GIVING YOU THE TIME + PLACE TO CONNECT WITH NATURE
☼ Brownsea Island, Dorset
● About
Where Creativity Runs Free
Welcome to The Sticks a space rooted in nature, creativity, and community.
Designed for creative Londoners wanting to escape the city chaos, The Sticks offers a space to slow down, explore, and reconnect—with the outdoors, with each other, and with their own creative voice. Through nature walks, sketchbook-making, storytelling, and hands-on workshops, our community is encouraged to observe, reflect, and create in response to the world around them.
Whether it’s building confidence through creative expression, learning a new green skill, or simply spending time outside, The Sticks nurtures curiosity, care, and a deeper connection to place, people and you.
This isn’t about doing everything, it’s about noticing more, creating with intention, and growing together with nature.
Because nature should be messy, magical, and creatively yours.
● Summer Flower Programme
Creative Tracks to Explore
Designed to build your confidence in identifying and understanding the plants around you, this session will combine flora literacy, observation and optional botanical sketching. From everyday tulips to delicate water lilies, we'll slow down and take time to notice the incredible pigments, textures and scents found throughout Kew. Along the way, we'll explore how plants can teach us to look more closely, think differently and connect more deeply with the environments around us.
Expect to leave Kew with a new-found confidence in spotting and identifying flora in your everyday surroundings, and a renewed appreciation for the fascinating world of plants.
Suiban is a shallow Japanese ceramic tray traditionally used in ikebana. For our second session of the summer programme, we'll take inspiration from the Suiban to create our own clay vessels, exploring how we can use learnings from our Kew flower walk to design your own Suiban. This is an opportunity to slow down, get creative with clay and reconnect with the natural world through making.
A space for our Sticks community to explore creative exploration through clay. We will try out different hand building techniques, glazes, shapes and sizes!
Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. More than simply placing flowers in a vase, it explores balance, harmony, space and the natural beauty of plants. It encourages us to work thoughtfully with flowers, branches and other natural materials, appreciating their unique shapes, movement and imperfections. For the final session of our Summer Flora Programme, our Sticky community is invited to take part in a special Ikebana workshop guided by Cristiano Montovani.
You'll leave with new-found flora knowledge, a handmade ceramic vase created by you, and a beautiful Ikebana arrangement to take home.
● Our Mission
Life at The Sticks
Here at Camp Bennie, we blend the joy of summer with the tools to grow as an artist–eco-friendly cabins, fully equipped studios, and days filled with swimming, hiking, and outdoor adventures. Evenings around the fire spark reflection, laughter, and a deep sense of belonging.
Whether you’re curious about life at camp, hoping to visit, or looking to bring your talents to our faculty, we’re here to talk.
● Contact