Our City Together Creative Challenge

Each week Our City Together will be posting a simple creative challenge for you to try out at home. 

These challenges will provide a fun activity you can do alone or with your whole family and are suitable for a variety of ages to help release your inner artist and creativity. Give them a go, try out something new and then share the results with us #OurCityTogether.

Challenge 5: What’s in a Name – The Great City Bake Off

In the last few months many Londoners have discovered a passion for baking. But what if you could only buy bread from one street in London? Crazy, right?

Well, that’s what happened in 1302 when Bread Street in the City was named by the king and all the bakers in London had to set up shop there.  

And it wasn’t just Bread Street. There was Milk Street where cows were kept, Honey Lane, Poultry, Stew Lane and of course the world-famous Pudding Lane, among others.

To celebrate the City’s culinary past, why not share with us some of your recent baking achievements? Just choose a City street name and post a photo. Will it be Cinnamon Street, Saffron Hill, Garlick Hill or Camomile Street?

The choice is yours.

Do

• Choose a City street name with a food connection
• Bake
• Take a photo of your recent yummy bake
• Share your image on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook and tag your post with #ourcitytogether #creativecity and @visitthecity.

Challenge 4: Bake sAle

This year’s City Beerfest may not be able to go ahead, but there’s nothing stopping us enjoying a drop of the good stuff!

Rather than drink it though, why not try something a bit different - we want to see your most creative beer-based recipes!  

Do:

• Find or make up a recipe that includes beer in the ingredients.
• Cook up a storm and photograph the process and the final result.
• Post your photos online and share your image with @visitthecity on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with #ourcitytogether #creativecity  
• Why not also tag the brewery of the beer you used?

Challenge 3: Pride Collage

This week, try making a Pride collage, with artist Patrick Bullock, in collaboration with Emergency Exit Arts.

The City of London is home to a wealth of LGBTQ+ history. Within the City borders are located landmarks, venues and organisations linked or actively involved with the LGBTQ+ community.

This exercise is all about playing around with ideas and drawing directly from your personal experiences using materials and objects you have access to in your own home.

Do: Create a photomontage or collage

The techniques of photomontage and collage are terrific methods for leapfrogging over the hurdles that prevent creativity. Not everyone has the skills to draw and visually interpret their ideas but pretty much everyone can use a pair of scissors and then arrange the results. See below for ideas.

‍Method

First choose a topic/heading from the list below. You can do as many as you want or have time for. Interpret them however you want.

• Identity
• Desires and Dreams
• Gay Politics
• Coronavirus and LGBTQ+ ‍
• Rainbow ‍
• Past Present and Future ‍
• Team LGBTQ+

Tips on how to get started:

• Choose images, words and anything else you wish to include that are relevant and personal to you. Raid what memorabilia you have, be it photographs, old flyers, cut or tear out picture or articles from magazines or print things from the internet. Gather anything that speaks to you on your chosen heading.
• Define an area to work in. A good starting point would be what fits onto an A4 sheet, but you can go as large as you want as long as you can photograph it in its entirety.  
• If something is too precious to cut up but you still want to use it, you can use it as the base or central axis that everything else revolves around. Cut up the other items and arrange around or under it, possibly overlapping.  
• You don’t have to even stick anything down; the beauty of this is you can keep changing the arrangements, photographing each new one until you find the one or ones you like the best.  
• If you don’t have access to printed material in your home, you can create a digital collage using something like Paint or Word.
• A good question to ask yourself as you are creating is “What am I trying to say with this image?”. Or just go with what you feel is the right direction for Pride and enjoy the process!

Once you have a pleasing arrangement, photograph it and share your image on @visitthecity on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with #ourcitytogether #creativecity  

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Challenge 2: Recycled City

Have you ever looked at the many items we throw in the bin and thought, quite literally, what a waste! Has the idea of giving the stuff that you no longer need a better use ever crossed your mind?  Are you missing walking along City of London's streets and admiring some of its majestic buildings? Then release your imagination and free your artistic soul to join us by taking part in this creative challenge.

Do: Recreate your favourite City of London building out of recycled materials you have at home.

• Pick a City of London building or landmark that you wish to create.
• Pick out items you have at home or in your recycling bin. These could include paper, card, plastic bottles and containers and household metal packing such as tin cans and foil.
• Think about the structure of your chosen building, it might help to look at some pictures on the internet, and what materials you might use for different parts of your building. You could try sketching or drawing out your design or just jump straight into making. It’s totally up to you.

These tips below might also help:

• To make sturdy structures – use plastic bottles, cans and strong cardboard. All can be easily shaped.  
• To add details – use paper, newspaper, cardboard, bottle caps. Aluminium foil and papier-mâché are good ideas for both structure and detail.
• Sellotape is not recyclable so best to use a small amount if you have to or if using glue to stick items together – remember that too much glue will make paper non-recyclable.
• Colouring/painting can also help to add decoration.  
• Items that may help but are NOT recyclable include – sweet and crisp wrappers, wooden lolly pop sticks, fabrics, wood, plant pots.  

Once you have created your masterpiece, don’t forget to share it with us on @visitthecity and @GreenSqMile on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with #OurCityTogether #creativecity #recycledcity.  

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Take a look at last week's creative challenge. It's not too late to share a submission!

Challenge 1: View from Afar

Did you know that the view of St Paul’s Cathedral has been protected for centuries?

Now that we are compelled to stay local, do you sometimes look longingly towards the City?

Can you spot its silhouette? Do you find yourself name checking its buildings?

No matter where you are in London, you can walk up a hill above the treetops to explore the horizon in search of familiar landmarks. Maybe you spot the Shard, Canary Wharf or the Gherkin but more often than not, your eyes will search for the familiar sight of St Paul’s Cathedral’s dome.

We would love to see your View from Afar! From your local park or your bedroom window, in the sun or in the rain, at sunrise or sunset, why not share your View from Afar?

Do

• Get your phone, camera, pencil or even paint brush, and surprise us with your City View from Afar.
• Share your image on @visitthecity on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with #OurCityTogether #CreativeCity  

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