Avant Gardening Collective Creates Community Stories for Brent Biennial at Barham Park Library

Artist Polly Brannan and producer Paul Green founded the Avant Gardening collective in 2008 to explore social spaces and urban environments through collaborative, site-specific projects. For the Brent Biennial, they partnered with the Community Library at Barham Park, a volunteer-run institution that residents fought to keep open during austerity cuts. The collective investigated the park's history, which includes a former dairy from the industrial revolution and a philanthropic garden created by the landowning family. Through workshops with children, families, and local residents, they developed new stories about the area. These narratives were transformed into printed materials, including an activity book and a giant concertina storybook illustrated by artist Emily Rand, alongside podcasts and events. The pandemic forced the artists to adapt their practice, as lockdowns prevented in-person gatherings and relationship-building. They noted that during this period, people became more aware of local green spaces as places of refuge. The collective's work emphasizes giving ownership of communal spaces to local people, as seen in their long-term project with a housing estate in Woolwich, south east London. Their approach uses gardening as a democratic starting point to spark conversations about environmental concerns and community relationships.