Creative People

Shepherd Manyika

Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet

Shepherd Manyika, Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet (workshop), 2021. Photo: Samuel Taylor

Shepherd Manyika, Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet (workshop), 2021. Photo: Samuel Taylor

Shepherd Manyika, Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet (workshop), 2021. Photo: Samuel Taylor

A community hall is filled with artworks by Shepherd Manyika. There are several screens displaying videos, as well as a series of painted words on paper which are displayed on small wooden frames.

Shepherd Manyika, Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet, 2021. Photo: Samuel Taylor

A group of five people stand looking at a large screen, watching a video made by artist Shepherd Manyika.

Shepherd Manyika, Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet, 2021. Photo: Samuel Taylor

In a town hall artist Shepherd Manyika stands speaking to a group of people, in front of several screens displaying videos and artworks on paper displayed on low wooden frames.

Shepherd Manyika, Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet, 2021. Photo: Samuel Taylor

Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet was a series of workshops in which young people from Northfleet worked with artist Shepherd Manyika to unpack ideas concerning the local area.

Guided by Shepherd, the participants explored creative approaches to navigating, documenting and responding to their surroundings. Exercises included sculpture making, listening workshops, sound and video recording, and audio sampling.

The sessions culminated in a sharing event at The Veterans Club in Northfleet where new works, using material created collaboratively through the workshops and edited by Shepherd, were displayed for the participants, and their family and friends.

The workshops took place across the summer holidays in partnership with the Northfleet community group Confident Children and Parents, an organisation that provides children and their families with a diverse range of activities and projects to help them reach their potential.

Do you have Snapchat? Mapping The Fleet is part of This Must Be the Place, a three-year programme, co-led by young people from Ebbsfleet and the surrounding areas in collaboration with commissioned artists, to produce site-specific artworks and shape the new city as it is built. The project is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and by Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.