Friends of the Beaufoy
Before and after buying the Beaufoy Institute, we’ve spoken to many different local people across Prince’s Ward and Lambeth more widely about how we might support the community and engage in the most beneficial way. With the London Diamond Way Buddhist Centre now based at the Beaufoy Institute, we have an opportunity to link our specific capabilities as a volunteer-based organisation to local people through a wider framework than our Buddhist activity.
The outcome of our consultation work was a proposal to form a Friends of the Beaufoy organisation to sponsor and support projects that connect the local and wider community, the Beaufoy Institute and Diamond Way Buddhism.
The four proposed initial themes for the Friends of the Beaufoy are:
- History of the Beaufoy Institute: many have a great fondness for the Beaufoy Institute due to family connections or interest in the ragged school movement. A history project linking local people, schools, libraries and archives and online resources is proposed to document, preserve and tell the wonderful story of the Beaufoy building for future generations.
- Regeneration, renovation and refurbishment: the building needs a lot of work, and this provides the potential for training and skills transfer for local people. We will certainly be grateful for any help in renovation – and can see opportunities for our skilled teams to liaise and work with local community groups and social enterprises to offer work experience and skills transfer opportunities.
- Space for Art: Lambeth has a rich and lively artistic tradition, and Tibetan Buddhism also has a tremendous interest in paintings, statues and Tibetan frescos. It is proposed to hold joint art exhibitions and develop art skills transfer for young and old, amateur or professional artists and curators. This is an opportunity to link local colleges and museums and the borough’s talent together for everyone to enjoy.
- Mindfulness, meditation and science: whilst Buddhism as a type of religious tradition has specific meditation methods that are used on a daily basis, many are interested in meditation from within their own religious tradition or on a secular basis for instance in the form of different mindfulness meditation practices. We have a lot of interest in developing this theme to offer generic non-Buddhist meditation to those that would be interested in the local community along with stimulating inter-faith and inter-science discussions.
We would love to hear from anyone on the ideas and framework proposed above – especially if you would like to get involved. Please send a message through “Contact” section.
Friends of the Beaufoy has participated in the Thames Festival.
Our events developed the theme of the history of the Beaufoy Institute itself, and linked it within the wider context of the Vauxhall Ragged Schools movement, which sought to provide education for Vauxhall’s poorest.