TACO! invites artists to research, develop and realise projects over a dedicated period of time. Projects initiated by artists vary in duration, with an open timeframe and no set expectations on outcomes, but with a focus on ‘making practice public’ through rigorous and relevant artistic enquiry.

This artist research informs a diverse public programme that includes exhibitions, events,  discussions, workshops, broadcasts, screenings, publishing, and co-authored participatory projects with communities, groups, children and young people.

Many of the projects developed by TACO!  are collaborative and socially engaged, creating space for people to engage with lived experience and a social exchange through their making and reception.

Current ongoing projects being supported by TACO! include... 

HOLLY GRAHAM / ACTION! - A HISTORY OF COMMUNITY LED ANTI RACISM

Action! is a research project by artist Holly Graham that sets out to understand anti-racist community actions taken in Thamesmead and the surrounding area in the early 1990s. This period saw a rise in racial tensions within the area but there is currently minimal documentation reflecting these rifts and the important community led responses to counteract them.

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THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS / TREE  TIME

Tree Time is a research project  by the Alternative School of Economics that looks at the specific relationship trees have with expansive notions of time as a  tool for thinking about and re-understanding human relationships with the natural environment, ecological complexity, and imagining an equitable future.  The project looks at the value ascribed to both trees in the context of an urgent climate crisis; the role of financial capitalism, green economies and neoliberal life in contributing to or mitigating climate change.

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LUCY PARKER  / GOOD BYES 

Good Byes is a research project by artist film maker Lucy Parker that explores how we say goodbye and wish each other well.  The project develops out of Lucy’s experience working in education, support and care worker roles, reflecting on her relationships forged in these roles, and how interpersonal endings and transitions are cared for and attended too.  

Lucy's enquiry asks how we do reconcile connection and empathy within the limits of our current institutional structures? How might our endings speak about forms of community and kinship?How are such relationships with community services mutually understood? And how might we reimagine new ways to relate to each other within our institutions and workplace?

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JENNY PENGILLY / STATIC STUDIOS

Stactic Studios is a co-authored art and publishing project by artist Jenny Pengilly, in collaboration with early years children and their families in Abbey Wood and Thamesmead, South East London.  The project explores how DIY sound making can help children create their own cultural output.Collaborative making explores communication, family rituals and routines, security and community in the context of access to services, and the importance of resources, such as the children’s centres, that provide key connection to many families.

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CHOLE LANGLOIS / HOT SNAKES 

Hotsnakes is a devotional performance project conceived by artist Chloe Langlois. It takes as its starting point the artists attempt to interact and communicate with a Holy Guardian Angel from her childhood - the eponymous ‘Hotsnakes’. Chloe’s attempts take the form of monthly broadcasts, live to air performance events, and bar takeovers activating TACO!’s social spaces and interacting with audiences. Material generated throughout Chole’s residency at TACO! will  be used in the production of a film installation.

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ESTATES

Estates is an ongoing collaborative project with artists, communities and groups that considers TACO!’s wider context of urban regeneration, the surrounding estates of Thamesmead and Abbeywood, and how we might collectively re-imagine community and civic space. It uses walks, workshops, talks, exhibitons, screenings, broadcasts, print and publications to support co-learning and exchange  between communities, artists and audiences in the reimaging of alternative futures for space and place. 

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