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Marks Gate

on Apr 18, 2014

We’ll be delivering a project on the Marks Gate Estate in Barking & Dagenham as part of the Neighbourhood Commissions strand of the Creative Barking & Dagenham programme . The commission places artists at the heart of communities in the borough, engaging with people and place on an intimate level over a period of 6 months and with a depth of focus, responding to local priorities and testing out different models of co-creation. Artist Sadia Ur-Rehman will be working closely with the communities of Marks Gate from April till September 2014 to create art in their neighbourhood, instigated by the people living there; the project aims to challenge preconceptions about where art takes place and who it’s by, and for. She will be testing ideas about the role and value of the arts in this context. She plans to use a series of pop-up events and art activities across the estate to...

‘Home’

on Apr 11, 2014

Re-introducing ‘A Local Dialogue’

on Mar 31, 2014

We wanted to either acquaint or re-acquaint you with ‘A Local Dialogue’, so here goes: ‘A Local Dialogue’ is a platform for the work artist Sadia Ur-Rehman does with people and communities. Conceived in late 2010, A Local Dialogue is an experimental approach to working with words and language for a project that inspires residents of particular local areas to explore their locality. Creating a space for discussion and conversation, A Local Dialogue enables people to explore their relationships to their neighbourhood/ local area through the exploration of identity and place. ‘A Local Dialogue’ began life as a series of pop-up tea parties and walks at Valentines Mansion, when Ur-Rehman was the Artist in Residence in 2011. Hosting six tea parties there, each tea party served a different type of tea from a different  part of the world, guests were able to experience how tea is...

A Local Dialogue Animation

on Nov 10, 2013

A Local Dialogue Animation

Community Dialogues at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

on Mar 1, 2013

Artist and Tea party hostess Sadia Ur-Rehman has been busy developing the project ‘Edible Plants: Community Dialogues’ for Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Sadia will be working with four local community organisations in a series of workshops in the format of a ‘pop up tea salon’ to explore edible plants in both the Temperate House and Palm House. The project aims to engage and bring together groups of different, diverse cultural backgrounds to creatively explore and exchange dialogues on edible plants. The origins of a series of edible plants will be explored, how they are used in cooking and in particular specific stories shared and captured. On Thursday 21st February, Sadia hosted her first tea party with Age UK Hounslow at Kew exploring the edible plants; tea, cocoa, chilli pepper and turmeric. The group had some lively discussions and shared some interesting stories! Here...

A Teatastic 2013 to you all!

on Jan 26, 2013

Artist & Tea Party Hostess, Sadia Ur-Rehman, wishes you all a TEAtastic 2013. We have lots of TEA-riffic plans for the coming year, more info to follow so watch this space! 2012 was a momentous year for us here at ‘A Local Dialogue’ with a series of tea parties linked to the Commonwealth delivered at the National Maritime Museum, we got some exclusive coverage via BBC Asian Network covering this series, and a mention in American Tea magazine; Tea  Time for the Kenyan tea party hosted as part of this set. Amidst the coverage, Sadia met the Queen in a special performative tea party as part of the London Pride Festival. We also hosted an extra special Persian tea party at the Centre for Independent Living to welcome the Persian New Year; Nowruz. Pheww what a flurry of activity! We look forward to keeping you all up to date with our events……so do keep checking...

‘Sadia’s Commonwealth Jubilee Indian Tea Party’

on Jul 8, 2012

On Saturday 2nd June 2012, artist and tea party hostess Sadia Ur-Rehman hosted a special Indian tea party during the Diamond Jubilee weekend. The tea party opened with vocalist Sonia Mehta singing accompanied by Amardeep Singh on tabla.  The tea party formed part of a series of 3 that were part of the events programme for the ‘Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames’ exhibition. The exhibition was created to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and presents the historic River Thames in all its glory. Guests during the tea party were able to explore the Commonwealth, legacies of the British Empire and the Raj as well partake in authentic Indian tea drinking customs. During the tea drinking, guests explored their own particular experiences of the Commonwealth and shared tales of a memorable day that they had had in the last 60 years of the Queen’s reign and as head of the...

A Local Dialogue featured on the BBC Asian Network!

on Jun 7, 2012

On Tuesday 5th June at 2pm, artist & tea party hostess Sadia Ur-Rehman dubbed Queen of Tea by radio DJ Nihal talked in details about the project ‘A Local Dialogue’. Link to hear the interview here.  Find out how the project was born and where Sadia’s love of tea stems from!