If awarded the Dover Prize bursary, I would develop a new community-embedded body of work culminating in a large-scale floor-based collage installation, created in response to the landscape and spirit of Darlington and its surrounds.
The project will begin with a series of inclusive, hands-on workshops with local community groups, where we will explore the joyful and accessible craft of hand-marbled paper making. These sessions will offer participants of all ages the chance to connect through making. Using the marbled papers they create, participants will be invited to produce their own individual collages, which will also be displayed as part of the final exhibition, ensuring their voices are represented in the outcome.
To ground this work, I will create a large-scale floor collage using papers from the workshops, responding to the textures, colours, and stories of the region. In my recent solo exhibition Floored//Flawed, I covered an entire gallery floor with my own printed floor design on tiled floor lining. For this new piece, I want to develop that approach further, layering in collective authorship and deepening my engagement with place.
My practice centres on illusion, surface, and craft, often using faux-marble to explore ideas of value, permanence, and constructed realities. This project would allow me to extend those ideas through a social and material lens. I’ve found that the participatory side of my practice, where people learn hands-on skills, is not only deeply rewarding for me but consistently energising and positive for participants.
The £10,000 bursary would support the full development of this project: covering workshop delivery, materials, community partner fees, travel, research, production, and installation. Crucially, it would offer the time and freedom to experiment and scale up my work in a new context.
By combining collective making with ambitious installation, this project will foster new connections, celebrate community creativity, and leave a lasting, tangible legacy of shared experience, rooted in the unique character of Darlington and brought to life through collaborative craft.
My proposed project would engage directly with Darlington’s communities through hands-on, inclusive workshops, using the traditional craft of paper marbling as a catalyst for connection, creativity, and local pride. These sessions will begin by inviting participants to share places in Darlington that feel meaningful to them, sites of memory, beauty, or personal importance. These stories will form the basis for the collages we create together, using the marbled papers made in the workshops.
This approach makes the project deeply rooted in local knowledge and experience, with the final works reflecting the town through the eyes of its residents. By incorporating personal landmarks into the creative process, the project fosters a strong sense of ownership and pride among participants.
The final exhibition will celebrate the distinctive character of Darlington and the collective creativity of its people. By combining high-quality contemporary practice with meaningful public engagement, the project can raise the profile of the creative arts locally, attract new audiences, and encourage ongoing participation.
I believe art should feel generous, welcoming, and rooted in place. This project would be a true collaboration between artist and community, grounded in shared stories, skills, and curiosity.
Recent work has deepened my interest in site-specific responses and public engagement. My solo exhibition Floored//Flawed at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (2025) featured a large-scale printed collage floor installation alongside marbled paper wall works that responded to a journey through North Wales to “The Marble Church.” The show explored illusion and theatricality in relation to craft, labour, and constructed landscape. I often work collaboratively across disciplines. In 2024 I toured with the Will Barnes Quartet, creating live liquid light visuals alongside jazz performances. I also completed Newham Horizons, a permanent commission for Newham Hospital’s ICU and respiratory wards, where I created a hand-marbled collage mural in dialogue with NHS staff. My participatory approach has led to commissioned projects with Vital Arts, Oriel Davies, Theatr Clwyd, and Bro Ddyfi Hospital, often combining workshops with the creation of semi-permanent artworks. I deliver regular sessions in schools, galleries and health settings, using marbling and collage as democratic, joyful tools for connection and self-expression. I also co-founded the public art initiative Cypher BILLBOARD, curating 22 billboard commissions and public programmes across London. Alongside commissions and solo projects, I’ve exhibited widely, including at Elysium Gallery, SpArc Theatre, Oriel Davies, MOMA Machynlleth, The Swiss Church London, and in Athens and Berlin. I hold a BA in Fine Art from Oxford University and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art. The Dover Prize offers an exciting opportunity to bring together the strands of my practice, collaborative making, large-scale collage installation, and engagement with place, to create a new ambitious work rooted in Darlington. My goal is to continue pushing the scale, materiality and public reach of my work, while fostering meaningful connections through shared acts of making.
Yes, I hold both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in visual arts. I completed a BA in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, in 2012, followed by an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2018.
Between my degrees, I lived in Berlin for three and a half years, working as an artist’s assistant to David Thorpe, helping to create large-scale sculptures made from mud. During this time, I also founded Cypher Space, an artist-run project space based in an attic, which later evolved into Cypher BILLBOARD, a public art initiative in London commissioning large-scale poster works and public programmes. This period was hugely influential in shaping my collaborative ethos and deepening my commitment to artist-led activity.
Yes, I have received multiple professional grants throughout my career. I’ve been awarded three successful Arts Council England grants and two successful Arts Council Wales grants.
In addition to these, I’ve secured various streams of funding through artist-led initiatives I’ve helped develop, including projects delivered via Robert Young Antiques, which were supported through gallery-based funding models.
More recently, I was awarded over £30,000 for Newham Horizons, a large-scale public art commission at Newham Hospital, London. This involved the creation of multiple hand-marbled paper murals and window designs, produced alongside a programme of community workshops. I managed all aspects of the project, from budget oversight and partner liaison to delivery and evaluation.
