Camden mayor opens new Hampstead art club

On Wednesday the mayor of Camden officially opened a brand new Hampstead art club aiming to fill the gap left by cuts to school budgets.

The club, called Art-k, is on Mill Lane and opened in April, but Cllr Jenny Headlam-Wells presided over an official opening earlier this week.

At the event, Cllr Headlam-Wells spoke of her aim to use her year in office to widen access to the arts.

She explained: “This applies to all of the arts, and especially today the visual and the plastic arts.”

Art-k is part of a national network of fifteen similar community-orientated art centres across the country.

Réka Punkosti is running the new club. She told the Ham&High: “The community has been really supportive. The idea is that with art being cut in schools we can do more.

“I am looking forward to creating a successful art club where children can learn new artistic skills and techniques and have a safe environment where they are able to express themselves.”