If awarded the Dover Prize, I would use the bursary to develop Green Light, a bold, participatory living sculpture for Darlington that fuses moss biofiltration with responsive light. This hybrid, experimental work will act as both a functional air purifier and a poetic monument to regeneration, resilience and collective care. It shall be a beacon that lives and breathes – purifying the air while glowing in response to data collected on environmental improvements and community interaction.
Rooted in Darlington’s layered industrial past, Green Light will reflect the town’s pioneering spirit and its aspirations for a sustainable future. Moss, an ancient, regenerative organism, symbolises natural resilience and renewal, while the responsive lighting system connects the artwork to the rhythm of its environment and the messages of its people.
The bursary will enable a transformative period of artistic development, supporting:
– Site visits and deep research into Darlington’s social, ecological, and industrial history.
– A collaborative public engagement programme, co-designing the work through workshops with residents, schools and community groups.
– Technical R&D with scientists and environmental designers to refine the biofiltration system and integrate interactive lighting technologies.
– Prototyping, materials testing and sustainability planning.
– Production, installation and documentation of the final work in a key public space.
This award comes at a pivotal point in my journey. As a visual artist, mother, and qualified sustainability specialist, I offer a rare intersection of lived experience, environmental expertise, and conceptual depth. Alongside my artistic work, I’ve recently led major initiatives in climate finance and advocacy, experience that now drives my practice with renewed urgency and direction. Green Light reflects this evolution: an ambitious, experimental fusion of art, science and civic engagement, building on my Living series recently acquired by the Sainsbury Centre Collection.
The Dover Prize would give me not only the financial space, but the creative permission to take risks, invest in new partnerships and explore the boundaries of what public art can achieve. This opportunity would significantly accelerate the evolution of my practice, from responsive street installations to deeply embedded, ecologically integrated sculptural works that live and grow with place and people.
Darlington, with its legacy of industrial ingenuity and engineering excellence, is an ideal home for Green Light. This living, breathing sculpture draws inspiration from the town’s historical foundations such as railways, coal and steam, and reimagines them through the lens of sustainability, community and innovation. Positioned at the intersection of public art and ecological intervention, the work symbolises a hopeful transition from extraction to regeneration, and from machinery to moss.
By embedding moss biofiltration and responsive lighting within the sculpture, Green Light will serve not only as a visual landmark but as a functioning piece of green infrastructure, quietly purifying air and inspiring conversations about climate, care and collective responsibility. Its development will be shaped directly by the people of Darlington through a series of co-creation workshops. I plan to collaborate with local schools, artists, historians and civic organisations to gather stories, environmental insights and creative input that will inform both its form and meaning.
This site-specific approach will foster shared ownership and civic pride, making the sculpture a product of, and for, Darlington. High-impact and high-visibility, Green Light could help catalyse future cultural commissions and position Darlington as a leading voice in the North for art-driven environmental innovation.
I am a multidisciplinary conceptual artist whose work interrogates the complexities of the human condition in a hypercapitalist, ecologically fragile world. Blending data, sculpture, sound, augmented reality, and performance, I create immersive installations, public artworks and street interventions that explore urgent global themes such as climate change, inequality, digital alienation and social unrest with wit and care. Originally trained at The Ruskin (University of Oxford) and later returning to study sustainable finance, I bring a rare combination of conceptual rigour and scientific insight to my practice. After a decade leading climate advocacy and sustainability strategy at the highest levels, (including as Chief Sustainability Officer for a £50bn pension pool), I returned to art full-time with renewed urgency and a transdisciplinary approach. My work now integrates environmental data, living materials and participatory storytelling to imagine new roles for public art in an age of crisis and collaboration. I have exhibited internationally during the 60th Venice Biennale, at Modern Art Oxford, Guildhall, CICA Museum (South Korea), Palazzo Pisani-Revedin (Venice) and Miami Art Week, as well as at Tate Britain and in Sloane Square for Kensington + Chelsea Art Week. My recent project Living London, a public sculpture and engagement programme made entirely from moss, resulted in measurable environmental impact and was recently acquired by the Sainsbury Collection. My work often involves co-creation with communities and collaboration with scientists, architects and technologists. It is grounded in research and activism but manifests in symbolic, poetic forms that remain accessible. I see art not as a decorative gesture, but as a form of public infrastructure: a means of healing, connecting and transforming. My practice is rooted in ecological integrity, conceptual depth and participatory storytelling. I create multi-sensory installations and sculptures that merge living systems, data and public engagement to explore climate change, conflict and collective resilience. Measuring environmental and social impact (positive or negative) is central to my iterative process. As an active member of the Gallery Climate Coalition, I embed sustainability not just in theme, but in every material, method and partnership, treading lightly while challenging audiences to think critically and care deeply.
