Featured Events in Croydon in April, 2025 (October Updated)

Croydon arts charity Turf Projects are thrilled to announce the launch of our new open-access ceramics facilities, following the success of our MakeRoom series last year. Our monthly Inductions to use the facilities will take place on the first Saturday of each month and cost £35. Completion of this induction will grant you open access to our ceramic facilities from Wednesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm, bookable via Eventbrite for £15 for a 3 hour slot. A BOUT TURF: Founded in 2013 by Croydon locals, Turf is Croydon’s homegrown artist space and the first entirely artist-run contemporary art space in the borough. Based in Croydon’s Whitgift Shopping Centre, we put on free exhibitions & workshops, provide affordable artist studios, run a free creative project space for locals & host a number of other local creative organisations and collectives. A registered charity, Turf aims to provide paid opportunities for artists and creatives who might otherwise be under-supported.For more info or to get involved, please email us at info@turf-projects.com KEY ACCESS INFO: To help us support you best, please let us know if you have any access needs when booking.For access info about getting to Turf and the Turf space, click here. Our unit in the Whitgift Centre is 4 minutes walk (0.2 miles) from Wellesley Road Tram stop via the underpass, and 7 minutes walk (0.3 miles) from West Croydon Station and 8 minutes walk (0.4 miles) from East Croydon station.WORKSHOP CODE: Turf aims to be a space where all are welcomed & respected. We ask all attendees to align with this spirit when booking and support us in creating a welcoming & collaborative atmosphere together. We ask that everyone is; Kind and respectful in our language and behaviour towards others. Turf is a space which is anti racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism.Considerate of others' time; allowing others room to speak & engage.Respectful of the space itself as belonging to many people, treating the space & objects with care.In 2023, around 30% of people booking free tickets didn't turn up! Our free tickets are limited and in high demand. Every person who doesn't turn up means someone else can't attend, so please let us know if you can't make it to free up a space. If you don’t attend twice or more without letting us know, you may be restricted from booking again. Information Source: Turf Projects | eventbrite

Croydon get ready to get jiggly!If you're looking for a fun way to move your body and learn new dance skills, then you've come to the right place. Learn to unlock and shake your hips with samba, and bring some positive energy and empowerment into your life through twerk. These classes are a great way to relieve stress and help improve your mental and physical health. When: Saturday mornings (5 & 12 April) Time: Twerk at 10am, Samba from 11:15am (each class is 1hr) You can do both classes, or 1 class. Location: Collaborative One WorkSpace 360 Brighton Rd, South Croydon CR2 6AL The schedule looks a bit like this:Saturday 5 April 10am: Brazilian Funk Twerk 11:15am: Samba Saturday 12 April 10am: Groovy Soca Twerk11:15am: Samba You are welcome to attend just twerk, just samba or mix it up. It's up to you! What will we cover in twerk classes? Twerk classes will focus on techniques, short combos and choreos to help you learn with confidence. Please don't worry if you've never done a twerk class before, this class is perfect for you. I'll break down the moves step by step so you can feel confident in having the foundations to keep progressing. What will we cover in samba classes? Samba will bring positive energy and empowerment into your life through. Learn the foundations to start your samba journey. We'll cover samba basics, transitions and preps, musicality, ways to improve your hips, styling, posing and walks. What about if you miss a class? Please see my T&Cs here About meI'm a certified Level 2 Exercise to Music professional with a passion for dance, movement, and joyful self-expression. I teach dynamic dance wellness classes, including twerk-inspired fitness and, of course, samba, my greatest passion. Samba has completely transformed my mind, body, and soul, and my mission is to help others experience that same joy, confidence, and freedom through movement. With me, you’ll learn more than just the steps—you’ll discover how each movement is a celebration, each jiggle a declaration of joy. Together, we’ll embrace the energy of Brazilian rhythms, turning every dance session into an exhilarating, uplifting experience. Come dance with me and let’s celebrate movement, music, and happiness! If you have any questions please follow and DM me on@jigglefiiton Instagram or email Nana@thisblackwomancan.com. NO DANCE EXPERIENCE REQUIRED My classes are judgement free zone. Expect positivity and lots of jiggling and wiggling with joy. ** LIABILITY WAIVER ** By purchasing a ticket, I willingly agree to participate in activities, taking full responsibility for any potential injury or harm. I confirm that I am physically well and don't have any health issues that would hinder my involvement. Note that classes might be recorded for promotional use. You will be notified in class if this is happening and can choose if you want to be filmed or not. Information Source: Nana Crawford, JiggleFiiT | eventbrite

Turf Projects is pleased to announce the group exhibition WETPAIN. The show brings together local and international artists who explore the physical, historical, and political dimensions of paper. It features works by Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos (Brazil), Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino (Brazil/Germany), Debora-Joyce Holman (Switzerland/UK), Samuel Alves de Jesus (Brazil), Samara Paiva (Brazil), and Henrique J. Paris (Angola/UK) – many of whom are exhibiting in the UK for the first time. Paper carries a layered legacy. It is a bureaucratic record-keeping tool and a site for personal notation, storytelling, and subversion. In WETPAIN, the artists work with these different connotations and use the material to tackle lived experiences and express their creative aims. While questions of race, migration, colonization, and power inform much of the research behind the works, abstraction emerges as a shared interest. The exhibition’s title plays on “wet paint,” a common phrase that marks a state of transition. It demands a wait for something not yet set, still in motion, in reference both to the material process involving the artwork and the intellectual topics they address. Organised by Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino in collaboration with Turf Projects, the exhibition resonates with the institution’s mission and context. It situates itself within Croydon’s creative landscape while extending a dialogue to international practitioners with complementary discourses. WETPAIN opens at Turf Projects on Friday the 11th April from 5-7pm. All are welcome to attend. BYOB or drinks will be available for a donation. ARTIST BIOS Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos(b.1995, 'cafundó do mundo’, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo. She develops long-term projects based on research. She has held solo exhibitions at Museu Mineiro (2024); Galeria Martins & Montero (2024); Galeria Cavalo (2024); Paço das Artes (2023); Centro Cultural São Paulo (2018); and Área Panorâmica de Tui (2017). She has participated in numerous residencies and fellowships at institutions, including the Coleção Moraes-Barbosa (2024), Museu de Arte da Pampulha (2024), Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2021), and Adelina Instituto (2019). Raylander was awarded the New Artists Award from the Memorial Minas Gerais Vale (2024) and the EDP Residency Award from the Instituto Tomie Ohtake (2018). Her works are in public collections such as MASP (São Paulo) and the Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte). Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino (Brazil, 1989) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. They use score, sculpture, text, photography, sound, and video, to address the remaining structures of the transatlantic colonial project. Themes the artist focuses on are institutional critique, language, and objecthood. Recently, the artist has been invested in what they are calling experimental pedagogy. In February 2024, their lecture 'From Language' was presented at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung und Kunst Basel, with following presentations at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Kunstverein Nürnberg, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg, and the Kunsthalle Bremen in January 2025. Deborah-Joyce Holman is an artist based between London and Basel. Their work has recently been shown in solo exhibitions at Swiss Institute, New York City (2025); Kunstverein Freiburg; TANK Shanghai (both 2024); Kunsthalle Bern (2023); Cordova, Barcelona (2022); Istituto Svizzero, Palermo (2022); schwarzescafé, Luma Westbau, Zurich (2022); Cherish, Geneva (with Yara Dulac Gisler, 2021). From 2020-2022, they were Associate Director at East London arts organization Auto Italia. They were the founding director of 1.1, a platform for early-career practitioners in arts, music and text-based practices, with an exhibition space in Basel, Switzerland, which ran 2015-2020. The artist has curated the 2018 and 2019 annual group exhibitions for the arts and music festival Les Urbaines, Lausanne, presenting newly commissioned works by over 15 international artists. Samuel Alves de Jesus (São Paulo, 1999) lives and works in Taboão da Serra, Brazil. The artist works with painting, sculpture, video, installation, and drawing. He explores the relationship between nature, divinity, and immateriality in relation to how racial and colonial impacts affect the way we understand human nature. Recent projects include group shows at Gisela Freier Kunstraum Kulturring (Berlin, Germany), Castiglioni (São Paulo, Brazil), Espaço Buero (São Paulo, Brazil), Shmorévaz (Paris, France), CCSP (São Paulo, Brazil), Quase Espaço (São Paulo, Brazil). Upcoming projects in 2025 include solo shows at Yehudi Hollander-Papi (São Paulo, Brazil) and Salon 75 (Copenhagen, Denmark), respectively. In 2024, Alves de Jesus led the workshop 'The Future of the Image of Nature' at SESC (Santos, Brazil). In 2022, he was listed as one of the artists of his generation to keep an eye on by Tropix Editorial (São Paulo, Brazil). Samara Paiva(Maués, 1995) is a visual artist who lives and works in São Paulo. Her artistic practice consists of research through painting the behavior of the black body in the domestic spatiality and its relation with intimacy. Samara delves into how this ambient allows humanization and vulnerability to be constantly taken from those bodies, giving space for contemplation and a margin for subjectivity. Exploring the plasticity of materials is one of the pillars of her practice to blur the line between concrete and the abstract. For the artist, low contrast, the night, and the shadows are instruments of freedom. In 2022, Paiva was selected to participate in the programs Good Black Art, Ventre of HOA Gallery, the LANCE exhibition at CCSP, and SP Arte – Rotas Brasileiras. Recent projects include a solo show at Casa do Benin in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in 2024 and group exhibitions at Sesc Belenzinho and Castiglioni Gallery, both in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2023, she was a resident at Pivô Pesquisa, also in São Paulo. Henrique J. Paris is an Angolan artist-researcher, graduated in Philosophy and currently completing a postgraduate degree in Architecture at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. His artistic practice dissects philosophical, scenographic, and architectural frameworks. He examines enacted modes of power, moral codes, anticolonial praxis and Christian discipleship. J. Paris has explored these themes through image-making, multimedia installations, sound-oriented performance and cultural production. These formats serve as tools of contestation, re-memory, and testimony. His previous projects include the 2019 solo exhibition ‘Home Is Where The Body Isn’t’, Proyecto de Movilidad Panamá-Angola-Portugal with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) Panama, Álbuns de Família at the Padrão dos Descobrimentos in Lisbon, Body as Testimony with Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), Field Notes with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and Family Lines with the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin. ABOUT TURF: Founded in 2013 by Croydon locals, Turf is Croydon’s homegrown artist space and the first entirely artist-run contemporary art space in the borough. Based in Croydon’s Whitgift Shopping Centre, we put on free exhibitions 7 workshops, provide affordable artist studios, run a free creative project space for locals & host a number of other local creative organisations and collectives. A registered charity, Turf aims to provide paid opportunities for artists and creatives who might otherwise be undersupported. A request from the Turf team - if you book, please turn up! In 2023, around 30% of people booking free tickets didn’t attend. As a charity, we aim to support people who need creative opportunities the most and our free tickets are limited and in high demand. Every person who doesn’t turn up means someone else can’t attend, so please let us know if you can’t make it to free up a space. If you don’t attend twice or more without letting us know, you may be restricted from booking again. KEY ACCESS INFO​To help us support you best, please let us know if you have any access needs when booking.For access info about getting to Turf and the Turf space, click here.Our unit in the Whitgift Centre is 7 minutes walk (0.3 miles) from West Croydon Station and 8 minutes walk (0.4 miles) from East Croydon station.EVENT CODE:Turf aims to be a space where all are welcomed & respected. We ask all attendees to align with this spirit when booking and support us in creating a welcoming & collaborative atmosphere together. We ask that everyone is; Kind and respectful in our language and behaviour towards others. Turf is a space which is anti racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism.Considerate of others’ time; allowing others room to speak & engage.Respectful of the space itself as belonging to many people, treating the space & objects with care. Information Source: Turf Projects | eventbrite

