Kinetika

07/10/2026

The Kinetika team joined us on the Lebanon Mountain Trail, bringing creativity, culture, and connection into every step.

A shared journey where nature became part of the story. 💜

05/10/2026

What a joy to see communities across Redbridge come together again for this year’s Colours of Redbridge, Treasures of the Tide, celebrating journeys, heritage and belonging with more than 3,000 people.

Leading up to the parade, Kinetika artist Sarah Doyle worked with young people from SEND schools across Redbridge to explore ideas of home, heritage and the journeys that have brought people to the borough.

Through drawing, storytelling and shared making, their ideas were transformed by the Kinetika team into vibrant batik fish and silk waves, which took to the streets alongside previous silk creations, a giant sea turtle, samba drummers, community messages in bottles and more.

Thank you to everyone who took part, and to Colours of Redbridge for bringing us into this wonderful celebration of Redbridge and its communities for another year.

📸 Jamal Walker for Colours of Redbridge

Treasures of the Tide was supported by Westfield Better Futures, funded by Westfield Stratford City and Foundation for Future London.

01/10/2026

Fancy getting hands-on and creative this autumn in Thurrock? 🧵 🍂

Join us for A Place at the Table, a year-long creative programme bringing people across Thurrock together to explore ideas of home, hope and belonging through creativity, conversation and shared experiences.

Together, we’re creating a new textile artwork: a community picnic set made by and for Thurrock, bringing together words, memories and stories from people across the borough.

This autumn, we’re inviting you to help make it through a series of free, hands-on creative workshops at our studio in Purfleet.

Our first workshop takes place:
→ Saturday 10 October, 11am–4pm
→ Kinetika Studio, 002 Artist Studios, High House Production Park, Purfleet-on-Thames, RM19 1AS

Led by Kinetika Artistic Director Ali Pretty, artist Sarah Doyle, storyteller Sophie Austin and poet Rachel Morgan, the workshop will explore the question ‘Who are we?’ through conversation, stitching, embroidery, printing and other creative activities, with a shared lunch along the way.

No creative experience is needed and everyone is welcome.
Spaces are limited, so booking is essential.

→ Book your FREE place via the link in bio

Can’t make this one? Join us for another workshop:
🧵 Saturday 28 November, 11am–4pm
🧵 Saturday 12 December, 11am–4pm
🧵 Saturday 23 January, 11am–4pm
🧵 Saturday 30 January, 11am–4pm

Join us for the whole creative journey, or drop in when you can. Each workshop will help shape the artwork as it develops.

The finished picnic set will then come to life on five walks across Thurrock in Spring 2027, creating spaces to gather, share food, stories and conversation.

Find out more about A Place at the Table: kinetika.co.uk/portfolio/apatt

01/10/2026

Fancy getting hands-on and creative this autumn in Thurrock? 🧵 🍂

Join us for A Place at the Table, a year-long creative programme bringing people across Thurrock together to explore ideas of home, hope and belonging through creativity, conversation and shared experiences.

Together, we’re creating a new textile artwork: a community picnic set made by and for Thurrock, bringing together words, memories and stories from people across the borough.

This autumn, we’re inviting you to help make it through a series of free, hands-on creative workshops at our studio in Purfleet.

Our first workshop takes place:

→ Saturday 10 October, 11am–4pm
→ Kinetika Studio, 002 Artist Studios, High House Production Park, Purfleet-on-Thames, RM19 1AS

Led by Kinetika Artistic Director Ali Pretty, artist Sarah Doyle, storyteller Sophie Austin and poet Rachel Morgan, the workshop will explore the question ‘Who are we?’ through conversation, stitching, embroidery, printing and other creative activities, with a shared lunch along the way.

No creative experience is needed and everyone is welcome.
Spaces are limited, so booking is essential.

