Francesco Mazzarella
FM: Francesco Mazzarella
INT: Interviewer
INT: Introduce yourself and who you are.
FM: My name is Francesco Mazzarella and I’m a Senior Lecturer in Fashion and Design for Social Change at the London College of Fashion, UAL. In my work I use participatory action research to tackle issues, for instance, for instance they have a project to focus on youth violence where we transform metal from knives into a bespoke fashion collection that is co-created by young East Londoners and local brands, and then with Rosetta time working on a project called De-colonizing Fashion and Textiles and it’s all about design for cultural sustainability with refugee Communities based in East London.
INT: Can you a bit tell us about your connection – how you started with Rosetta?
FM: I first met Sanaz from Rosetta Arts maybe in 2019. We were introduced by Laura Ganderhow and Anna Millhouse from The London College of Fashion and we were exploring the opportunities to collaborate. We, er, I set up a project briefs for students undertaking the collaborative challenge at the London College of Fashion and the brief was called ‘Folklife” and it was very much a collaboration with a lot of Communities thinking about the cultural heritage of Newham.
INT: And did that take place here?
FM: I’ve wrote the brief and then a colleague of mine delivered the classes, but the master classes were delivered here from the Hubble Gallery, although I think, er, in the middle of the project, COVID started and possibly, if I remember correctly, as some of the sessions shifted to on-line You see I’ve set it up and others, I don’t know what they did – I’m not sure.
INT: Did you have any other connection with Newham?
FM: Also, do I have to mention another collaboration, another connection? Then we also connected Rosetta Arts with my colleague Lucy Orta who is a visual engaged artist and Chair of Art for the Environment at The University of the Arts London. She’s been delivering some of the workshops for the Traces: Stories of Migration here at Rosetta.
INT: Can you say something about Newham?
FM: Yes, for us it’s very important to form strategic partnerships with Rosetta Arts because London College of Fashion, at the moment, still has six buildings across the city, but for the very first time we’re moving to one New Campus in Newham in September 2023. So, actually by the time you listen to this we will have opened. Em, both at the college and the university we have a strong placemaking agenda, so I am part of the placemaking working group where we want to make meaningful connections with a lot of communities and other organizations such as Rosetta. We are very excited to be opening our new campus in Stratford, it will be part of the East Bank including the VNA, Saddlers Wells, BBC London UCLA Loughborough London, and actually, they will provide much more scope for meaningful connection and collaboration with Rosetta Arts and other organisations so we really look forward to being embedded in the local community and continue our work collaboration with Rosetta and others.
INT: Can you say a little bit about the changes you’ve experienced in the time since you got connected with Rosetta?
FM: I’ve known Rosetta for almost four years now – it’s not a very long time, but some of the people I met have changed or at least have changed their roles so that only that’s only one of the changes. The organisation is so well rooted in the local community, so well established. The facilities are great and so, actually I think that even if there are some changes happening in the area the organisation keeps the sense of belonging and heritage at the heart of its work. There is, of course, regeneration. There is lots of regeneration happening in the area and that can be exciting because it can make it a new better place to live and to work, but also, I know it brings up challenges for the local community, but I know that actually, Rosetta is genuinely very interested in advocating for the arts and for supporting the local community. It has very strong values at its core like diversity, inclusivity, equality and sustainability, so I think that these values will run through the regeneration and development happening in the area. So, I really hope, actually very much in line with the celebration that we are here today, it will be very much part of the future, a very important part of the heritage of the organisation the local area. Also, I think Rosetta is very good in partnerships and collaborations and co-creations, so I believe that the strategic projects and partnerships in the future will be very much developed by listening and responding to the needs and aspirations of the local community,
There was something important to mention, can I mention it now? Do we need to make this timeless?
INT: So, like, for instance, if you say earlier this year, it will probably be connected to a time.
FM: Okay, that’s best okay recently. We also, just recently hosted Jess Amaral as part of the Cultural Producer Programme that was delivered by Rosetta Arts with funding from Foundation London. Jess is a young East Londoner who graduated from London Fashion and she was very instrumental for us to deliver the Decolonizing Fashion and Textiles well as Project as well as Traces and other projects that we deliver in the local area. There was, as well, a very interesting opportunity to collaborate with Rosetta to mentor young people to train them in cultural production and also contribute to positive social change in the local area using fashion creativity and design.
INT: And a little but about vision or where you see things going.
FM: The future. I’m very excited about the future especially with our move to Stratford coming up soon. We still have an ongoing partnership with the Decolonising Fashion and Textiles Project. We have already booked the space for the upcoming workshops where the Refugee participants will co-create fashion and textiles artifacts embedding their stories of identity migration and cultural heritage. I’d also like to collaborate with Rosetta on a series of round table discussions we will facilitate late on to outline recommendations for policy change to overcome some of the barriers that refugees face. I wish, as well, there will be opportunities to make strategic partnerships and advocacy work that continues to support culture, fashion and design in the local area. There could be other opportunities for other places, like we hosted Jess. This was a very successful experience and I wish we could do more of that in the future. We could co-host artist in residence. For instance, we have a new scheme in the East Bank called Seeded Residency where we host practitioners to respond to some local issues. So, I’m sure there will be exciting opportunities to work with Rosetta.
INT: Anything else?
FM: As an educator it’s very important to nurture young people. I generally bring my research into my teaching, so I develop students’ briefs related to my live research projects. So, hopefully there will be an opportunity to collaborate with Rosetta Arts in these types of project briefs.
The Centre for Sustainable Fashion, where I am based, will turn 15 years in 2023, and we will host a festival in the new East Bank Building, so we hope it will involve Rosetta Arts in the celebrations and in the shaping of the future of LCF and the Centre.
