Bon Volks presents a three-day, free-to-access exhibition of drawings and textiles in posthumous dialogue between Rachelle and the late Diana Francis, alongside a participatory making workshop. Taking place across the Off Season weekend, the exhibition is joined by an embossing metal workshop from Beer Can Votives led by Billie M. Vigne, inviting moments of collective making, reflection, and exchange. Places for the workshop are limited; please book in advance via the link here.

With & Without Diana

Rachelle is a textile and social practice artist. Originally from a fashion background (18 years working as a couture embroidery designer for clients including Alaïa and Chanel), the death of her mother Diana in 2019 and the uncovering of her hidden archive of over 1000+ drawings, textiles and sculptures prompted Rachelle to create the With & Without Dianaproject. Aided by Arts Council England funding, this creative health project shares Diana's archive, story and artistic processes to help destigmatise, connect, support and inspire others. Rachelle also creates textile artworks in response to Diana's archive—posthumous conversations in cloth; an exploration of the connections, and cuts, within a relationship affected by a mother's mental health illness and subsequent addiction. An artist's book, Rachelle’s embroideries, and Diana's entire archive are all under proposal for acquisition by the Wellcome Collection.

Income raised from workshops will support the With & Without Diana workshop programme (with charities across Kent, Dover and Medway) and an exhibition sharing art’s ability to support wellbeing (Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury 2026).

Exhibition suitable for all ages, free entry.

Come and make an articulated, embossed worry doll for Off Season Margate 2026!

Join artist Billie M Vigne in creating embossed, articulated creatures from beer cans that hold your worries tight to gift to Rachelle's project and posthumous collaboration with her mother- With & Without Diana.

In this 2 hour workshop, held at Bon Volks amongst Rachelle’s Mending a Better Ending exhibition, we will be creating worry doll puppets made from discarded drinks cans as votive offerings to be gifted to the exhibition. These works sit alongside Rachelle and Diana’s practices, and reflect shared themes of repair, reuse and care.

Beginning with a short introduction from Rachelle to Diana’s incredible artwork, Billie and Rachelle will touch on the crossovers and divergences between our practices and the works of her late mum Diana, taking us through ideas of memorial, crafting as a mode of archiving, catharsis and escape, and reuse/reworking.

During the workshop we will deconstruct discarded drinks cans, whittling out familiar and unfamiliar shapes, embossing them with mindful, doodled marks, that hold our worries and sensations following on from Diana’s methodologies. Riveting them together with wire to create little puppets, we will explore the parameters of what constitutes a worry doll or creature form, experimenting with the material through cutting, piercing and stitching with wire.

Workshop suitable for all ages.

£15p/p. Limited places, please book here.

Beer Can Votives

Billie M Vigne is an artist and metalsmith whose work revolves around the temperamental intricacies of chronic illness. In 2022, Billie began The Beer Can Votive project; a travelling forum of embossing workshops in which people make ex votos/votive offerings from recycled drinks cans. The project focuses on imbuing the metal with feelings, sensations and stories that speak of our own physiological experiences, challenging the historical narrative of their use as curative talismans.

Bon Volks is a non-profit arts organisation, sustained through common care and collective organising. For a decade, it has provided affordable workspace to artists and creative practitioners while also supporting the wider community of Margate through workshops, environmental initiatives and neighbourhood action.

This auction was created to celebrate Bon Volks’ tenth anniversary, shaped by a collective wish to give back to the organisation. The most meaningful contribution could only be through the very thing that defines Bon Volks: the work of its Members.

The exhibition reflects the extraordinary range of practices within the building; a diversity that has always been one of Bon Volks’ greatest strengths. When the call went out, members responded with generosity, soon joined by past residents and artist friends who share our ethos of community and care. Together, their contributions have shaped this exhibition into a collective statement of solidarity.

The works capture the breadth and vitality of the Bon Volks community and its extended network. From painting, print and photography to jewellery, textile, literature, sound and music, each piece is unique. Collectively, they celebrate ten years of creativity, generosity and the spirit of Bon Volks.

Bidding in this auction is more than an opportunity to acquire a unique artwork. It is a way to support creative practitioners directly and ensure that Bon Volks can continue to provide a vital space for experimentation, belonging and artistic growth.

Every bid is more than a purchase; it’s a gesture of solidarity.

It affirms a belief in creative practice, in community and in the future of Bon Volks.

photo credits: @Sam Roberts

The Bon Volks Swift Weekend
On the 15th and 16th of June, we will be running a number of talks and events, centred around the return of our local Swift Colony, as part of The Swift Project 2024.

There will be writing and makers workshops, run by our Members; a talk on the swifts and a neighbourhood walk-about aimed at co-creating interventions into our neighbourhood.

All events are free, as they have been supported by Kent Community Foundation. Most have restricted numbers, so tickets can be booked through Eventbrite.

We are delighted to be working with @wcgmargate @highwealdswifts @rebecca_strickson_illustration @onemotherowl @margatequeerwriters

The Swift Project 2024
The project aims to highlight the importance of conservation and biodiversity gains, by focusing on the migratory arrival and departure of the swifts in our immediate locality. The project asks our neighbours to become ‘Guardians’ of the swifts, by allowing us to install free swift boxes on their houses. These boxes were constructed from reclaimed materials. Dane Park Road, which is adjacent to our building, is unique in the local area as a focal point of swift nesting and feeding. The swifts habitually return to the road every year, capitalising on the rich feeding sites that exist on the edges of Dane Park. However, in recent years nesting sites on Dane Park Road have begun to disappear and a reduced insect population has led to dwindling numbers. In recent years swift colonies have been forced to travel further north in the UK. We believe the uniqueness of the Dane Park Rd phenomenon should be highlighted and celebrated and that the local residents should be rightly proud of their annual visitors.

There has been increased coverage, nationally, of the need to protect the swifts, as a key part of a healthy functioning ecosystem. We believe our project could be used as an example for other neighbourhoods to self-organise in this way.

photos by Sam Roberts and Diana Jarvis

You are invited to celebrate the launch of Sanctuary, a hand made photobook by Chris Jack, artist and member at Bon Volks Studios.
Free drinks from 6pm-9pm.

Sanctuary features photographs shot over a period of three years at Tivoli Woods, a small urban woodland a short walk from the artist's home in Margate. It is an ode to the comfort we find in unexpected places. It is a window onto the forgotten but newly discovered and the view that the past can bring to the future.
Piezography and K3 pigment inks on uncoated papers: Mohawk Options PC White Vellum 148gsm, Munken Pure Rough Cream 120gsm. Cover: Takeo Tela White 120gsm. Obi-strip: Daler-Rowney Murano Chocolate 160gsm. Pressed plant taken from Tivoli Woods included in glassine seed envelope.

We’re delighted to bring together this collective display with works produced by Bon Volks Members. A perfect opportunity to discover the wide range of practices at Bon Volks Studios and find a unique Christmas present. Buy handmade and local this Xmas!

Free entry

Make your own Christmas decorations from felt and recycled materials with artist/illustrator Rebecca Strickson. All materials supplied.

£10

(under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)