The Arts Society Leatherhead: Art at the Station

Cheryl Mendham, Chairman of The Arts Society Leatherhead shares their Society story of getting art seen in their local station.

The Arts Society Leatherhead has a history of taking Art and Art related projects into the community. However, over recent years and particularly after the Pandemic, the initiatives tailed off. In 2021, members of the new Committee were very eager to do what they could to rekindle this interest of taking art into schools and other organisations.

The AS Community Arts Grant has been a huge help, particularly as the East Surrey Area matched any funding. In the first year a local Surrey Artist, Nathalie Scott, ran art classes,using acrylics, for young people in the Leatherhead Community Hub. These were hugely popular.

Last year, Nathalie helped us again; this time helping young people of the Leatherhead Youth Project to paint a mural in their meeting place. The results were most impressive and will be a permanent feature of the building.

In tandem with these projects, we decided to install Artworks in the Waiting Room at Leatherhead Station. We had a lot of help in getting started, particularly from Liz Collins at the Arts Society Guildford and Rob Whitehead, the Community Engagement Officer of Govia Thameslink Railway. With the help of a Grant from the Patricia Fay memorial Fund, and a donation from the Railway organizations plus money raised by monthly raffles, we were able to install 8 x A2 frames, conforming to Health and Safety standards by our deadline of 1 December 2023.

The first exhibition is in place on the theme of "Hopes and Dreams" by students at the City of London Freemen School. It has proved very popular, and passengers are always to be found looking in great detail at the lovely artworks. This project needed a lot of patience as it took nearly a year to get the funding in place and to install the frames. However, we are now hopeful that we will be able to change the exhibitions at least three times a year.

Written by Cheryl Mendham, Chairman of The Arts Society Leatherhead

To find out more about The Arts Society Leatherhead please visit https://theartssocietyleatherhead.org.uk/

Images: The Arts Society Leatherhead