Unleash your creativity and have a fantastic time with our exquisite sip n paint experience. No painting experience required – whether you're an artist or a beginner, everyone is welcome! This is the perfect opportunity to bond, have fun, and create a masterpiece. Immerse yourself in the smooth sounds of R&B as you create masterpieces. It’s the perfect way to celebrate love and artistry. Whether you’re a seasoned painter or a complete beginner, our event will ensure you leave with a piece of art and memories to cherish. All materials are provided and you get take your masterpiece home with you! Bottomless prosecco or rum punch might be an option for you too! Finish the day with the CR1 night party or just come for the night party. Dance the night away to the best tunes with the best DJs. Vibes to the best old Skool RnB, Garage, Dancehall and Afrobeats. If you don't want to paint that's fine, just join the afterparty from 10pm! Birthday groups please contact us directly at cr1barandlounge@gmail.com Information Source: CR1 Bar & Lounge | eventbrite

Experience a magical evening at EASTER VINA HOUSE NIGHT in Croydon Park's Community Centre - Serbia & Montenegro. The event will take place on April 19-20, 2025, at 117 Regency Road. Immerse yourself in a night filled with music, dance, and entertainment. Tickets are priced at A$40 - A$70, offering an affordable and unforgettable experience for all attendees. Don't miss out on this extraordinary event in South Australia.