Norwood JunKAction began in 2022 with the simple act of picking up litter in South Norwood. What started as an environmental action gradually became a wider artistic and social practice, using waste, creativity and collective participation as ways of bringing people into contact with one another and with the places they share.
The project moves between litter-picking, workshops, sculpture, installation, performance and interventions in public space. Materials collected from streets and shared environments are reused as starting points for making: what has been discarded is taken out of its expected cycle and given another function, meaning or visibility.
There is no fixed distinction between artist, volunteer and participant. People are invited to contribute according to their own experience, develop ideas together and influence what a project becomes. This allows outcomes to emerge through collaboration rather than being predetermined, making experimentation, exchange and collective ownership central to the process.
Projects have ranged from temporary interventions made with locally collected waste to workshops with schools and community groups, public artworks, festivals and permanent installations. Through these different forms, Norwood JunKAction asks how creativity can operate outside conventional art spaces and become embedded within the everyday life of a neighbourhood.
At its centre is an attempt to reconsider what we value: not only the materials we throw away, but public space, local knowledge and the relationships that can form through doing something together.
Founded by: Norman Mine
Developed with: participating artists, residents, volunteers, schools and community organisations
Supported by: The National Lottery Community Fund
Selected support and partnerships: NHS, Stanley Arts, Croydon Borough of Culture artistic programme, Artangel, Come As You Really Are, Mayor of London, Community Weekend
