In September 2026 Southall Community Alliance launched free weekly art classes for adults, as part of a project funded by the People’s Health Trust. The classes are taking place on Tuesdays in Southall Town Hall from 4pm to 5.30pm. They are open to adults living in Southall and all abilities are welcome! No registration is required and we aim to include as many people as we can.
The People’s Health Trust project focuses on organising arts and crafts activities in Southall to foster community engagement and to encourage the development of new creative skills. For the first month participants in our art classes will study painting, before moving on to other mediums such as sketching, making decorations and jewellery.
An enthusiastic and welcoming environment
Abhikhya Madonna, the artist leading the classes, says “I was quite nervous when I first started teaching the classes, as I have more experience working with children and haven’t taught adults as much. But everyone has been incredibly welcoming and so enthusiastic about trying their hand at something new each week. It’s been lovely to see how creative everyone is, and their enthusiasm has made the classes really enjoyable for me too. I feel like I’ve learned just as much from them as they’ve learned from me!”
A history of celebrating art in Southall
Southall Community Alliance has a long history of bringing residents together to develop new skills and to tackle social isolation. Over the last two summers SCA have organised arts stalls for children and families, featuring free activities such as origami, air-dry clay, painting, jewellery-making, badge-making, paper construction and many more!
In addition, in 2024 we led an arts project called Southall Resists, which involved teaching local history in primary and secondary schools in Southall, with a particular focus on the experiences of migrant communities in the 1960’s and 70’s.
The classes, led by Janpal Basran (Southall Community Alliance) and Suresh Grover (The Monitoring Group) explored pivotal events of the time, such as the murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar, the 1979 Southall Uprising and the death of Blair Peach.
Art workshops led by Artist Mahenderpal Sorya then focussed on remembering and commemorating local history and expressing feelings about this past through a range of visual arts projects. All art works were displayed at a major exhibition at Villiers High School on ‘Southall Resists Day’, 23rd April 2024, attended by hundreds of children who took part. You can see the art works on our website, listed as Online Exhibition under the Resources tab.
Future creative endeavours
Looking forward, we want to continue to engage residents artistically and to encourage them to be creative. We will actively look for opportunities to provide more options to Southall residents for inclusivity, creativity and friendship.
