OUR COLLECTIVE
The NO Collective was founded in 2010 by participating artists Natalie and Joe, with the humble ambition to share the joy of art education with the world. 'NO' began as a small group of creatives coming together to make community engaged artworks. Over the years, our collective vision has evolved. Now we support young, emerging artists and communities with workshops, events, projects and opportunities, both in London and abroad.
We are extremely grateful for our fantastic network of members, who support our work with their specialist knowledge and shape the ethos of our collective. Our members include artists, designers, architects, writers, educators and thinkers from across Europe.
Est. 2010
Jenny (above) is the collective's third director. She joined the team in 2017 and is based in Gothenburg in Sweden. She represents the collective in the Nordic countries and assists with international research and writing projects. She is a skilled ceramic artist and is currently studying artistic pedagogy at Gothenburg University.
Natalie (above right) organises the day to day running of the collective. She is a cultural project manager with specific experience in cultural property and business design, arts-led regeneration, community engagement and cultural events. She currently works in the community shopping centre industry and sits on a number of boards, including the Havering Changing CPP consortium, The Romford Business Improvement District, and the advisory board for The Eurasian Creative Guild.
Joe (top left) leads our educational programmes. A qualified teacher, Joe has specific experience in digi-tech in the arts. He has led research projects on behalf of UAL for cutting edge products such as 'Google Glass'. Joe designs educational schemes and resources for schools within NO projects. Joe currently works in a primary school in West London where he is the head of the ICT department. He is a skilled educational facilitator who can transition seamlessly between formal and non-formal methodologies.
We have over 40 brilliant members; here is an intro to a few!
Rob
Rob is a painter and critical writer, who is currently researching his PHD at UCL. He has worked with us in article writing, most predominantly on the InAzerbaijan project.
WSMS
Shanka and Walter are urban designers / architects working on projects across central London. They are integral in designing the Architecture Week programme.
Nick
Nick is a commerical photographer working in central London. He beautifully records many of the collective's endeavours whilst also helping with design.
Gill
Gill is a craft artist based in Havering. She is our family events manager, leading the Romford Utopia event and also supporting all event preparation.
Charlotte
Charlotte has been attending events with the collective since she was 14. Now she is a writer and illustrator and one of our international researchers.
Membership
WHY DO WE HAVE A MEMBERSHIP?
The NO Collective is an informal, non-governmental, not-for profit organisation.
This means that to ensure our organisation governance is working towards our ethos, aims and objectives, we have a membership of people guiding our activities in the right direction.
ETHOS: When producing collective artworks, we use democratic and non-authoritarian methods to make decisions.
This means that if we are working with creatives and artists from different professional levels and disciplines, everyone will have the chance to make decisions equally. This strengthens opportunities for young and emerging creatives to learn and get work experience, but also can inspire professionals, or challenge pre-conceieved ideas. Even the work becomes multi-layered - so everyone wins!
This Ethos is kept in mind when introducing young and emerging creatives to professional and commissioned projects.
An openmindedness towards learning is the most important requisite in joining The NO Collective.
"NO is a social collective that bases its works around investigating micro-cultures and introducing humorous artwork to a mass of seemingly un-interested viewers; by using familiarity and stereotypes, and often games, ‘NO’ is keen to widen the understanding of contemporary art mediums and open the mind to subjects that are close to home"
- Founding Mission Statement
WHAT DO MEMBERS DO?
All of our members are completely different. Some join us in events, some are more active in what the collective is up to at home, whilst others choose to travel to youth training on our behalf. We often call on individual members for different things - for example, a writer may be able to help with an educational article, or a designer on some project brand work. It is not a collective that can guarantee you paid work, but we will help you where possible in creating fun and engaging projects that meet the collective's aims and objectives.
Most importantly, we make the most of having fun together with like-minded people!
To read more about our ethos and previous activities, please click below: