Interview: The story behind Brixton Life Drawing

Brixton Life Drawing started in 2019 and since then have been running weekly drawing classes. We chatted to founders Anya and Bex about their successful life drawing classes.

So what is the Brixton Life Drawing story? 

Brixton Life Drawing is a class that we set up back in 2019. With with the aim of making art accessible in our local community, we meet every week and we have life drawing classes. We have different models every week and a lot of regular drawers, but also a lot of first timers come along too.

How did it begin?

So it began back in 2019. We both (Anya and Bex) work together in the creative industry and we thought there wasn’t really anything in a local area that provided something that was creative, fun, not too serious and where you could come and meet like minded people. We always wanted to put an emphasis on the social side of things; we used to do it as like a bottomless wine and cheese format but then, sadly, COVID and that all changed. But now we have an amazing new venue here at The Hope and Anchor.

What do you enjoy most about running your classes?

I think the best thing about running this class is that we get to meet so many people from all walks of life. We’ve made such lovely friends. We have people that come week in, week out and you get to know them and about their lives. It’s just really fun. We’ve tried some of the best venues in London; the Natural History Museum and Leighton House Museum for example, and worked with some amazing companies and amazing people. All without a bricks and mortar home!

How can people get involved?

We sell tickets through Eventbrite and we have classes every week. They typically sell out the week before.

And what makes Brixton special to you? Why do you choose to run your classes here?

Well, we’ve lived in Brixton for over five years, and to me it just felt like home. It is such a creative and amazing community. There’s just so many people from all different walks of life and so many different things going on. We just knew it was an area where people would want to get involved and try something different. It’s been amazing. We both love Brixton.

Tell us about one highlight from your time running.

I think the (drawing event at the) Natural History Museum. We were in there during lock down and the whole museum was shut and they coloured the whale in orange, which is our branding colour. We had the whole museum to ourself for the whole evening. We proposed it and they were so keen, it was definitely a highlight. Running private celebrity passes has been amazing, but I mean, that’s more of a highlight for us on a personal level.