Lewisham Voices

"There used to be wild cats living there. We used to feed them and give them milk and cat food, Whiskers and fish.
I love animals! I'm not allowed to have animals where I live now. Used to be a lot of wild cats at this hospital for years. There were some horses down there, loads of horses in the fields, and we used to stroke them we did. We used to pinch the apples and pears in there, apples and pears and feed them to the horses, we used to go to the orchard and pinch the apples and pears." Sylvia Lawrie 'Lewisham Voices' was a collaborative community history project, forming part of 'London Voices', a 3 year programme funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The project was a collaboration between The Museum of London and Lewisham Libraries Service and will involved contributions to a community archive from people who live in Lewisham. Entelechy Arts worked with the existing partners to enable people with learning disabilities to be included in Lewisham's community archive and will focus on the stories of people whose life experiences and memories are often excluded from a community's history. Entelechy's work focused on enabling the project to include people who have different ways in which they talk about their stories and experiences.

Song Exchange

"What's that?" Nursery child looking at the violin played by an older musician. A joint pilot partnership between Entelechy Arts and Camberwell Choir School. The project gathered songs from the community for young local children, which were then made into a CD and book for local nurseries, parents and primary schools to use. As part of this pilot the two organisations facilitated highly successful sessions which brought older singers, musicians, including those with disabilities, and their songs together with local nursery children.

'84, but still 14'

"You really want to do it, but then you can't be getting a bus in Deptford after 9pm."
Joan Godfrey

In 2001 Entelechy was commissioned by The Greater London Authority Cultural Strategy group to consult with Older Londoners about their views on and experiences of 'culture', as participants and consumers. An consultation group was drawn from Entelechy's existing network of older people in Southwark and Lewisham The consultation took the form of:

• Interviews with individuals and groups
• Questionnaires for individuals and groups

and included:

• One to one documented conversations, interviews and questionnaires with more than fifty older people in a range of informal settings
• Five facilitated group discussions with older people in a diverse range of cultural and social settings
• Five interviews with older leaders engaged in cultural activities
• Identifying and visiting three models of existing 'best practice'

The core group took part in a series of reflection sessions where older people met regularly to discuss the consultation's progress and any emerging themes and issues. Individuals from this group were present at most interviews and the process itself became an area of rich cultural exchange.

Crafting our Memories
A visual arts class established for older people from a partnership developed between Entelechy, Southwark Community Education and the Time and Talents Association. The class continues and is now run by Southwark Lifelong Learning.

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