Capacity Building

Visual organising training

Visual organising is drawing and note taking for social movements. 

In this training you will learn how to use your drawing skills to produce accessible and engaging visual notes for meetings, protests and other movement gatherings.

Black artist, drawn in brown, making a sketch on a notepad and a brown migrant organiser, drawn in blue, speaking into a microphone. Text reads: “As visual organisers, we listen for and communicate agency, power, possibility.”
3 people holding up visual sketchnotes from the Solidarity Knows No Borders Summit. Text asks: “Why do we need this? Visual Organising supports groups to be more accessible, joyful and imaginative and this creates a more powerful movement.”

Sign Ups are now closed.

We will update this page with further training sessions soon.

Training days

Tuesday, 13 June, 6 - 8pm

Welcome session on zoom. Meet everybody and hear about why we take visual notes and how. 

Tuesday, 18 July, 6 - 8pm

Check- in session on zoom. Get informal feedback on your visual note experiments and hear from experienced note takers. 

Saturday 16 September, 12 - 5pm at Rabbits Road Press, London

In person day in London to learn about synthesising and editing visual notes. Workshops about portrait drawings and accessibility.

Friday 29 September or Saturday 30 September

Optional hybrid training day at the Solidarity Knows No Borders network gathering. Take visual notes with us and get thrown in the deep end. 

Tuesday, 10 October, 6 - 8pm

Zoom session with evaluation, reflection and planning next steps.

Fruit bowl with different fruits symbolising who this training is for: Migrant and racial justice organisers. People affected by the hostile environment. Artists, illustrators, designers, facilitators and culture workers.
“In this training you will learn how to use your drawing skills to produce accessible and engaging visual notes for meetings, protests and other movement gatherings.” The word ‘use’ is a anthropomorphised and there are marks, like spirals and arrows

Who is this for?

  • People affected by the UK’s hostile immigration environment

  • Migrant & racial justice organisers

  • Artists, illustrators, designers, facilitators and culture workers

Why would I go to this?

  • To learn about different ways of recording meetings, sharing information and communicating. 

  • To meet other people who are interested in using their creative skills for movement building and against the Hostile Environment.  

  • To potentially become a Migrants In Culture associate and work with us on visual note organising jobs as a freelancer. 

Do I have the ‘right’ drawing skills? 

We think that everybody can draw and we will show you a variety of different ways to take visual notes. We don’t expect you to have one particular way of drawing or any professional skills.

But you should have an existing practice of drawing, even if it is doodling or handwriting notes.

If you are dyslexic or if English isn’t your first language, we can find different approaches to make these tools work for you. Feel free to email us with any access needs you would like to discuss: hello@migrantsinculture.com

How much is it?

The training is free and we can offer travel/phone credit stipends for people who are unwaged or on NRPF. Get in touch with us if you would need additional resources or support to find the time for this training. 

The training is funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Necessity and our earned income as a Migrant-led design agency.

Ipad and an apple pen. “Do you have a tablet you no longer use? We are looking for ipads (6-10th gen) to support our visual organising training participants on low income or NRPF.”

If you have a spare iPad or apple pen please get in touch:

hello@migrantsinculture.com