This funding will support the development of a new body of interactive sculptures that explore and celebrate working-class histories through sound, storytelling, and participation. Drawing from my own heritage as a working-class artist from Hull, with Romani Gypsy and Traveller roots, I want to explore the shared legacy of labour, migration, and cultural resilience found in market traders, fairground workers, and working class communities like mine—and research how these histories intersect with those of industrial towns like Darlington. I envision a series of small scale works, alongside a publication of research alongside the final series of sculptures I’ve been wanting to create for a while.
Having the time to explore archives, oral histories, and develop workshops, will allow me to gather research that will in turn, further inform my work.
As the founding director of a CIC focused on supporting working-class creatives, I see this commission as a way to bridge policy, history, and art—using my own story and those of others to explore systemic change and community adaptation. This funding will allow me to focus solely on my art practice, and develop my sculptural work, incorporating newly learnt coding technologies to create sound activated sculptures.
Darlington, like many Northern towns, has undergone significant social and economic change following the collapse of traditional industries in the 1980s. My work will investigate what happens to working-class identity in the wake of that deindustrialisation. I’m interested in town’s industrial heritage, particularly its connection to the railways, it being relatively well known—but the human stories behind that history often go untold. My research will explore those narratives, while also looking into what happens to places and people in the decades after industry fades and how art can bring communities together again. I think it’s important for art to reflect te past, as well as aiming to transform the present, and so I want my work to be considered a contemporary informed body of work, not focused on nostalgia; it being about active community, participation and transformation. I want to create work which local people see themselves in – not as subjects, but as collaborators and co-authors. I hope to broaden who feels art is for—and who feels welcome in creative spaces. With involvement on a local level, I believe this project could raise the profile of Darlington as a place where art isn’t just observed, but lived and inspiring/relevant to the people who live there too.
I am an interdisciplinary artist and Co-Founding director of Working Class Creatives (CIC). My art practice spans across sculpture, sound, film, installation , performance and participation and is rooted in working-class identity, drawing directly from my background growing up in Hull. I’m currently interested in exploring working class life at present, responding to the long aftermath of the Thatcher era, asking: what does community look like, when the industries that once defined them disappear? What forms of community, work, and pride remain? How do w ensure working class histories and narrative are documented in accessible and engaging ways? I have recently exhibited work at Ferens Gallery, Hull which explored working class life on the Yorkshire coast. A lot of my time is spent programming events and curating exhibitions on behalf of WCC members, therefore my own art practice is often put to one side. This fund would allow me the time and space to develop the sculptures that I have had sketched out and mocked up for a while, as well as deepen my research on working class histories to better inform them.
I studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, UAL and graduated with 1:1 in 2022.
I haven’t received professional grants and awards for my own practice, though in 2022 , I was shortlisted for the MEAD Fellowship award and Maison/0 This Earth award.
This year my work for WCC was recognised by Forbes, and I was selected on this years ’30 under 30′ entrepreneur list under the arts and culture category.
Working-Class Creatives (WCC) CIC is at current, a volunteer-led organisation which platforms working-class creatives in the UK. Co-founded in 2020, alongside Seren Metcalfe, we wanted to establish a strong community between working-class artists around the region and tackle classism within the arts by improving accessibility, engagement and opportunities. We create and facilitate opportunities that bridge the gap for working-class creatives, ensuring equitable access to resources, education, and professional development. Through partnerships with organisations across the UK, we facilitate exhibitions, residencies, talks, and editions that amplify our voices.
Our collaborations with places across the UK such as Yorkshire Artspace, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Acrylicize, London have enabled over 30 residencies, providing creatives with space, materials, and exposure to advance their practice. We’ve supported over 70 creatives with exhibitions, partnering with galleries such as Pineapple Black Middlesbrough, SET Woolwich and 87 Gallery Hull, where our exhibition drew record-breaking local engagement. These opportunities have led to creatives being selected for prestigious prizes like New Contemporaries, studying at institutions such as The Royal Academy and securing job roles within creative industries. Our programming includes insightful talks, such as a series with Second Art Gallery, addressing key topics like networking, funding, and overcoming imposter syndrome.
Directing WCC informs everything I do: I see art as a tool for change, for shifting narratives, and for creating opportunities. My work is as much about the process—building friendships, listening deeply, and working collaboratively—as it is about the final pieces I make in my art practice.
My recent work in the Ferens Art Gallery was a commissioned piece, which allowed me to develop an older work from 2019. This commission allowed me the time and funds to revisit a book I created about the Yorkshire coast, and develop work informed by new research, experience and outlook.
In 2022, I was invited to present my practice in a few online panel talks, and spoke about my work at a guest lecture series at Central Saint Martins.
Grappling with the barriers to arts industry and opportunities, since graduating in 2022 my focus has been very WCC driven, in the hopes of building a secure role within the arts whilst still getting to participate in the kind of research that informs my work, and is ultimately my passion. I have been recognised for the work I do for WCC over various magazines, newspapers and interviews, inc. It’s nice that, The Sunday Times, Forbes, Dazed, Service95.
I wish! My goal for this year is to apply for more opportunities that will help my own practice be funded and developed.
Email: chanellelove1@outlook.com
Address: 10 bishop lane, hull, east yorkshire, HU89RR, GB
Local Authority: Hull City Council
