Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your continued support for the Mosaic Rooms.

We are writing with an update about the Mosaic Rooms and your personal data.

The Mosaic Rooms is currently a project of the registered charity A.M. Qattan Foundation. As part of its growth, The Mosaic Rooms is being set up as its own, separate legal entity which will no longer sit within A.M. Qattan Foundation.

~ As part of this process, we will be transferring your personal information to the new Mosaic Rooms entity so that you can continue to support and hear from The Mosaic Rooms in the same way that you currently do. As the current controller of your personal information, we are therefore writing to provide you with details about the transfer and its implications for your personal information, in accordance with our obligations under the UK GDPR.

~ What personal information will we be sharing? We will be sharing the personal information that we hold about you, which might include your name, contact information (email address, postal address and phone number), details of your social media profiles, and details of any contact you have had with The Mosaic Rooms as a visitor or customer (including ticket/event details, online purchases, contact preferences, details of correspondence with you and any information you may have provided to The Mosaic Rooms as part of a questionnaire or similar).

~ Who are we sharing it with? We will be sharing your personal information with The Mosaic Rooms in the UK, which will be a controller of your personal information in its own right. The A.M. Qattan Privacy Policy that applies to the Mosaic Rooms is available on our website here, and The Mosaic Rooms will send you an updated version of this Privacy Policy in due course to, among other things, reflect its new status as a separate legal entity. We encourage you to read this updated version of the Privacy Policy.

~ Why are we sharing it? As noted, The Mosaic Rooms is becoming a distinct legal entity that is separate to the A.M. Qattan Foundation, and so we will share your personal information to enable you to continue to support The Mosaic Rooms and to keep hearing about The Mosaic Rooms where you have consented to do so. The Mosaic Room’s activities and fundraising will remain the same – just housed within a different legal structure.

~ What is our lawful basis for sharing it? We share your personal information because doing so is in our and The Mosaic Room’s legitimate interests, and those interests are not overridden by your interests or rights. In particular, The Mosaic Rooms has a legitimate interest in ensuring that it can continue to operate and make use of your support.

If you do not want us to share your personal information with The Mosaic Rooms for any reason, please contact us at contact@mosaicrooms.org

How can you find out more?

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

If you want to find out more about your data protection rights, or our handling of your personal information more broadly, please visit the A.M. Qattan Privacy Policy which applies to The Mosaic Rooms on The Mosaic Rooms website here or contact us at contact@mosaicrooms.org

Kind regards,

The Mosaic Rooms team

14 November 2024, London

Dear friends,

Since we wrote last here are some of the exciting things that have been happening!  

We submitted our planning application 
For the new entrance and garden makeover – thanks so much for your feedback!  We are now choosing sustainable products for updating the internal spaces. More on these exciting changes soon! 

We have been reflecting
With friends Arman Nouri, Carine Harmand, Misty Ingham, and Sarah Hamad as we think through our programme for 2025-2026. The team got energised evaluating and brainstorming ideas on audiences and programmes while we dream up what we want to do and how we can do it better together! El Warcha are coming over from Tunis later this month to help us think through what being together in an arts space can be.

We are growing 
Our team and our new board who will steer and advocate for the future of our organisation! Thanks to those of you who shared the word and applied for our recent roles. We are now looking for a treasurer of the board – if you are interested or know someone who might be please read more and apply here. 

We are proud of 
Our Young Collective led by artist Jacob V Joyce! They have been working so hard towards their final event for 2024, a banner drop on 14 December. All are welcome to celebrate this project which has explored the theme of Cruising Alternative Realities, delving into the world of science fiction and futuristic and ancestral imaginings.

We’re also proud of 
Our MA Curating and Collections students from Chelsea College of Arts who just launched their art publication Honey-Moon – Notes from under the dining table, featuring playful contributions by ten contemporary artists exploring food as a site of cultural practice, of caring, of crafting and sharing. Only a few copies of this limited edition are still available in our bookshop, grab yours before they’re gone. 

