Gather & Unfold is a series of zine-making workshops for parents who may have experienced stress, overwhelm, or isolation and are seeking a moment for creativity, reflection and reconnection.

Led by artists Heena Kim and Tamsin Relly, participants are invited to ‘gather and unfold’, to come together within a peer-supported space to explore the myriad experiences of parenthood through creative play; the highs and lows, challenges and joys, poetry and pressures.

Participants will each produce a zine - a small self-published booklet including artwork and text - exploring their individual emotional journey, and using drawing, painting, collage or printmaking processes.

The Story Behind >>>

Juggling parenting and work is inevitable when we become a parent. What we have lost and what we have gained… There must be something gained, but unfortunately it is not easy to turn your head to the bright side when you feel like you are in a dark tunnel without an end light and instead focusing on what you are delaying and losing: career, ‘me’ time and social life… We would like to provide creative time for those seeking support and a social link.

• No experience or materials are needed. 

• You may attend any number of the three workshops. We encourage joining multiple workshops to deepen the experience, but both single and multiple bookings are available, depending on your preference.

• Workshops run during school hours to enable parents whose children are in daycare or school to attend.

• The door will be open from 9.15am for refreshments & meeting the artists & other parents.

• Please contact us info@beyond-space.com to cancel your booking if you are not able to attend, so that we can reopen the place for another parent.

• Please note that the workshops are funded by Croydon Council and for Croydon residents only.

Times/ Dates

Gather & Unfold 1: Thursday, 19 June 2025, 9.30am - 11.30am

Gather & Unfold 2: Thursday, 26 June 2025, 9.30am - 11.30am

Gather & Unfold 3: Thursday, 3 July 2025, 9.30am - 11.30am

Where The Teal Room, Upper Norwood Library, 39 Westow Hill, Norwood, London SE19 1TQ

FREE, Croydon Residents Only

About the artists/ facilitators: Heena Kim and Tamsin Relly

A Previous Collaboration Project: Speaking Shadows

Heena Kim transfers daily events she observes into unique visual words which become narrative yet abstract images in her painting practice. Those daily events or feelings become the beginning of her painting journey and she uses her practice as a tool to record these ongoing experiences and suggest new approaches to them. She often changes the scale of the initial images to hover between representation and abstraction, or pick up on specific parts to emphasise or repeat as a visual character.

Kim is a South Korean born artist living and working in London. Her works have been exhibited in the UK and internationally through solo and group exhibitions since completed her MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins (UAL) in 2008, including A mark is a river at The Handbag Factory, In Conversation; freedom of distance, space and time at AMP Gallery in London, All S-He Ever Wanted To Be at Galleria M in Kolkata, India and Waving Stories at Amidi Gallery in Seoul. Kim also participated in artist residencies, talks, workshops and writing at Vitrine Gallery, V22 Collection in London, Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange in Seoul, foundation B.a.d in Rotterdam. With her interest in collaboration and participatory projects, She has been working with other artists to create interactive projects; Site Specific Squat and In Conversation and ArtDegree Studio.

Tamsin Relly’s multi-disciplinary practice explores the reciprocal relationship we have with our planet’s ecology and the ways in which we find connection with the living world. Recent projects consider the migration of plants and the preservation of botanical environments through conservation, urban parks and memory – be it personal, collective or held within the land. Research has led her to diverse locations including Svalbard in the Arctic Circle; boreal forests in Hämeenkyrö, Finland and the Eden Project in Cornwall.                                   

South African-born and London-based, Relly received an MA in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School in 2011. Her work has been exhibited and collected widely in the UK and internationally. It has been included in group shows at Sid Motion Gallery, Informality Gallery, Oliver Projects, OHSH and TJ Boulting in London and is held in the permanent collections of the National Maritime Museum, Imperial Health Charity and Simmons Contemporary in London. Solo exhibitions include: Forest Memory, Brocket Gallery, London (2017), Imagining the Amazon, House of St Barnabas, London (2016) and Jungle Snow, The Place Downstairs, London (2014). Relly has received two commissions from Hospital Rooms to make site specific work for mental health units in the UK. Residencies include: RE·THINK: Environment, National Maritime Museum, London; Hogchester Arts, Dorset and Pocantico, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, New York.

The Bustling Society >>>

The Bustling Society is a series of community projects to boost creative energy and connection though art and culture in our community.