I propose creating a collaborative artwork that challenges conventional notions of artistic value by embracing destruction as creation. Working with a racer from Barford Raceway in Barnard Castle and community participants from Darlington, we will collectively customise a banger racing car, knowing it will be destroyed in competition.
This project would be a significant step-change in my practice, moving from individual studio work creating sculptural objects to community collaboration and visual performance. I feel there are strong parallels between banger racing and the act of art making: both prioritise process over preservation, finding meaning in the act of creation rather than the enduring object. Racers spend months rebuilding cars destined for destruction— this can echo the artistic practice where the act of making often holds more purpose than the final piece.
The Dover Prize funding will enable me to:
-Commission a professional racer as a collaborator and provider of an existing banger
-Pay for time and transport to work with collaborators in Darlington
-Finalise a design inspired by community collaborations
-Purchase materials
-Research Darlington’s racing heritage, particularly the closed Aycliffe Stadium
-Document the entire process through film and photography
-Stage a final exhibition combining this documentation with the communal experience of witnessing our car’s destruction
Participant selection will emerge through engagement with Darlington’s community, exploring connections between the area’s industrial heritage and motorsport culture. This research phase will identify individuals whose involvement makes the collaboration authentic rather than gestural.
The project tests new approaches to participatory art-making, positioning community members as co-creators rather than subjects. By initiating the work outside gallery walls I’m exploring how spatial context transforms artistic meaning.
The visceral spectacle of deliberate destruction raises questions about human psychology, our relationship to material culture, and the forces shaping contemporary life. What does it mean to collectively create something beautiful knowing it will be destroyed?
This funding provides the resources and legitimacy needed to develop genuine community partnerships and execute an ambitious vision that has inspired me since discovering Barford Raceway. The project will culminate in a performance and exhibition, documenting a unique exploration of collaborative creation and destruction.
Having lived in the North-East for over 10 years, I’m passionate about this region but aware that artists here often receive fewer opportunities and less investment than other regions. Winning this prize would demonstrate the vibrant artistic community thriving in the North-East.
The project itself celebrates a sport and community that exists right here in County Durham. The majority of funding will be spent locally in Darlington—working with racers, engaging participants, and sourcing materials. I anticipate the banger’s design will directly reflect Darlington’s history and the lived experiences of those involved in creating it.
The project will culminate in a major public event followed by an exhibition, both designed to attract attention to Darlington’s cultural scene. By working with people who have little or no previous artistic experience, the project offers an accessible invitation for creativity that may inspire participants to explore future artistic opportunities.
Crucially, participants will have genuine agency in shaping the project’s direction. This collaborative approach aims to foster a sense of ownership and belonging, creating new connections within the community. Rather than being subjects of the work, participants become co-creators, potentially forming lasting creative networks beyond the project’s completion.
I’m an artist creating functional sculptural works from diverse materials, including craft-based mediums like wood, textiles, and ceramics. My practice explores design and how we construct our living environments, examining what these spaces reveal about our psychology and values as a society. I often focus on a single mundane object within each project, exploring how it can be reinvented or recontextualised to become a symbol, typically resulting in analogue sculptural objects. I use everyday items as lenses for viewing society, focusing on themes of labour and time, class, our relationship to the built environment, technology, and attitudes towards nature. Humour plays a significant role in my work—I enjoy playing with material and scale to create objects that are whimsical and somewhat kitsch or pop-art in nature. My recent exhibitions include shows at the Priestman Gallery in Sunderland, where I completed an artist residency at the National Glass Centre, and at Wasps in Edinburgh as part of “I Liked It So It’s Mine.” I’m also one half of the Spaghetti Factory, an award-winning grassroots curatorial duo that plays with spatial context and collaborates with established institutions. We recently partnered with System Gallery and institutions like NCA and the Auxiliary to create “Now That’s What I Call Art,” a community-based exhibition with no barriers to participation. These exhibitions regularly feature over 100 participants from local communities exhibiting their artwork. This curatorial work directly informs my artistic practice, reinforcing my belief in art’s accessibility and the importance of removing traditional gatekeeping structures. Through both my individual work and collaborative curation, I’m committed to creating art that speaks to everyday experiences while challenging conventional hierarchies within contemporary art spaces.
Do you have a degree in visual or applied arts at undergraduate and/or post-graduate level? Please provide details. (200 words)
I have a degree in Glass and Ceramics from the University of Sunderland. I graduated in 2017 with a 1:1.
I have a degree in Glass and Ceramics from the University of Sunderland. I graduated in 2017 with a 1:1.
I was awarded a DYCP grant from the Arts Council in 2021 to explore functional sculpture. I used the grant to purchase materials and learn new skills from Plaey Workshop in Saltaire and an independent upholsterer.
I also received the Edwin Easydorchik Travel bursary awarded by the Community Foundation in 2024. I used this to attend an architectural tour across Brazil to inspire my work and find connections between modern Brazilian architecture and the redevelopment of Newcastle as the “Brasilia of the North” in the 1970s.
I am one half of the Spaghetti Factory, a curatorial duo. We won the “Newcomer of the year” award in 2021 as part of the North-East Culture Awards. We began the project by curating exhibitions of others’ in our house together, we have since worked with Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, BALTIC 39 and the Newbridge Project.
Together we have collaborated with System Gallery to create a new recurring, community focused project called “Now That’s What I Call Art” to display communities’ artwork without hierarchy.
I worked alongside my collaborator to curate three exhibitions for Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens as part of a curatorial fellowship. Two exhibitions occurred in the gallery, curating work to interact with other displays and exhibitions. The final exhibition was during COVID where we commissioned artwork and organised the display of an exhibition on a billboard in the city centre.
I’m currently enrolled on the AA2A programme in collaboration with the University of Sunderland to create work using the facilities in the National Glass Centre.
Thank you for taking the time to read my application !
Email: evie.cromwell@hotmail.com
Address: 46 st michaels mount, Byker, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE6 2FT, GB
Local Authority: Newcastle City Council
One Response
Found this a distinctive and focused proposal involving Barford Raceway in Barnard Castle and community participants from Darlington, to collectively customize ‘a banger racing car, knowing it will be destroyed in competition’. Thought the proposal clearly presented, including layout of costs. The artist mentions interest in researching decommissioned Aycliffe Stadium where racing happened, involving people in co-creating beautiful object which will be destroyed ‘questioning materiality’, outcomes of a DAP award expected to include performance (work entered into ‘banger’ race) and exhibition (with process of community engagement, documentation of this and ‘banger’ race). Impressed by the clear thought around co-production element of proposal, likelihood of audience development, the developments in practice artist anticipates through DAP award if made. Be interested to hear more from artist around:
* How they might investigate what it means to collectively create something beautiful knowing it will be destroyed – methodology to explore and/or evaluate this?
* Heritage of Aycliffe track (think this may sit within Durham County Council’s archives but can check) – to what degree is exploration specific to this track or may it go wider?
* Where might exhibition best be staged?
* What securing DAP award now might mean for their practice?
* Practicalities in filming a ‘banger race’ and importance of film as part of exhibition outcome?
* Thoughts around environmental impact of proposal?