I will use this essential funding to research, upskill, and experiment with mould making and glass casting in the Northeast, to prototype Just Be Yourself – a new, personal, sensory body of work reflecting my common feelings of overwhelm when I lack structure, often due to overwork and my Neurodiversity.
The work will consist of a life-size transparent glass cast of my head, with a flowing water system inside and trickling water running down the face. It will blend experimental materials and processes with 3D scanning, printing, mould making, glass, and fluid systems.
Budget:
• £6,300: Artist Fee (£300/day x 21 days over 2 years, 1 day/month)
• £650: Glass casting course (3 days, National Glass Centre)
• £400: Mould-making course (2 days, National Glass Centre)
• £220: 1-1 3D scanning training (Academy of Live Technology)
• £250: 1-1 3D modelling training with Chris Ball
• £160: Filaments (for 3D printed moulds)
• £45: Electronics (water pump system)
• £350: Accommodation in Darlington (7 nights total)
• £480: Food (£40/day x 12 days)
• £195: Travel (Bradford to Sunderland, Wakefield & Darlington)
• £300: Van & driver hire (to transport artwork to/from Darlington)
• £150: Exhibition photography
• £500: Contingency (5% of total)
This award will progress my practice by:
• Building on current skills from my 2025 Artist Bursary (a-n Artists’ Information Company) in mould making and 3D printing.
• Developing new prototypes for my first deeply personal body of work exploring Neurodivergence, since making ‘Who Am I?’, 2025, about my ancestral heritage.
• Advancing my engagement skills through mentoring and running online focus groups with Neurodivergent artists via Daisy Chain, Darlington.
• Deepening environmental research and practice through use of natural systems (water/air), recyclable PLA filaments, plaster, and recycled pump components.
Outcomes:
• Create 3 prototypes of Just Be Yourself for a 2026 exhibition – making my work commission-ready, ahead of future national/international tours, residencies, exhibitions, and 1+ acquisitions for public art collections (ACE, UK Government Art Collection by 2028).
• Engage 6+ Neurodivergent artists through 3 online focus group sessions, shaping the sensory aspects of the work.
• Produce professional photographs of the exhibition to support post-2026 opportunities.
My work will raise the profile of creative arts in Darlington by connecting national and international networks with local artists and audiences. I’ll draw on my experience with organisations such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire Sculpture International, and Asia Culture Center (South Korea), as well as my ACE-funded project Making Inner Horizons Tour Ready (focused on Neurodivergent artists), to spotlight Darlington as a site for ambitious, socially engaged, contemporary art.
I will exhibit in a non-traditional/found space in Darlington, showcasing art in public spaces and engaging audiences outside traditional galleries. This will offer working-class and Neurodivergent artists – like myself – visibility and inspiration, demonstrating what’s possible with sustained creative ambition. Raised in Keighley (a working-class industrial town) and now based in Bradford (UK City of Culture 2025), I know the power of grassroots, DIY culture to create real opportunity.
By bringing that energy to Darlington and collaborating with Helix Arts’ Artists’ Agency mentored artists, I’ll help foster a sense of possibility for others. The project will demonstrate how public art can improve lives, raise Darlington’s profile as a hub for accessible creativity, and celebrate its identity as a town with rich industrial heritage and cultural potential.
Cat Scott MRSS is a Neurodivergent international contemporary artist whose work is rooted in material curiosity and conceptual exploration. She creates experimental fluid sculptures and installations using ephemeral wave phenomena—light, sound, liquids, and gases—as core materials.
Her practice explores the wonder of primordial natural systems like bubble dynamics, interwoven with personal experiences of womanhood, neurodiversity, and identity. Her works tour widely—across galleries, biennials, sculpture parks, light festivals, and public spaces—ensuring accessibility for those who may not traditionally visit galleries.
Each new project begins with a question. For instance, “What does it sound and feel like to be inside a bubble?” led to Inner Horizons (2019), a kinetic fluid sculpture created during a 3-month Creators in Lab: Art and Science Residency. The project culminated in a group exhibition alongside artists from Korea, the UK, the USA, and Japan, and included mentorship with artist Yunchul Kim (Seoul).
A recent question, “Who am I?”, inspired a sound installation/fluid sculpture exploring her ancestral heritage for the Untitled 2: City of Wonder exhibition (April 2025), Gallery II, University of Bradford, with Theatre in the Mill.
Cat pushes the boundaries of traditional sculpture—materially and socially—by working with ephemeral, regenerative materials and technology to create inclusive, sensory, and tour-ready artworks. Her commitment to accessibility ensures that her sculptures can be experienced in any context.