→ Book your FREE place: https://forms.gle/KDc4iAdZoAtoQ2AE6

Can’t make this one? Join us for another workshop:
🧵 Saturday 28 November, 11am–4pm
🧵 Saturday 12 December, 11am–4pm
🧵 Saturday 23 January, 11am–4pm
🧵 Saturday 30 January, 11am–4pm

Join us for the whole creative journey, or drop in when you can. Each workshop will help shape the artwork as it develops.

The finished picnic set will then come to life on five walks across Thurrock in Spring 2027, creating spaces to gather, share food, stories and conversation.

Find out more about A Place at the Table: https://kinetika.co.uk/portfolio/apatt

This workshop session is held at Kinetika’s Studio in Purfleet (002 Artist Studios, High House Production Park, Purfleet-on-Thames, Essex RM19 1AS). The studio is on a ground floor with a step free access and accessible toilets. The programme is free to attend, and we can cover travel expenses for...

16/09/2026

Join us this Saturday to experience Southend Sails on Southend High Street.

After weeks of drawing, designing, stitching and making together, Southend Sails is now on display at Victoria Circus – and this Saturday we’re bringing everyone together to mark the finished installation.

From 2–4pm, join us beneath the sails for live performances from BrazilArte and a free drop-in embroidery workshop with artist Katrin Mountain.

Taking inspiration from the sails above, you’ll be able to use leftover Kinetika silk to stitch and create your own textile badge to take home.

Created with communities across Southend, the installation transforms recycled boat sails and remnants from Kinetika’s silk collection into a new public artwork shaped by the people, stories and creativity of the city.

SOUTHEND SAILS CELEBRATION EVENT
→ Saturday 19 September, 2–4pm
→ Outside the Odeon Cinema, Victoria Circus, Southend
🧵 Free drop-in embroidery workshop with Katrin Mountain
🎶 Live performances from BrazilArte

More information and free tickets via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2001159671447?aff=oddtdtcreator 🔗

Southend Sails is on display until 22 October 2026.

Southend Sails was commissioned by Southend-on-Sea City Council and funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Created with Kinetika, artist Katrin Mountain Katrin Mountain and communities across Southend. The sails were sewn by Chris Henderson of Blue Marine.

A huge thank you to everyone who took part, and to the hosts of the design and embroidery workshops: Brazilarte, Create98, Focal Point Gallery and Welcome to the UK, with participants from Focal Point Gallery’s Blank Slate and Contemporary Elders programmes.

📷 Mark Massey, Michaela Freeman + Amber Merry

11/09/2026

🌀 Beach of Dreams returns to Cleethorpes!

This weekend, Beach of Dreams returns to the Humber Estuary, carrying forward the ideas, connections and creativity sparked by last year’s nationwide journey.

From 11–13 September, a weekend of coastal, climate and cultural events will bring people together to celebrate and explore our relationship with the Humber Coast.

The programme brings together walks, art, poetry, workshops, films and family activities, alongside the return of the Beach of Dreams Silks to the Cleethorpes coastline on Sunday. Filmmaker Chris McClean, whose 2025 film you’re watching here, also presents a new exhibition and body of work exploring the coastal margins of Holderness and the Humber Estuary.

For us, this is what the legacy of Beach of Dreams is all about: communities taking the ideas and creative energy of the original project and making them their own, creating new experiences rooted in their local landscapes and growing the story year after year.

We’re delighted to see Beach of Dreams continuing to travel, evolve and inspire new conversations about place, nature and our changing coast.

📍 Beach of Dreams Cleethorpes, 11–13 September 2026 with La Cuna Cleethorpes The Culture House GY Kinetika ~ Design That Moves Chris McLean

🎥 Chris McClean

07/09/2026

Something new has landed on Southend High Street ⛵

Southend Sails is a new community-made textile artwork created with local people, transforming recycled boat sails and silk remnants from Kinetika’s collection into a celebration of hope, connection and life along the Thames Estuary.

Led by artist Katrin Mountain , workshops brought people together across Southend to respond to one question: What makes you feel like you’ve got the wind in your sails?

