Get Involved

Stanley Arts is a home for arts and community activity. We have a growing programme of different community activities for people to get involved with.

From dance, art and history workshops for schools, to our Croydon Emerging Writers Programme, we have lots of free activities for you to get involved in.

This part of the website hosts all the current and past programmes in one place.

Become a Garden Volunteer

We’re also recruiting volunteers to help care for the garden once it is planted through simple watering, occasional light weeding and general garden care.

Applications Are Now Open For ‘Arcadia: Outside’

We’re looking for local climate action and outdoor community initiatives to submit for funding and marketing outreach support from Stanley Arts in order to reach new audiences and build opportunities for social, climate and nature action engagement in the borough.

Open Call for Commissions: Commons 26

As part of Stanley Arts’ annual ‘Commons’ Festival we are offering two £3000 commissions for two performance pieces to feature in this year’s programme.

Sitting around a table in our Coworking Space, Ella our Marketing Manager talks to a guest over a table with laptops, notepads and coffee on top.

Stanley Arts Development Surgeries

Are you an individual artist or a company with a great creative idea, but you need some advice or support to help make it happen? Why not come in for a half hour chat with a member of the Stanley Arts team?

A previous exhibition in The Gallery at Stanley Arts.

Display your exhibition at Stanley Arts!

We’re inviting artists from all backgrounds to pitch exhibition ideas that connect, challenge, and inspire our local community.

Croydon’s Creative People and Places Programme

Creative People and Places is a national Arts Council England programme led by local consortia with a focus on developing community and grassroots engagement with culture.

Become a Youth Environmental Ambassador!

We’re recruiting a group of 5 creative, motivated young people (18-25) to work with us over a 9 month period on initiatives that explore the relationship between mental health and tackling climate change.

New Beginnings 2026: Free Rehearsal Space

Apply for free space at Stanley Arts to develop your next project: whether that’s R&D, funding applications or rehearsals.

Fabric Donations Call-Out

Do you have leftover fabric from a sewing project, vintage linens, scraps, or even rolls gathering dust in a cupboard? Stanley Arts would love to hear from you!

Fresh Perks & Warm Welcomes: What’s New at the Stanley Arts Café & Coworking Space

This summer, we’ve introduced a whole host of new incentives designed with community, creativity, and comfort in mind.

Affordable Tickets Scheme

Our Stanley Affordable Ticket Scheme is part of our commitment to radical inclusion – helping to remove financial and practical barriers so that more people can enjoy and take part in our events, performances, and creative programmes.

Dance for Health – Fun, Fitness & Friendship for 55+

Join our free Dance for Health sessions designed to boost strength, balance, and mobility in a fun, creative environment.

The Craft-Tea Sessions at Stanley Arts

This is a series of playful art, music and story sessions for people living with dementia and their carers.

Professional Casting Call: Cinderella – Pantomime 2025

We are seeking 4 performers and an Assistant Stage Manager/Understudy for our panto Cinderella this year – could it be you?

Call-Out: Artists/Sellers/Traders for Stanley’s Second Chances Flea Market

Are you a local artist with sustainable artworks to sell, or perhaps you’ve had a clear out and are ready to give a second life to your former favourite clothes and furnishes? Join us as a seller at our upcoming flea market!

Participants Call-Out: Our Freedom Project

Take part in our FREE intergenerational arts project exploring what Freedom means to our community.

Stanley Arts & Apples and Snakes: Scratch Lab Call Out

If you are an early career poet, rapper, lyricist interested in building your writing and performance skills, then SCRATCH LAB is for you!

Stanley Arts Community Family Forum: Have Your Say on This Year’s Pantomime!

We’re planning this year’s pantomime – oh yes we are! – and we want YOUR ideas and feedback to help shape a show that you really want to see.

New Beginnings Showcase - The London Underground by BRIT alumni

New Beginnings: Summer 2025

New Beginnings returns for Summer 2025! Apply today and get free rehearsal space at Stanley Arts for a whole week! This opportunity encourages companies/artists to develop your next creative project whether that’s R&D, funding applications or simply to rehearse.

Open Call: Local Dance Enthusiasts!

Are you someone who loves to move? We’re looking for local community members to join Delilah and Other Disasters as part of Commons Festival at Stanley Arts!

Open Call: Tell us your experience raising dual-heritage children in Croydon

Creative couple, Jack & Antonia are making a theatre show about our experiences of raising dual-heritage children in Croydon and they would love your help!

Open Call: Unleash Your Sound at Stanley Sessions!

Stanley Arts proudly presents the launch of Stanley Sessions, in March 2025, a vibrant evening showcasing the incredible musical talent of Croydon!

New Beginnings 2025: Free rehearsal space at Stanley Arts!

New Beginnings is an opportunity for artists/companies to use rehearsal space at Stanley Arts for FREE, for five consecutive days, with a sharing of their work at the end.

Sponsor a Tile at Stanley Arts

Over the past hundred years, many of our historic tiles have been damaged and we need your help to restore them to their former glory.

Artist Open Call: Day of the Dead Exhibition

We are looking for visual artists to exhibit artworks as part of Days of the Dead festival at Stanley Arts. The exhibition will explore themes of death, rebirth and the afterlife and invite people to reconsider their relationship with death.

Participants call out: Dance-movement & image/collage making workshops with Bold Mellon Collective

‘IS IT OK?’ is an explorative art-making and creative well-being weekend with Bold Mellon Collective, taking place at Stanley Arts from September 20th- September 22nd, 2024.

Mother & child at previous crafts workshop at Stanley Arts

Volunteer Call Out: Learning and Engagement

Are you interested in engaging diverse communities in heritage and the arts? Stanley Arts is looking for Learning and Engagement Volunteers to help facilitate a range of exciting learning activities that are part of the two heritage programmes.