In 2025, she was elected a Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors (MRSS), recognising her innovative contribution to the field.
Since 2014, Cat has secured over £66,000 in funding and delivered more than 13 commissions and residencies across regional, national, and international platforms. These include: the Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Arts Council England, the Cultural Institute (University of Leeds), British Council, a-n Artists’ Information Company, Light Up The North, Light Night Leeds, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire Sculpture International, University of Bradford, University of Leeds, University of Bath, Manchester Metropolitan University, BD is LiT, Bradford 2025 (UK City of Culture), Changwon Sculpture Biennale, and Asia Culture Center (Korea).
From 2012-15 I studied for a BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice Degree at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, where I was awarded a First Class Honours.
It was throughout my degree, that I learnt my love for materials, but realised I was also driven by science, fluids, and my curiosity to research, experiment and learn something new to upscale my practice.
In my final year, I began to look at themes of ‘making the invisible, visible,’ looking at how to make sound and air molecules visible, making architectural scale inflatable sculptures and experimenting with making processes across the textiles, fashion technology/pattern cutting, glass blowing, and 3D design/fabrication workshops – always pushing what was possible, materially, and conceptually.
Funding
2025 Residency to R&D Flow in Sorby Environmental Fluid Dynamics Lab, University of Leeds,
Seedcorn & Partnerships Fund, Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics, University of Leeds, Leeds
2025 1-1 training in 3D Modelling, Spare Bob Grant, Bradford Producing Hub, Bradford
2025 a-n Artist’ Bursaries 2024-25, a-n Artists’ Information Company, Newcastle
2024 Flow, Our Turn: Micro Grant, Bradford 2025 & South Square Centre, Bradford
2024 R&D of Flow, Convention House Bursary, East Street Arts, Leeds
2023 Bespoke 1-1 training course in physical computing, Spare Bob Grant, Bradford Producing Hub, Bradford
2023 Making Inner Horizons accessible, environmentally responsible, & commercially viable,
National Lottery Project Grant, Arts Council England
2023 Making Inner Horizons accessible, commercially viable, & environmentally responsible, Small Project Grant,
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
2023 Bradford Visual Arts Social, Bradford Producing Hub
2021-22 Knowledge of the technical, makes creativity possible, Developing Your Creative Practice, Arts Council England
2020 Artists’ Union England Solidarity Fund
2020 The Daphne Oram Trust Emergency Support Grant
2020 Virtual Studio Video Series, Response project grant, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
2019 Help me to do my first international residency crowdfunding campaign, Crowdfunder UK
2018 Visions of Science bursary, Andrew Brownsword Gallery, The Edge, University of Bath
2017 Light Night Leeds bursary, University of Leeds & Light Night Leeds
Commissions
2023 Flow, Mini Seed Commission, Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture
2023 Inner Horizons UK Première, Mediale via Selby Creates Winter Arts Programme, Selby Abbey
2019 Inner Horizons, Creators in Lab: Art and Science Residency and Exhibition, Asia Culture Centre, South Korea
2019 The Abyssal Glow with Joe Beedles, Under the Northern Sky Exhibition, Signal Film and Media, Cumbria
2018 Encounter with a Bubble, Bradford Bubble Up Opening Party LATES, National Science and Media Museum and The Brick Box, Bradford
2017 In Transition (3), Light Night Leeds, University of Leeds
2017 Molecular Landscape image on front cover of issue one – Sustainable Energy and Fuels Journal, Royal Society of Chemistry and Manchester Metropolitan University
2015 In Transition (2), The Vertical Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University
2015 Clarence House Spectrogram, Primary One Europe, Manchester
https://www.yvan.org.uk/artist-spotlights/cat-scott
https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/bursary-recipients-2024-25/
https://creativewakefield.net/news/launch-of-unbound-dynamic-artists-for-public-spaces-a-development-programme/
https://medium.com/cultural-institute/leeds-creative-labs-tackles-climate-futures-in-new-edition-4e1cc37c378d
To create Inner Horizons, I started with a question, ‘what does it sound and feel like to be inside of a bubble? Which led me to create my kinetic fluid sculpture, Inner Horizons in 2019, during the Creators in Lab: Art and Science Residency (3 months) and Group Exhibition alongside artists from Korea, the UK, the USA and Japan, where I was mentored by established artist, Yunchul Kim and hired a local Technical Manager/Fabricator and Technologist (Seoul, Korea).
Email: cat@catscott.co.uk
Address: 48 Commerce Court, Challenge Way, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD4 8NW, GB
Local Authority: City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
