Education
2008 - 2010 MA Fine Art (Pass), Liverpool School of Art & Design, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
1991 - 1994 BA (Hons) Social Policy (2.i), University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Professional Development Training
2022 Deep Listening Intensive - Virtual 13 week deep listening course run by The Center for Deep Listening, NYC.
2022 Level 2 Food Safety Certificate: 1 day intensive, online food hygiene course, The Safer Food Group, June 2021.
2022 Writing for Performance with Communites: 5 day Arvon residential writing course gatherin tools for performance writing with communities, with Francesca Beard and Sara Clifton, Arvon, Totleigh Barton, Devon, UK.
2022 Introduction to Permaculture for Artists and Creatives: Intensive, 12 hour online course introducing the principles and ethics of permaculture to deepen creative practice and bring a new ethical basis to projects.
2021 ‘Rise-Up’:16 week writing and performance course and final ensemble performance with Paperwork Theatre, Liverpool UK, September - December 2021.
2021 Deep Listening Training Essentials: 2 day intensive deep listening course with Rosumand Oliver, Deep Listening Training, UK, May 2021.
2019 Live Art Development Agency DIY 16: ‘The Party Calls You’, exploration of art and mainstream politics with artists and Labour Councillors Tim Jeeves and Lena Simic, Liverpool and London UK.
2017 Live Art Development Agency DIY 14: ‘Maybe Jumping is Enough’, exploration of art and austerity with UK Performance Artist, Catherine Hoffman, ARC, Stockton-upon-Tees, UK.
2016 ‘Peak Performance’: 2 day improvisation workshop with Nick Byrne, Teatro Pomodoro, Liverpool, UK.
2016 5 day acrobatics course learning back flips and somersaults, Polichinelo Circus, Wirral, Merseyside, UK.
Exhibitions, Collaborative Works, Performances, Installations & Project Work
'Pause & Play' - Lead Artist development project collaborating with women in Knowsley, Merseyside to develop a moving-image work about their experiences of the menopause using Deep Listening, movement, dance and dreaming. Commissioned as part of Heart of Glass Prototype Projects programme, St Helens. February to April 2023.
'First Signs' - Writer, Producer and Director of a short film about cancer prevention for Beyond Raw Materials, which draws upon stories developed through a series of writing workshops acros libraries in Knowsley. Commissioned by One Knowsley and Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance. June 2023 - Present.
Community Vaccine Champions - ‘Creating Space’ & ‘Window Dressing’ - Lead Artist, Creative Producer/Curator and Project Manager for Beyond Raw Materials community arts group, designing, delivering and managing artists for the delivery of several arts and wellbeing sessions and the co-creation of several, collaborative moving image art works in used and vacant community spaces, engaging the general public across the Knowsley Borough in dialogues around Covid-19 vaccine inequality for the Community Vaccine Champions project, to inform future public health programming. Commissioned by One Knowsley, Knowsley Council and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. June 2022 - July 2022.
‘Sharing is Self-Caring: The Legacy of Local Nature, Ritual and Wellbeing’ - Lead Artist and Project Manager for Beyond Raw Materials community arts group, for the pilot participatory local heritage project, connecting participants to the heritage of self-care through five Kombucha brewing and forest bathing sessions. May 2022 - July 2022.
‘Queens of Art’ - Creative Producer/Curator of day-long, workshop based, family jubliee event, celebrating female artists. Funded by the Community Foundation for Merseyside through Arts Council England’s ‘Let’s Create’ fund, June 2022.
‘Making Conversations’ - Lead Artist and Project Manager for a series of online deep listening art sessions to reduce social isolation and encourage connection through the pandemic, 6 sessions with vulnerable adults from Care Merseyside, Liverpool, UK, February 2021, 6 sessions with carers from Natural Breaks, Liverpool, May 2021 and four-in person sessions with children and young people in receipt of Free School Meals, as part of Beyond Raw Materials’ HAF Summer 2021 provision, Halewood, UK, August, 2021.
‘Enemy:An Experiment With Love, Truth and Unity’ - Lead Artist / Project Manager for a participatory performance video bringing together dialogue, dance, walking and yoga, exploring the power of mass peaceful protest, inspired by Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience and his 1930 Salt March, and collaborating with yoga teacher and choreographer Donna Unwin and participants from Mencap and Natural Breaks in Merseyside, Final, live, online/streamed group performance with community participants for ACE funded project, ‘Salt Act’, on International Yoga Day, June 2020, and officially selected for An Indian Summer Open (AIS)/‘Now That We Are Free’ online/virtual exhibition, August 2022; Live, in-person performance through Culture Liverpool’s’ Without Walls’ street art programme, in Liverpool, September 2021. Dedicated Instagram project profile: www.instagram.com/saltact2020
‘45K’ - Lead Artist for a mobile phone photography response for RISE Together micro commissions online exhibition. May 2020.
'The Wall Dedicated To Lost Places - Collaborating Artist for a collaborative, live, performance installation with artist Trish Bermingham, ‘Sui Generis - The Possibilities of a House’, Plas Bodfa, Anglesey, North Wales, April 2019; ‘Out of Line’/tactileBOSCH presents..show, LLAWN. Llandudno, September 2019; Liverpool Independent Biennial, Liverpool, July - September 2018; LLAWN, Llandudno, July 2018; HAUS, Llandudno. July 2018.
RRU News/Rapid Response Unit - Public Engagement Coordinator for Culture Liverpool experimental artist newsroom engaging the general public in arts activity relating to our commissioned artists’ responses to the 24 hour rolling news agenda, Liverpool, UK. March - August 2018.
