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Wave Cafe on BBC Songs of Praise

Wave Cafe's parent charity, Wave For Change, was inspired by christian values, and runs, among other things, a monthly inclusive church service. When the BBC found out about Wave For Change's work, and how they'd also inspired wider community projects - like Wave Cafe - they had to come and take a look!

As part of the feature on Wave For Change's work in the community, Wave Cafe ran a special (covid secure) pop-up event with art activities, food and drink, and our classic inclusive and friendly atmosphere. Presenter Katie Piper was amazed by what she saw. Watch the feature below(first shown 17.01.21).

A big thanks to all who attended, to Katie, and the fantastic BBC filming team!

Coverage of our lockdown online activities

Click here to read the article Ham and High wrote about the 'online wave cafe' we ran during the coronavirus lockdown. Although the lockdown presented huge challenges for a group like us, aiming to bring people closer together, we were so pleased that we could create inclusive socialising online at a time when people were feeling very far away from each other!

Community arts cafe trial at the United Reformed Church

We had great fun working with the team at the newly refurbished United Reformed Church, Muswell Hill. We held a one day inclusive community arts cafe, with delicious cakes, coffee, an incredible middle eastern inspired lunch, a morning yoga session and all day painting activities. Something for everyone! It was lovely to see plenty of new faces experiencing the Wave Cafe atmosphere, as well as lots of old ones too. Thanks again to the URC for hosting us, and to Barnet Furnture Centre for their generous help with the cafe furniture. Be sure to keep an eye out for the gorgeous URC building next time you pass Queen's Avenue!

Wave Cafe presentation at TFN live crowdfunding event

We were thrilled to be invited to a summer fundraising event run by the The Funding Network (TFN). Adrian Carr, TFN member and Wave Cafe supporter, nominated us to pitch alongside three other charities at a live crowdfunding event held at the stunning 2 Temple Place.

Ben and Ophir made the pitch; a six minute presentation about Wave Cafe's ethos and vision (including a beautiful poem written by Ophir), followed by six minutes of questions from the floor. Thanks to the incredible generosity of TFN members, we received £7,851 in donations! The money raised is going to be spent on running our summer arts programme, our two all-day cafe events and preparations for a permanent venue.

Do check out TFN if you are looking for an innovative way to donate to exciting charities.

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Photos: Tinashe Mudoti

You can watch our pitch on Youtube here:

Chewing Gum Man at Wave Cafe!

Wave Cafe was thrilled to have the inimitable Ben Wilson, a Muswell Hill based artist better known as 'Chewing Gum Man', leading our first workshop of the summer!

For over 10 years, Ben has been creating his own tiny masterpieces on pieces of discarded chewing gum. He started off around Muswell Hill but has more recently been working a lot on the Millenium Bridge. It's unique, intricate and often very personal - Ben takes thousands of requests from passers by, often dedications to loved ones. In his own words, it's a way of ensuring that "art can happen anywhere".

Ben talked to us about his work, explained his creative process and then helped us create our own mini chewing gum artworks. We had such a fantastic evening and Ben's passion for working with people of all backgrounds shone through. A great start to the term!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wilson_(artist)