops and exhibitions working alongside a professional photographer, as part of the club’s collaboration with Project Motorhouse, a local arts organisation.
When asked if she has always been creative, Lola talks about remembering being in Year 1 at primary school and doodling in her school books. She has always enjoyed art and since starting secondary school and now being in Year 9 she talks animatedly about her Options. She has decided that she would like to take Art, Design Technology (DT) and Photography. Lola talks with pride about making a cutlery set, a bowl and a car in her DT lessons. More recently, her older brother, Bailey asked her to teach him how to draw. Bailey attends the local sixth form college and has started an engineering course where he is required to draw prototypes. He was tasked with fixing an airplane door and he had to draw a plan of how to fix it.
During the community summer holiday programme, Lola created some alley animals alongside artist Rob and really enjoyed the process. She learned about making cyanotype prints with artist Nova - creating images using objects and the sunlight – and talks excitedly about the process. We discussed the community and how it has changed and the word she used was ‘colours’. She explained that there is more colour in the community – the alley animals, the Copse sign, the big yellow tent that is Roundabout Theatre and the community centre turning green and yellow! Some of this colour is permanent and some temporary.
Lola says: “I am really loved the work we did with the Roundabout Theatre. Last year I was Front of House, welcoming people. This year I did the same but I also got involved with the Chill Club Cabaret and worked behind the scenes as Stage Manager.”
So what next? Lola talks about wanting to have more opportunities to do drama and dance.