We are still open 
Our bookshop will remain open until 21 December. It is open Weds-Sat 11am-6pm. All purchases support our programmes at this pivotal moment of change! In the bookshop you can still find our craft area alongside sensory-led objects for family play. 

Are you wondering about 2025? 
You won’t be able to visit us until later in the year when our exciting renovation project is complete. Behind the scenes and offsite we will be continuing to run our community programmes, developing new projects and partnerships for later in the year and 2026, and also creating a new website! We can’t wait to share the journey with you as we get ready for reopening!  

We will write again soon, and as always feel free to reach out to us with your thoughts, ideas, feedback.  

 In solidarity, and with love 
 The Mosaic Rooms’ team 

📷 Isoa Tupua

The gallery bookshop and play area is open until 21 December. Drop in from Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm for anyone wanting read, play, learn, buy, and support our work. The team will still be here – if you want to come by, get a cup of tea or coffee, and say hello.

Last online orders to receive before 25 December: Monday 16 December
Last online order for the year: Thursday 19 December

As we witness the violent destruction of a whole society in Gaza and the horrific recent attacks on Rafah, we, the entire staff at The Mosaic Rooms, are calling on all UK and international arts and cultural colleagues to strike this Friday 31st May. The Mosiac Rooms will be closed.

We believe that to continue operating in a world where this is allowed to happen is unconscionable and unacceptable. We invite our colleagues to join us in our strike action and use your resources to pressure your government to call for a ceasefire, cease arms sales to, and implement sanctions against, Israel, and demand the end of the Israeli occupation. We encourage you to speak to your organisation, call out its complicity, whether through its funders and benefactors, or lack of visibility and censorship for voices in support of and from Palestine.

We also ask you to listen and learn from your communities, give them space and time to gather, discuss and grieve.

Design assets for the strike can be found here. We encourage you share the graphics together with the action that you personally, institutionally or collectively will be taking as a form of active solidarity. Please use the hashtag #culturalstrike4palestine

Tips for organising at work

Image credit: Javie Huxley / Migrants in Culture

10th May, 2024, London

Dear friends,

You may have heard the murmurs around a closure, a hiatus, a transition. So, on this spring day, we write to let you know that after 15 years of programming, we have decided it is time to take a short break. From summer, we will spend the rest of this year to focus on change, as The Mosaic Rooms grows from a project of A.M. Qattan Foundation to an independent charitable organisation.

We will write more soon and ask for your ideas to help guide and shape this new season.

As we pause our exhibitions and events, we can’t help but wonder if this is the right time? Over the last seven months, we have grappled with what could feel adequate, useful, or meaningful as a cultural space and as a team as we witness the violent destruction of a whole society in Gaza and relentless attacks on civilians in the rest of Palestine. We take comfort in the trust, support, and dialogue we hold so gratefully in our audiences, artists, and communities. We also take heart in the possibilities and ideas that can be fermented with the gift of a little bit of time. We will still be here – if you want to come by, get a cup of tea or coffee, and say hello – you are always welcome.

Otherwise, we can’t wait to see you all again when we reopen at the beginning of 2025! Until mid-July do join us at events, workshops, play lab, and our current exhibition. Our last event this year, the annual Small Press Fest, will be on 13- 14 July, celebrating poetry and publishing as artistic practice, including a family friendly garden gathering. Mark your diaries.

We will continue to deliver creative learning programmes in our communities, testing new ideas and strengthening existing friendships. Our amazing Young Collective will meet monthly, and we will be piloting projects which aim to offer refuge and joy through creativity, play and togetherness. We are also working towards our first dedicated learning space in the gallery, do tell us about your ideas in this feedback form.

The bookshop will remain open all year from Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm for anyone wanting to drop in, read, learn, buy, and support our work. The gallery and event space are yours for venue hire and select self-organised events.