‘The Stockton Fleas’- Collaborating Artist performance for LADA DIY 14: ‘Maybe Jumping is Enough’ The Shambles, Stockton-upon-Tees. October 2017.
‘Bewitched Triptych’ - Lead Artist & Project Manager/Coordinator for an audiovisual installation, final exhibition for the Arts Council England Research Grant Project, ‘Gender, Process & Collaboration’, based upon my interpretation of Carmen Amaya’s ‘El Embrujo del Fandan’ Project blog: theotherunfinishedconversation.blogspot.co.uk working with Year 8 students from Halewood Academy, Liverpool, UK. September - November 2013.
‘Transatlantic Data’ - Lead Artist & Project Manager/Coordinator for a live, site-specific, durational, public participatory intervention, engaging the public in the stitching and co-creation of a Senninbari (1000 stitch belt) over three days, The Atrium, Mann Island, Liverpool. May 2013.
‘Forever Changing Times’ - Lead Artist & Project Manager/Coordinator for an animation film project, part of the START/60 Minute Cinema Programme in partnership with Year 7 students at Cedar Mount High School High and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (formerly Chinese Arts Centre), Manchester, UK. June 2012.
‘ALternat1ve Ad' - Lead Artist & Project Manager/Coordinator in the production of an alternative commercial for Liverpool 1, collaborating with Liverpool’s Goth community around themes of identity and place, to challenge stereotypes. Commissioned by Liverpool City Council via Arts in Regeneration as part of the Liverpool Capital of Culture ‘Four Corners’ programme. February - April 2011.
‘Fugue State’ - Lead Artist & Project Manager/Coordinator for an immersive, audiovisual installation, Liverpool Biennial Festival of Contemporary Art/LJMU MA Fine Art Show, LJMU/Liverpool School of Art & Design, Liverpool. November 2010.
'Peace Talks’ - Lead Artist & Project Manager/Coordinator for a participatory performance for ‘Bed-In at the Bluecoat’,exploring the role of dialogue in the peace process, in commemoration of John Lennon’s 70th Birthday, the Bluecoat, Liverpool. October 2010.
‘Death of the Ego’ - Lead Artist for a series of performance intervention on the subways of Tokyo, Japan. June 2010.
‘Shanghai Connection’ (Shanghainese with English subtitles) - Lead Artist/Producer for 1x5 min film exploring the memories of two Chinese sea-farers, who travelled from Shanghai to Liverpool in the 1960’s. Commissioned by Heal8, Liverpool, UK. February 2010.
‘Eldon Grove Intervention’ - Collaborating Artist for a Site-specific and multidisciplinary collaborative intervention working with Manchester based artist, David Hancock, in response to the derelict area of Bevington Bush, North Liverpool, UK. October 2008.
‘Strictly Granby’, (Somali/English with subtitles) - Lead Artist/Producer for 1x8 min film produced with young people from Liverpool’s Somali community around the theme of ‘Neighbourhood.’ Exhibited in ‘Our House’ for European Neighbours Day. Commissioned as part of the Liverpool Capital of Culture ‘Four Corners’ Project. Arts in Regeneration, Liverpool. June 2007.
‘The Lifeline’ - Lead Artist/Producer for short documentary exploring the plight of female asylum seekers and refugees in the UK. Commissioned by Merseyside Pre & Post-Natal Refugee and Asylum Seekers Support Group (MRANG). June - September 2006.
Artist Residencies 2021 - Co-host, The Faculty North, alternative online learning space for socially engaged artists, produced by Heart of Glass/In-Situ, UK. April - May 2021.
2019 Time and Space Residency, Metal, Liverpool, UK. October 2019 - July 2020.
2012 AA2A Artist in Residence at The University of Salford, Manchester, UK. October 2012 - April 2013.
2010 8-week self directed residency Armadillo Self Storage, Liverpool, UK. April - June 2010.
Awards, Bursaries & Grants
2023 'Pause & Play' Lead Artist for development of visual movement response to menopause working with women in Knowsley. Commissioned through Heart of Glass Prototype Projects Programme 2023.
2022 Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Grant for ‘Climacteric Sound Bath’, awarded funding to develop and establish a step change in my own personal practice, through learning Ableton music production software as part of a participatory immersive audio visual piece of work using dialogues from women about their experiences of the menopause.
2020 Finalist, Liverpool City Region Culture & Creativity Awards - Impact Award - Covid-19 Creative Response (individual) for Arts Council England Project, ‘Salt Act’.
2020 Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant, ‘Salt Act’, multidiscipinary, participatory performance project inspired by Gandhi’s Salt March of 1930, exploring the power of peaceful protest.
2019 Awarded the a-n Bursary for 3 coaching sessions for professional development.
2013 Arts Council England National Lottery Research & Development Grant, ‘Gender, Process & Collaboration’, exploring gender identity through flamenco and stop-motion animation, inspired by Carmen Amaya’s ‘El Embrujo del Fandango'. September - December 2013. Project Blog: theotherunfinished conversation.blogspot.co.uk
2010 Susan Cotton Travel Award Research travel bursary from Liverpool John Moores University for a trip to Tokyo, Japan, training in the art of Kyudo (Samurai Archery).
Publications
2019/2020 'Music for the People: From SS Orbita to Orbital' - Contributor to anthology about the impact of the WIndrush generation on the UK music scene. Published by Writing on the Wall.
