Exhibitions, Events, Talks, Learning Projects and more – find out what’s happening at Drawing Room!
Find out our opening hours, how to get here and learn more about our space & local area.
Drawing Room/Tannery Arts CIO Unit 1b New Tannery Way Bermondsey London, SE1 5WS
Our Learning projects make drawing relevant and accessible to our community – for schools, teachers, families & local groups. Come and draw!
Free and open to all, our Library is a unique collection of around 4,000 books dedicated to the exploration of contemporary drawing.
Our Supporters help fund all that we do and enjoy exclusive events, talks, tours and studio visits – find out how you can join!
Buy publications related to our exhibitions, as well as unique artworks and limited editions.
Find out more about Drawing Room, what we do, and our relationship with studio provider Tannery Arts.
Tannery Arts is a small, independent charity concerned with supporting the professional development of emerging and established artists through the provision of affordable studios, promoting their practice through opportunities to exhibit work, develop projects, generate partnerships with local authorities, private property owners and social housing organisations as well as engage in learning activities.
Making Room is a studio space for people living with mental illness in both clinical and community settings.
The project, led by Artist Nicole Morris, commenced in March 2024 and explores art practice as a critical service in mental health support. Working in partnership with Southwark Directorate Occupational Therapy Staff, the project is currently based on the acute and psychiatric intensive care wards for women at Maudsley Hospital as well as within the community, and is supported by Asha Fontenelle and Daphne Greca.
Sessions invite service users to try out new activities and use different mediums in a non- judgmental, safe space. Being together and making alongside and in collaboration, through drawing, poetry, paint, textiles, clay, print and collage, in a space that nurtures collective joy. In each session we share work made and celebrate achievements with a drink and snack together. Outcomes have been displayed throughout the wards, Making Room in an institutional space for a studio to exist.
Nicole Morris is an artist whose practice spans textiles, film and creative writing. Her work moves between exhibitions, healthcare and community contexts, exploring how making can become a space for reflection, repair and connection. Recent projects include: At The Bedside, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, GOSH (2025-6); Today I… Home-Start and Foundling Museum (2025-6); Navigating My Sea, Her Centre, Solace, Bromley & Croydon Women’s Aid and RMG (2020-2026); Resist, Coborn Centre for Adolescent Mental Health (2024); Filling Gaps, Mind in Camden (2024); Making in Isolation, together, [ SPACE ] commissions, London (2020) Supersmashers, South London Gallery (2018-19). Recent exhibitions include: Lost Mothers, Asociación Alcultura, Algeciras (2024), Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London (2024, 2021), Discoveries V, Fiumano Clase, London (2024); Dear World, Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging commission, UCL, London (2020); Survey, G39, Cardiff; Bluecoat, Liverpool; Baltic, Gateshead and Jerwood, London (2018-19).
nicolemorris.co.uk
Thank you to all involved so far:
Generously supported by Warburg Pincus and Chandrika Baji Pathak
I just want the joy to continue
It’s much more beautiful than I remembered
This collaboration has offered our clients a transformative space for creative exploration, personal growth, and recovery… Making Room has made art accessible to individuals who may never have had the means or opportunity to explore it. The impact on our clients’ recovery journeys has been profound — enabling them to reconnect with meaning, purpose, and community.
So much has happened in such a short period, we have gone from 0-60 in days.
There is no pressure here. It feels safe
I got to show my sister my work on the wall, she was really proud of me.
I want to journal forever.
I enjoyed spending time in the company of others outside my home.
This is the first group they have ever attended all the way through
The sessions have supported service users to create artworks through which they have been able to express their creativity and articulate things that are of importance to them… you have created a sense of community within the sessions where service users can celebrate and support one another despite often not choosing to be in hospital or together as such.’
I’ve put my collage up beside my bed and I love waking up every morning to look at it.
I’m happy even though it’s imperfect
Doing things together makes me stronger.
I’ve been drawing at home ever since this group. Thank you for providing a safe space’
In this room, I have witnessed much laughter and a little sadness, that is understandable given the difficult circumstances so many of our service users have found themselves in.
I’m happy this reminded me of that memory in my childhood walking barefoot in the garden
You helped me build confidence in this room. The words you used made me feel stronger
‘I’ve been looking forward to this all week’
Supporting staff, whether they be OTs or members of the nursing team, have also been encouraged to participate, thus, breaking down the barriers between patients and staff, that are well known to exist, often to the detriment of service users, in institutions such as ours, where power imbalances are enshrined.
You’ve encouraged and nurtured everyone to be more independent and flourish
This might be a new hobby for me