For now, we leave you with a paragraph from Mahmoud Darwish’s Poetic Regulations

The stars had only one task: they taught me how to read.
They taught me I had a language in heaven
and another language on earth.
Who am I? Who am I?
I don’t want to answer yet.
May a star fall into itself, and may a forest of chestnut trees rise in the night
toward the Milky Way with me, and may it say:
Remain here!

With love and in solidarity,

Angelina, Derya, Najia, Omar, Rachael, Saeed, Siegrun and Tekie

PS: we need our friends more than ever- Be our Friend 

We believe that art and culture should be accessible to everyone and are proud to keep our events and exhibitions free of charge.

As a charity we depend on the support of our community to enable us to deliver our ambitious programme of exhibitions, learning and events. Your support and generosity allow us to continue to platform artistic practices which offer spaces of play and joy, interrogate contemporary issues and empower artists to create new work.

We believe in the importance of creating a cultural space that is invested in building communities. Join us and our circle of friends:

Incentives

. Invitations to exclusive friends exhibition opening events, curator tours, and annual drinks meet up
. Free entrance to any events which are ticketed
. 10% discount on books in our shop*
. 10% discount in our cafe/bar
. Free copies of new books and pamphlets published by The Mosaic Rooms
. Free limited-edition gifts such as tote bag/print/sticker pack/badge – designed by an artist/design studio
. A free mystery publication from the bookshop as a welcome gift (selected by The Mosaic Rooms’ staff) – for annual subscribers only

*This excludes gift items, zines and prints, as well as books by Disarming Design, Dolola, Interlink, Liblib and Wawi.

Subscriptions will automatically renew each month/year. You can cancel them up to 10 days prior to the next month/year.

“The protagonists of these paintings, on view at London’s Mosaic Rooms in Kahraman’s exhibition Gut Feelings, are trapped in a limbo state. You can read that through a personal history. Kahraman was born in Baghdad in 1981. A decade later, during the Gulf war, her family fled the country as part of the mass Kurdish exodus, travelling under false passports through Jordan, Ethiopia, Yemen and Germany before settling in Sweden.

That experience of forced dislocation never went away — the pain present in migrant communities is the leitmotif that snakes across Kahraman’s figures, created out of dense whirls of black, mauve and ochre across earthy Belgian linen.”

Read the full review here.

How do we protect what belongs to us, to find a place we belong?

Ikhtiar / Choice explores self-defined heritage through sound and moving image making, and was created through a collaborative process between young people aged 16-20 and artists Zahra Haji Fath Ali Tehrani and Nia Fekri.

The young people who took part attend partner organisations New Citizen’s Gateway which supports the integration of refugees and asylum seekers into UK life and culture as equal members of our society. IntoUniversity which supports young people from  to go to university or follow another career path of their choice.

You can watch the videos on our Vimeo channel here

Project partners

Ikhtiar / Choice was devised in partnership with IntoUniversity and New Citizen’s Gateway, and was shaped collaboratively with these organisations to make sure that the project offered perspectives and activities that would be useful to the participants. The project was open ended, and all creative outcomes were shaped by the young people involved.

October 2023

As we watch the ongoing bombing and killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the indiscriminate destruction of its buildings and infrastructure by the Israeli army, we cannot stand by in silence. The violence on the Palestinians in Gaza is unconscionable, inhumane, and illegal. We therefore urge you to consider the shared values of justice, equality and peace which we all cherish, as colleagues and partner cultural institutions in the UK and abroad, and to translate them into meaningful action.

In 2021, we put out a call for solidarity with Palestine to cultural organisations, artists, and writers. As part of this, we proposed a set of actions in support of the Palestinian struggle for life, freedom and dignity. We have now updated these and once again urge you to use your platforms, networks, influence, and expertise to raise awareness and contribute to the cause of justice and peace in Palestine. Silence is complicity and decolonisation is only possible through political, economic and cultural action. As we bear witness to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, we implore you to use your collective power to advocate for an immediate cessation of violence and to support the cause of freedom and self-determination for the Palestinian people.

