Chloe Latham and the Alley Animals
Chloe talks about creating the alley animals and now being able to see them installed in the alleyway
Case Study
Chloe is a mum to two daughters, one which attends Newington Community Primary School and one that is nursery aged. She talks animatedly about joining the group (Hot Dog Club), being involved in Creative Newington and it being “absolutely brilliant”. She has attended the weekly club for a couple of years and has made some strong friendships; she talks about speaking with Zoe every day on the phone.
Chloe talks about creating the alley animals and now being able to see them installed in the alleyway. Chloe says:
“We [and her young daughter] have to see the animals every day down the alley. And she literally names every single animal. Yeah, she loves it. It's brilliant!”
Chloe talks about the mosaic installations for the benches and the community centre sign. She is very proud to say that she came up with the idea of recreating the faces of the community centre sign as Disney-inspired characters using the Snapchat app. The original discussion for the theme of the sign was around Covid-19, however Chloe stated: “No, community is people.” There is a sense of pride in being part of the project and creating artwork that will last a lifetime. Chloe believes that this pride extends out into the community. She says: “They [staff involved in the project] are good at bringing the community together 100%, because there are a lot of different people”. She spoke positively about her relationship with Rob, the artist, and Mike, the community chef.
Chloe explained that the group started off quite small but as time went on the group grew too big and this presented some challenges. Her older daughter also became less and less interested in attending the group. When asked her overall feeling about being involved in the group, she says: “Definitely more positive. I just feel like there just needs to be a bit more structure and support.” When discussing potential next steps, Chloe talks about the group being smaller, having more structure, and engaging more with the children especially those that are older to try and get them off their mobile phones.