Their answers have been stitched into the finished sails, bringing individual stories and messages together in one large-scale public artwork.

Even the materials have a Southend story to tell. One of the sails was donated by local sailor Neil Woodbridge and spent more than 20 years travelling the Thames Estuary before finding a new life at the heart of the city.

📍 Victoria Circus, outside the Odeon Cinema. On display until 25 October 2026

Southend Sails was commissioned by Southend-on-Sea City Council and funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Created with Kinetika, artist Katrin Mountain and communities across Southend. The sails were sewn by Chris Henderson of Blue Marine.

Thanks to the hosts of the design and embroidery workshops: BrazilArte, Create98, Focal Point Gallery and Welcome to the UK, and with participants from Focal Point Gallery’s Blank Slate and Contemporary Elders programmes.

📷 Mark Massey

17/08/2026

Create a giant mandala with us and Start Thurrock at Coalhouse Fort 🌀

This Thursday, Kinetika artist Sarah Doyle will be at Coalhouse Fort, inviting the community to come together to create a large-scale mandala from locally sourced, found and recycled materials.

The workshop revisits T100 Festival 2020: T100 Making (pictured), when communities across Thurrock came together to create large-scale mandalas inspired by Scottish artist Therese Muskus. Using materials collected from each location, the artworks became a way to creatively explore climate change, biodiversity, plastic waste, wellbeing and our relationship with shared public spaces.

Six years on, we’re returning to the process at Coalhouse Fort and inviting you to add your hands and ideas to a new collective artwork.

🟣 Thursday 20 August, 10am – 4pm at Coalhouse Fort
🟣 Suitable for ages 4+; children must be accompanied by an adult
🟣 Booking essential here: https://www.startthurrock.org/whats-on/coming-to-coalhouse-fort-in-august/

Join Sarah during the day to help the mandala take shape or visit the Fort later to see the finished artwork.

10/06/2026

What a joyful way to close this year's T100 Festival.

On Saturday, artists, walkers, volunteers, young ambassadors, community groups and local residents came together for A Place at the Table: Celebrating Our Community, presented by Kinetika and Together Productions at High House Production Park in Purfleet-on-Thames.

The afternoon began with a colourful flag parade led by Kinetika artist Sarah Doyle as the Carnival Queen and Jean Claude Lionbeat on the BASSIS bike, bringing everyone together before an afternoon of creativity, conversation and celebration.

At the heart of the event was a shared community meal, with tables dressed with serviettes featuring wax rubbings collected across Thurrock throughout the festival. Created from impressions of pavements, railings, leaves, bark and other everyday textures, they formed a collective portrait of place and the communities that call Thurrock home.

Throughout the afternoon, people added their mark to a new permanent mural led by Brave Arts, shared stories with Laura Trevail, contributed words that Rachel Morgan wove into a live poem, and heard festival reflections and stories brought together by Nigel Munson of 6FootStories. Together Productionsalso debuted a new folk song for Thurrock, inviting everyone to join in and celebrate the connections formed throughout the festival.

Across the site, community artworks and exhibitions reflected the stories, creativity and experiences shared throughout the festival, including the Thurrock Youth Cabinet mosaic made with Geo Jam, the Welcome to the UK flag designed by Ali Pretty in collaboration with Mark Massey, Together Productions and Welcome to the UK, Grays, the Singing Our Lives mandala, Together Create textile artworks, and the growing collection of T100 community tablecloths.

The voices of young people were central to the day, with East Tilbury Primary School's T100 Young Ambassadors sharing Fresh Air and Snacks, created with The Paper Birds, alongside a new film by students from William Edwards School. Together, the works explored ideas of home, wellbeing and belonging through the perspectives of young people across Thurrock.

More than anything, the day was a celebration of the people who make T100 possible. For twelve years, the festival has brought people together through walking, talking, making and sharing, helping us see Thurrock differently and connect more deeply with the places we call home.

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Saturday and throughout this year's festival. It was a fitting finale to another remarkable journey.

📸 Mark Massey