Sunday 24 July 2011

Cinema Museum Awarded a Happy Museum award

Congratulations to KOV members the Cinema Museum, who have won a HAPPY MUSEUM award of £6575.

The Happy Museum Project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, was launched in March 2011 with the paper The Happy Museum co-written by the New Economics Foundation and leading museum commentators. Its concluding ‘manifesto for well-being’ argues that museums have innate qualities which can inspire a re-imagining of a society which values co-operation and stewardship of our surroundings as much as it does economic well-being.

The awards will go to:

• Manchester Museum for The Playful Museum
• Lightbox in Woking, Surrey for Landscapes of The Mind,
• The Cinema Museum, London for Creative Community Curators,
• London Transport Museum for The Conversation Hub,
• Godalming Museum for Collecting Connections
• The Story Museum, Oxford for Happy From the Beginning


Robert Dufton, Director of Paul Hamlyn Foundation says:

“These new commissions explore how the principles of happiness and well-being can leave a legacy of cultural change within the museum and galleries’ organisations or communities. Museums offer spaces to consider the past, and through that to understand our lives today, and help shape our future. The Happy Museum proposes a way for them to serve our communities by helping them to become more resilient for the future.”

The Happy Museum scheme attracted over 40 applications demonstrating the readiness of the UK museum sector to respond to challenges presented by the need for creating a more sustainable future with a focus on well-being and social change.

The awardees will form a community of practice stimulated by a series of activities taking place between 2011-13, including a 2 day symposium in January 2012 which will introduce commissioned projects and leading thinkers from museums to people with a psychology and social policy background developing work around subjective well-being along with climate scientists, environmentalists and energy specialists.

The six commissioned projects and reports from the Symposium will be disseminated via the Happy Museum website, connecting people interested in this radical approach to re-imagining the purpose of museums. The project concludes with a Conference in January 2013 which ‘rounds up’ the commissioned projects, establishing a way forward to further embed principles of happiness within the sector.


Creative Community Curators, The Cinema Museum (£6575), based in The Lambeth Workhouse (once home to Charlie Chaplin) invites local people to explore the museum’s international collection of cinema memorabilia to become ‘community curators’. ‘Everyone who comes here loves it’ says Martin Humphries, director, ‘And it’s because of that love we’re still here. We can reward our fantastic volunteers for their commitment and reach out to our local community in Elephant and Castle so they can tell us how to curate.’


Monday 11 July 2011

Walcot grant information - low income parents

A message from the Daycare trust is below:

The Walcot Foundation are offering a generous grant this academic year of up to £5,000 to low income parents in Lambeth who would like to study or train as a pathway into employment but who cannot afford childcare.

Daycare Trust is working with the Walcot Foundation to promote this grant and to advise parents on their childcare options and on other help with their childcare costs. This is a really exciting opportunity for parents

Quick eligibility checklist for Lambeth students – parent must answer yes to each of these questions

§ Do you currently live in Lambeth and have lived there for at least one year?

§ Are you receiving out-of-work means-tested benefits, earning very low wages or not entitled to state benefits?

§ Will you be occupied for at least 21 hours each week with a combination of education, training (this does not include study time), employment, work experience, voluntary work, personal development or job search?


Please refer all parents who you think might be eligible for the grant to our helpline number 020 7940 7533 and the Daycare Trust will discuss it with them in more detail and send them an application form if they meet the criteria. If assistance with completing the application form is required, the Walcot Foundation have an advice worker who can help with this, the contact details are on the application form.

The Walcot Foundation are looking for goal setting and an associated action plan to get there. Walcot have a careers adviser who can help with the action planning / goal setting and it may be a condition of the grant that the applicant attends a meeting with them. The careers adviser will contact them directly to arrange this if this is the case.

The Walcot Foundation aim to process applications within 6 weeks but this may be longer during busy periods.

Please feel free to call us if you would like us to send you some promotional materials to distribute to parents or require any further information about the project.



from: Jan Burt
Information & Training Officer
Daycare Trust
2nd Floor, Novas Contemporary Urban Centre

73 – 81 Southwark Bridge Road

London SE1 0NQ
Tel: 0845 872 6260

Visit our website www.daycaretrust.org.uk and our parent-dedicated website www.payingforchildcare.org.uk

Sunday 10 July 2011

SPRING MEWS (GLASSHOUSE WALK) PUBLIC EXHIBITION: 14-16 JULY 2011

Spring Mews is a proposed new mixed-use scheme including student accommodation with retail, hotel, and a new community centre and cafe. The proposed new development is sited on land bounded by Tinworth Street to the North, Vauxhall Street to the east, Glasshouse Walk to the south and the railway line to the west.

Proposals have been, and continue to be, developed in discussions with Lambeth Council and in liaison with the Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre; the latest proposals are being presented to the public for consultation on the dates below.

Public exhibition

Thursday 14 July 5.30pm to 8.30pm

Saturday 16 July 11am to 2pm

Exhibition venue Westminster Towers, 3 Albert Embankment


About the existing site and proposals

The site is underutilised at present and has been identified for redevelopment in Lambeth Council’s Local Plan for some considerable period of time. The much loved community centre is tired and the overall run-down site only provides around 20 jobs with most of the site used for coach parking.

CLS (the developers)' proposals provide for a modern community centre to be built in the same location and the provision of over 80 jobs on the site with new commercial uses. In addition, by providing student accommodation CLS is supporting the delivery of the Council’s affordable housing provision by reducing the demand on the private rented sector that would otherwise be available for family housing. New retail and a public mews will also add to the local amenity and setting with better pedestrian links through to local green spaces and architecture sensitive to the area’s heritage.

Quote from CLS is below:

'Investing in Vauxhall

As you may already know, CLS Holdings plc (CLS) is both the largest property company in Lambeth and is based in Vauxhall. We have been investing in the area for over 20 years and very much look forward to discussing our proposals with you.'