KS2 School Workshop: Building Croydon

This 1-hour in-classroom workshop invites pupils to explore the history of Croydon from its very […]

Dementia Action Week Coffee Morning at Stanley Arts

Join us for refreshments, cake and conversation and give your opinion about what you would like to see as part of our dementia-friendly offer!

School Resources : Building Croydon

We have launched a new programme ‘Building Croydon’ to help pupils in Croydon learn about the borough’s special history.

Get to know CYA and ‘Cultivate Croydon’

Meet CYA and ‘Cultivate Croydon’ and learn how they are taking a positive lead in the climate crisis, as part of Arcadia.

Open Call: Culture Croydon Pop Up

As part of the legacy of Croydon’s year as London Borough of Culture, we are launching ‘Culture Croydon Pop Ups’. We are looking to commission a series of pop up performances pieces in venues across Croydon.

Work Experience Summer 2024

Join our newly-launched work experience programme and meet the team at Stanley Arts! Are you […]

Volunteer Call-Out: Citizen Researchers

To raise awareness of buildings at risk, and spark conversations between Croydon’s Council and its community, we want to platform the knowledge and experience of Croydon’s citizens.

Callout: Technical Theatre Work Experience

Gain skills in technical theatre including stage management, live streaming, lighting and sound design during this work experience placement.

Meet our Queer Arts Commission Artists

We are delighted to announce the four queer artists and queer led companies that we’ve commissioned to create new work which will be performed in Spring 2024 at Stanley Arts and Kings Head Theatre.

Social Gardening Club

Join our friendly gardeners at Stanley Arts. Help maintain the planters, grow herbs and flowers, learn about gardening practices throughout the year and enjoy a cup of tea and chat.

DJ in a dim room with people in front of them watching their set

Produce a Music Event at Stanley Arts

Would you like to gain producing experience and programme your own event at Stanley Arts? We’re offering up to 10 placement opportunities for students to gain producing and technical experience running their own event in 2024.

Playground Tours 2023

Back in the beginning of July, ourselves and The Place received funding as part of NPO to bring Playground Tours to young people in the local community.

Join Open-air Movement Classes this Autumn

Join an open air movement class this autumn! This gentle exercise is a great way of enjoy nature and movement. Led by Anusha Subramanyam.

Volunteer at the Carnival of Invention

We’re looking for volunteers to help with our take over of Station Road for the […]

Queers Arts Comission: Applications now open!

Stanley Arts & Raze Collective is offering seed commissions of £5,000, alongside development and fundraising support, for queer artists to create work for production in spring 2024.

Participant Call-out for Dance Umbrella Festival 2023

Dance Umbrella are looking for two groups of people aged 12-18 and 55+ to perform in Family (dys)Function, a brand-new intergenerational dance theatre production from award-winning BirdGang Ltd.

Work as a Producer with Stanley Arts

Calling all young creatives & aspiring producers! Stanley Arts is working with four artistic […]

Micro-grants applications now open for natural heritage projects

This micro-grant programme is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for small, natural heritage and biodiversity-promoting initiatives as part of the London Borough of Culture. The application deadline is 11.59pm on Sunday 28th May 2023.

New Artist Opportunity – Writing: Redefined

Applications are now closed. Writing: Redefined is an innovative new writing programme, intended to push […]

Collide Commission. Brought to you by Raze Collective x Stanley Arts

COLLIDE – A call-out for LGBTQAI+ artists

Applications are now closed. A programme to support 10 emerging LGBTQIA+ artists working in & […]

Winner of the Design a Panto Dame Costume

Mihaela from Croydon College, you’re a winner baby! The winning design of our Design a […]

Meet the Finalist: Design a Panto Fairy Dame Competition 2022

Meet the finalists of our Design a Panto Dame Costume Competition. One of these mighty fine and imaginative designs will be coming to life on the big stage as part of Sleeping Beauty!

Medium Ignite Grants: Applications Closed

The medium round of the lgnite Fund is now closed for submissions. This round entailed […]

Design our Panto Fairy Dame returns for 2022!

This is your time to shine, design a stunning costume that will be featured in this year’s panto, Sleeping Beauty! We have a fairy dame this year, so keep this in mind when making designing.

Youth Campaign Officer – Hanton Fellowship

We are Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. We want to create a […]

Spices of Life

Spices of life is a creative arts project which will explore Anglo-Indian and South Asian […]

Proud Places & Stanley Arts Presents: Stanley’s Statues!

We challenge you, the local young people of South East London to inspire a new and exciting figure for Stanley Arts!

Six manga type cartoon figures of young people moving. One is in a wheelchair and another is on a skateboard. They are all brightly dressed and the word Gadgeteers is in a big font made up of cogs above them.

Summer Invention Challenge

Calling all Gadgeteers aged 4 – 11! We challenge you to create a brand new invention this summer and become the next mastermind of South Norwood! Did you know, South Norwood is the birthplace of many unique and interesting inventions?

Photo of two women lying on the floor, scattered with postcards and orange slices. A a glowing, orange ball is between them and they're smiling at each other

QUEER JOY exhibition call out

Bold Mellon are looking for submissions of artwork that truly expresses the raw, uninterrupted feeling of QUEER JOY. Think euphoric, think powerful. Beautiful emotion caught in a moment of zero-gravity. Bold Mellon are all about providing a platform for underrepresented queer voices.

Three men laughing in the Stanley Arts gallery as they look at a photography exhibition

New heritage engagement programme!

We’re pleased to announce that we have launched a heritage engagement programme at Stanley Arts, generously funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The programme celebrates the people, past and present, who have shaped South Norwood as we approach our 120th anniversary at Stanley Arts.