– Learn: read and share resources on Palestine. For example: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights Gaza (PCHR Gaza), Al Haq Palestinian human rights organisation based in Ramallah, Adalah legal centre for Arab minority rights in Israel, Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre. See here for our recent list of Palestine resources to read, listen and watch.

– Refuse: funding from the Israeli government and from private funders who support its illegal occupation.

– Language: use terms which make visible the Palestinian experience, including Palestine, occupation, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, genocide, settler colonialism, and apartheid.

– Lobby your MP or local representatives to pressure and end their military and political support with Israel until it adheres to international law. Here is a format letter from MAP.

– Open: your programme and your collection to artists, collectives, initiatives, and galleries who are led by non-mainstream or radical voices, including artists from Palestine, and fund and support their participation.

– Solidarity: share this letter and your public statement (personal and institutional) with your networks; if you are an artist, ask the institutions who hold your work or with whom you work to support it, and share it with your institution’s audiences as widely as possible.

– Write: cover work by marginalised or radical voices, including Palestinian ones.

-Donate: support Medical Aid for Palestinian’s Emergency Appeal for Gaza and Welfare Association Gaza Emmergency Appeal

As cultural spaces we have a duty of care to protect all communities, artists, and audiences from any form of racial injustice, including antisemitism and islamophobia. We stand firmly in active and visible commitment to anti-racism and see it as an essential step towards equity and justice for all.

Support this call: email info@mosaicrooms.org, confirming your name, title and organisation (if applicable).

Read our 2021 call for solidarity here

If you were to fly above the earth like a bird, what would you like to see below you? 

We know how important it is to enjoy art and be inspired as a family, so we have created a family art pack to help you to enjoy our current exhibition Heba Y. Amin’s When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes.

The Look, Imagine, Create family art pack was designed by artist Dia Batal. It is inspired by the stories, materials, shapes and ideas behind Heba Amin’s artworks. It includes a free pack of materials which you can use to create a special artwork of your own. The art packs are available to collect at the gallery and are accompanied by a beautiful set of materials. Please visit us to collect the pack – just ask a member of staff when you arrive.

If you are unable to visit the gallery, you can download the activity sheet here.

We hope that you enjoy the Look Imagine, Create art pack, please let us know what you think and we’d love to see your artworks too. Send your comments or pictures of your creations by email: info@mosaicrooms.org or on Instagram: #mosaicreates

Created with support by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Arts Grant Scheme.

Image The Look, Imagine, Create family activity pack by The Mosaic Rooms designed by artist Dia Batal.

For the safety and comfort of visitors and staff we have the following guidance in place.

Please check our Visit Us page if you are looking for the latest information about opening hours.

Guidance For Your Visit

You do not need to book to visit The Mosaic Rooms exhibitions. If the gallery reaches capacity, staff will ask you to wait until there is room to enter.

To attend an event in the public programme you need to RSVP to book your place. If you attend an in person event, lateral flow tests are recommended before visiting.

Visitors are required to wear a face covering (unless they are exempt). Disposable masks are available at the door if you do not have your own.

There is hand sanitiser at the gallery entrance. We ask you to use this on your arrival.

Social distancing rules apply. Please be aware of the people you are sharing the space with and bear in mind that some visitors may have a condition that isn’t visible, or live with someone who is extremely clinically vulnerable.

Children need to be supervised by an adult at all times.

If you or a member of your household have symptoms of coronavirus including a new, persistent cough, a fever and loss or change to your sense of smell or taste, we ask you not to visit while this is the case.

Facilities

The toilet is open to visitors.

Only those using a wheelchair, pushchair or with mobility issues are allowed to use the lift. Please ask a member of staff to operate the lift if you need to use it.

The bookshop is open. You can also purchase from our online bookshop.

We have a garden with seating and we invite you to use it. You are welcome to consume your own food and drink in the outside area.

There is a bike rack in the garden for those traveling by bike.

We look forward to seeing you. If you have any questions regarding our health and safety measures please contact us at info@mosaicrooms.org