About Turf

Founded in 2013 by Croydon locals, Turf Projects is Croydon’s homegrown artist space and the first entirely artist-run contemporary art space in the borough.

Based in Croydon’s Whitgift Shopping Centre, we;

  • Put on free exhibitions, showcasing the work of both local & national artists.
  • Run free creative workshops, open to all, including skills workshops for artists, Family Art Fun Days and workshops with local schools.
  • Provide affordable artist studios.
  • Host two collectives of local artists; MOSS (a collective of local learning disabled artists) and Art Press (a collective of Croydon artists aged 14-21).
  • Host a community project space which is free to use by Croydon locals (we also have spaces you can hire!)
  • Run a support & residency programme for Croydon School of Art & BRIT school students, family workshops, projects with local schools & more.
  • Support artists with paid opportunities via exhibitions, workshops and commissions, with a principle that artists should be fairly paid for their work and time. Since 2013 Turf has supported the work of over 500 artists!


Turf is a registered charity (#1160527), and currently exists across two meanwhile-use retail units.

A second site at Keeley Road, ‘Little Turf’, is our original home which now houses production space for artists & makers. You can hire that, too!

For more info or to get involved, please email us at info@turf-projects.com

Us!

Below is the current Turf team! Click on us to find out more about our practices. We all work part-time from 1-2 days per week, so if you contact us keep this in mind, though we try to respond as soon as we can.

Previous Team Members

Chris Alton (Fungus Press Lead), Mandisa Apena (FoH & Marketing Assistant), Alice Cretney (Director), Deborah Findlater (FoH & Marketing Assistant), Oscar Gaynor (Fungus Press Lead), Isabelle Zhizhi Southwood (Education & Community).

Co-founders

Alice Cretney, Aoife Flynn, B Atherton, Isabelle Zhizhi Southwood, Jack Friswell, Helena Wee, Tom Winter

Board of Trustees & advisory board

Eleanor Breeze, Caroline Dawson, Becky Lyon (Secretary), John Messenbird, Yusuf Ali Osman (Chair), Ugochukwu Kelechi Okoroafor (Treasurer), Isabelle Zhizhi Southwood.

Previous board members

Ines Canellas-Jager, Eunice Dickinson, Mary Lee, Harriet Warden, Kamy Wicks, Jacinta Bridge, Doug Bowen, Mireille Fauchon, Aoife Flynn, Nigel Dias, Andrew Dickinson, Clair Donnelly, John Lawlor, Holly Lewis, David McLeavy, Jasmine Popper, Vincent Lacovara

Turf Friends

Turf Friends are people who’ve supported us via our Friends scheme.

Kiera Blakey // Alice Channer // James Lewis //  Will Pham & others who wish to remain anonymous

Supporters

Are you a business who wants to show their support for our charity in some way? Get in touch at becky@turf-projects.com and let’s chat! Take a look below to see who’s helped us so far.

Thanks to:

➮ 34sp for hosting our website for free via their awesome charity hosting programme (strong recommend for their amazing support too).

➮ Richard Bray for hosting us for many years prior to that

➮ cartridgesave.co.uk for donating a set of toner and imaging drums

➮ fastprint.co.uk for supporting us with stickers

➮ POSCA for a donation of their amazing chalk markers.