I’ve also received micro-commissions and fees from organisations including Vital Arts, Oriel Davies, Theatr Clwyd, and Powys Teaching Health Board, supporting participatory artworks and site-specific commissions in hospitals and public spaces. These opportunities have helped me develop a socially engaged practice that places collaboration, accessibility, and material experimentation at its core.
Yes, I am actively involved in creating and managing artist-led professional opportunities. I am the co-founder of Cypher Space, which began as an attic project space in Berlin and hosted a dynamic programme of exhibitions and performances from 2015–2017. This initiative evolved into Cypher BILLBOARD, a public art platform based in North London that I co-founded alongside Holly Graham and Amba Sayal-Bennett. Since 2017, Cypher BILLBOARD has commissioned 22 large-scale poster works by emerging and mid-career artists, accompanied by off-site events, talks, and exhibitions. It provides free public access to contemporary art in everyday spaces, while offering artists the chance to experiment with new formats outside of the gallery system.
Alongside this, I founded Contemporary Collaborations, a programme of curated exhibitions at Robert Young Antiques in London. This project brought together contemporary artists and historic design objects in unique site-specific dialogues and has received both press and private funding support.
I am currently leading a major collaborative touring project across Wales and have submitted a funding application supported by confirmed partners: Chapter Gallery (Cardiff), Elysium Gallery (Swansea), Galeri Caernarfon, and Aberystwyth Arts Centre. This project continues my commitment to creating new exhibiting opportunities through artist-led frameworks.
Yes, I have been commissioned multiple times by public institutions to produce artworks in a variety of contexts – including healthcare, gallery, and community settings.
In 2024, I was commissioned by Vital Arts to create Newham Horizons, a permanent series of hand-marbled paper collages and window designs for the Intensive Care and Respiratory Wards at Newham Hospital, London. The commission included community consultation and hands-on workshops with NHS staff to shape the visual language of the work.
I’ve also been commissioned by Theatr Clwyd (2023) to create a public outdoor artwork with community mental health charity Kim Inspire, and by Oriel Davies Gallery (2024) for a collaborative liquid light performance project involving choirs, carers, and local community groups as part of their Artes Mundi programme.
In 2023, I completed Soft Roady, a permanent mural commission for Bro Ddyfi Community Hospital, supported by Powys Teaching Health Board. I’ve also produced works for other NHS sites, including Whipps Cross Hospital and Royal London Hospital.
These commissions have allowed me to develop work that is responsive, site-specific and accessible, while supporting my interest in embedding craft, collaboration, and material experimentation within public-facing environments.
Back in 2009 a chandelier I created was purchased by Waddesdon Manor, a National Trust heritage property with an established collection of both historic and contemporary art and design. Since then my work has not been formally acquired by a public collection, though I have produced multiple commissioned works for permanent public display within NHS hospitals and community health settings. These include Newham Horizons (2024) for Newham Hospital, Soft Roady (2023) for Bro Ddyfi Community Hospital, and smaller works for Whipps Cross and Royal London Hospitals, all of which remain on public view and were commissioned by Vital Arts or Powys Teaching Health Board. I see this as a vital and growing strand of my practice, and one that continues to reach wide, diverse audiences.
Yes, my work has been featured in several publications and curated platforms. I was selected as Artist of the Week by the Oxonian Review, and my exhibition Hoot Hoot, Hoot Hoot was profiled in LMH News (Oxford University, 2020). I was also interviewed in [soft] Magazine (Shanghai, 2016), which focused on my use of illusion and materiality.
My work has appeared in several printed catalogues, including those for the exhibitions FAKERS (2018), Travers Smith Art Programme (2018–19), and Meaningful Vision (Oxford University, 2017). I created a 2024/2025 Floored//Flawed exhibition catalogue with commissioned text written by Curator Adriana Blidaru.
In addition, my curatorial project Cypher BILLBOARD has been profiled in Indie Mag in the article Game Changing Art Collectives by Hannah Cassens-Marshall (2017), highlighting its role in showcasing experimental public art in London.
I am not currently represented by a commercial gallery. However, I have established strong ongoing relationships with a range of institutions, commissioners, and independent curators across the UK. Much of my work has been realised through publicly funded projects, artist-led initiatives, and site-specific commissions in partnership with organisations such as Vital Arts, Oriel Davies, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, and Powys Teaching Health Board. I remain open to representation that aligns with my collaborative and socially engaged practice.
Yes, I undertook an artist residency with Morrow & Lorraine Architects in London shortly after completing my MA at the Royal College of Art. This placement offered a valuable opportunity to explore intersections between architecture and material surface, and culminated in a public talk and sharing of new work. The residency deepened my interest in spatial thinking, which continues to inform my large-scale collage installations and faux-marble floor pieces.
In recent years, my work has involved embedded, residency-style commissions, including long-form, site-responsive projects for healthcare settings. For example, Newham Horizons (2024) and Soft Roady (2023) were both developed over several months in direct dialogue with hospital staff and community participants.
While I haven’t participated in a formal institutional residency more recently, this has largely been due to family commitments, my children are currently aged three and five. That said, I’m now actively seeking family-friendly residency opportunities that offer time, space and collaboration, particularly in contexts that align with my socially engaged and materially driven practice.
Email: 0elhughes0@gmail.com
Address: 5 Llys Nant, Llanidloes, Powys, SY18 6BD, GB
Local Authority: Powys County Council
