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Artists Update Spring 2026

SPRING 2026

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2025

2025 turned out to be one of our busiest years ever with two Stables Gallery Exhibitions at Hall Place, the first in the summer ‘Reflections on Where We Live’ a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Bexley as a London Borough and the second in the Autumn ‘Bringing Light to Mental Health’ as part of the Bexley ‘Night Visions’ programme funded by the Arts Council of England. This exhibition also incorporated the world Mental Health Day theme of ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’.

Bringing Light to Mental Health culminated in a truly magical event at the Lodge Hall Place at the beginning of January with workshops and Domes outside full of light and installations and included the launch of our new song ‘Towards the Light’ which you can see below:

Other exhibitions included one at Price Waterhouse Cooper near Tower Bridge

based on the Mental Health Awareness theme of ‘Community’ and another at the Canvas and Cream café and art gallery in Forest Hill entitled ‘Trauma to Recovery’.

We also held a one off Saturday Art Fair in Rochester which went well and set a good precedent for the future.

The year ended with a Winter themed exhibition at the Drill Hall Sandwich which also incorporated artwork from the previous 2025 exhibitions.

Needless to say the above was only achievable through the tremendous effort and participation from  Centrepieces artists, volunteers, Trustees and our patron. Our busy art workshop programme and the Studios in Sidcup acted as successful catalysts for Centrepieces artists to develop their skills and enabled much of the artwork to be produced.

Sales of artwork in 2025 were tremendous as the public responded in a very positive way to both the art produced and the people who were making it.

In September the outgoing chair of our Trustees Mike Ellsmore organised a music fundraising event at the Erith Playhouse Theatre with two great Americana acts which was well attended and raised important funds.

PREMISES

We have now been in Sidcup Manor House as our Pop Up satellite premises for nearly three years. As most will be aware there have been times when we have been in a state of high alert and preparation to move on as both the building and car park are subject to ongoing development proposals. Although we will have to move at some point we are currently continuing with business as usual with the studios and workshops etc still being held there. As yet we do not have confirmation of the location of new premises and are making the most of this space which has been invaluable for Centrepieces.

Our more permanent home base at the Lodge Hall Place continues as usual as the hub of the organisation with our office and where workshops and the planning and organisation of exhibitions takes place.

We briefly took on another empty shop space in Bexleyheath Broadway Shopping Centre in September and set up our first exhibition but this unfortunately only lasted a few weeks due to being leased to a commercial retail outfit. A big thanks to all our volunteers and artists who worked hard to make this happen and for the positive public engagement which ensued.

EXHIBITIONS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2026

So far we have the following Centrepieces Exhibitions planned for this year:

The Drill Hall Sandwich 1st Dec 2025 – 30th March 2026

This exhibition has just closed and was as successful as ever with a lot of artwork sold and a very good response from the public. We will probably have a few more pieces on show there during May.

This exhibition is based on the poem ‘Consciousness of Me’ by CP artist Nadia Halliday and curated by Wendy Clay.The call out and brief has already been sent out with artwork contributions from Sane Award winners and a number of others. It will be well worth a visit as it coincides with the Dulwich Open Studios Festival and Mental Health Awareness Week.

All entries will be welcome for this exhibition but we are currently developing a sub theme for those that like to work with a more specific focus. More information and a brief for artists will be circulated shortly.

This exhibition will be primarily devoted to the ‘Birds on a Wire’ project which Karen Larkin has been running through funding from a William Kendall Grant (see  elsewhere in this Update).

Rochester Art Fair

This has just been booked for Saturday 27th June and artists will shortly be consulted to see who might be available to help out and sell their artwork.

Other possible exhibitions which are currently being worked on will be publicised on the general email group as they progress.

PICTURE LOAN SCHEMES

We currently have picture loans schemes at The Repton Community Centre in Ashford Kent, Slade Green Community Centre and the Kings Arms pub in Bexleyheath where C/P artist Trevor Whiting is showing his work. These schemes provide good publicity for the artists and Centrepieces as well as an opportunity for our artists to sell their artwork.

WORKSHOPS

We have had a steady flow of artists attending workshops since January.  We try to make the programme as engaging and diverse as possible as well as ensuring that some workshops are consistent.  Our current programme includes workshops on: 

  • Airdrying Clay; Watercolour;
  • Sketching & Drawing – using pencil, charcoal and pastels;
  • Outdoor Sculpture techniques; Mixed Media (mosaic; paper mache clay; jewellery making and wire work;
  • Friday Art sessions (looking at different artists styles and techniques); Creative Writing;
  • Saturday Craft Club (fortnightly).

If you would like to attend a workshop, but can’t do the day that it is on, please email Karen (karen.centrepieces@gmail.com).  We may be mixing up some of the workshop days over the Summer.

BIRDS ON A WIRE PROJECT

 The “Birds on a Wire” project is well underway, involving various workshops and community sessions across the borough. We recently spent a productive day at Hurstmere High School, where Year 9 students helped out by painting sections of a local landscape collage and making their own wire birds. It was a good opportunity to get the students thinking about mental health and the importance of looking out for one another, using the art as a straightforward way to chat about resilience and the value of having a decent support network.

The plan is for the project to culminate in the second Stables Gallery Exhibition in November and there are talks about having a sculpture on the plinth in the grounds of Hall Place.

AWARDS

Congratulations to the 2025 Sane Individual Artist Award winners: Fatma Durmush, Nicola Wills, Waheed Adeniran and Kay Weerawarnasuriya. Some of these artists are using their awards for artwork in our Canvas and Cream exhibition in May.

And congratulations to all of this years Centrepieces ‘Inspire Award’ winners which were announced at our AGM in February: Sally Thompson, Kelly Gibbins, Matthew Delaney, Nicola Wills, Nicki Lessing and Andrew Flewitt.

Awards were given for both artistic and volunteering contributions to Centrepieces.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Many thanks to Carla Diniz who has been developing a new Centrepieces Website which will be launched very soon and for overseeing the resurgence in our Facebook, Instagram and Blog activity.

VOLUNTEERS AND TRUSTEES

As everyone knows Centrepieces is entirely dependent on the people who give their time, expertise and commitment for free to organise and run the project. As ever we have had a turnover of Volunteers and Trustees who left in 2025 and new people joining. So a big thanks to everyone both old and new for making the organisation work so well !

New Trustees include Tracy Smith -Dance, Samsara Weerawarnasuriya and Harriet Louth. Many thanks and good luck to Mike Ellsmore, Eileen Pallen, Sally Macgregor and Georgina Bowen for all their previous help. We currently have 9 Trustees who meet every 2 months, some of whom are on our Arts Committee.

We currently have over 30 volunteers so can’t mention everyone by name but Carla Diniz and Natalie Whiten are now well established in more senior roles as p/t Assistant Coordinators. Carla leads on Social Media and Website development and helps with Exhibitions and Natalie supports the running of the Pop Up premises at Sidcup Manor House and plays a major role in many of Centrepieces projects.