When artist Eleanor Pearce moved to the borough from Crouch End in 2013 she brought with her a wealth of experience, having worked for the Islington Arts Factory for 14 years as the Director of Art, after honing her skills there as an art tutor.

In Forest Gate Eleanor found “a community that was open, hungry” for what she had to offer. The following year she created a themed project about bees called Create a Swarm and funded by Let’s Get the Party Started in collaboration with No 8 Emporium, Coffee 7, and Woodgrange Market.

This was an open drawing day with honey themed refreshments for all the family designed to highlight the survival of the bees.

Eleanor has successfully run art classes at Forest Gate Library over several years from 2015 to 2020 with an 18-month interruption due to borough wide cuts where the art class was a casualty.

During this time Eleanor organised three well-received exhibitions of artwork from her students at Forest Gate Library.

One student, Ishita, described the art classes as ”really helping to develop creative skills and build a long-term interest towards art!”

Earlier this year Eleanor and some of her students were successful with their funding bid to Foundation for Future London located in Stratford.

The funding provided art tuition for 10 weeks which was delivered online. Eleanor adapted well to the online world.

She is currently running art and wellbeing sessions in Forest Gate Community Gardens now that lockdown restrictions have been lifted.

“The chance to draw in the beautiful, peaceful, Forest Gate Community Garden has provided an oasis of calm during an otherwise turbulent and negative period,” said Joanne one of the participants. “Eleanor’s classes have given us a lifeline back to feeling positive.”

Eleanor can be contacted at her Instagram account or email .

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