Yes, I hold a degree in visual arts to MA level. In 2008, I graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Art from The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford. The Ruskin’s programme is a rigorous, practice-led course in visual arts that combines conceptual development, critical theory and studio-based practice. My time there laid a strong foundation for my interdisciplinary approach and commitment to socially engaged, research-driven art.
While at the Ruskin, I was awarded several prestigious prizes and scholarships in recognition of my work, including the Kevin Slingsby Funnel Vision Prize, the Geoffrey Rhoades Bursary and the Pirye Prize from Oxford University Press, which led to a commissioned installation translating the history of the UK press into a visual and mathematical language. These early achievements affirmed the potential of my practice to bridge systems thinking and creative expression.
During my undergraduate studies, I also participated in the Vendi Venti residency in Sabina, Italy, an experience that marked the beginning of my interest in public participation, community installation and interactivity. The residency allowed me to explore value systems through exchange-based artworks, engaging local communities in shaping the meaning and materiality of the final piece.
Yes, I have received multiple awards, grants and bursaries throughout both my early and recent practice. While at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, I was awarded several prestigious prizes in recognition of my work, including the Kevin Slingsby Funnel Vision Prize, the Geoffrey Rhoades Bursary, and the Pirye Prize from Oxford University Press. The latter led to a commissioned installation translating the history of the UK press into a mathematical and visual system, a piece which now remains in its permanent collection.
More recently, I was awarded the 27th CuratorSpace Bursary (2025) for Living London, a participatory eco-sculpture exploring living systems and sustainability. In 2023, I was named one of Artsted’s “99 Future Blue-Chip Artists” and was shortlisted for WeArtOpen at No Title Gallery, Venice. I also received the Rising Star Award at the LAPF Investment Awards (2022) for my impact in sustainable finance and culture. In 2021, I was selected as an exhibiting artist for the YICCA International Contest of Contemporary Art and in 2020 was shortlisted for Best Creative Programme at the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Green Awards.
I have a strong track record of initiating, curating and leading self-created professional opportunities that support my own practice and wider artistic communities. I run my own studio, producing large-scale public works, immersive installations and participatory engagement programmes and workshops. Alongside this, I have curated and produced multiple artist-led projects and platforms that provide space for collaboration, experimentation and advocacy.
Notably, I founded the JUST Art Award, an annual initiative through which I commit 50 percent of my profits to supporting other artists working with social justice as a theme. I have also developed a sustainable exhibition model for curating large-scale group shows. This format supports marginalised artists who are unable to ship work internationally by printing their contributions locally and assembling them as exquisite corpses alongside like-minded creatives.
Examples include Little Voices (2020), which brought together 40 artists in an abandoned telephone exchange in London, Exquisite Codes in Berlin and Bridgeport (2023), Social Justice Art of the ’20s at Miami Art Week (2022 and 2023), and a 64-artist installation at the 60th Venice Biennale. These initiatives democratise access to the art world and elevate underrepresented voices.
My projects promote artist-led, socially engaged, environmentally conscious practice beyond conventional institutions.
Yes, I have been commissioned by several public institutions to produce site-specific artworks and public engagement projects. I have worked with Kensington and Chelsea Art Week (KCAW) on three separate occasions, each time commissioned to deliver ambitious, publicly accessible works supported by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Most recently, I created Living London (2024), a large-scale moss-based light sculpture installed in Sloane Square, accompanied by a participatory community engagement programme. Earlier commissions include The Alternative Art Trail (2021), a GPS-guided urban nature walk series, and Little Voices (2020), a large-scale group exhibition featuring 40 international artists in a disused telephone exchange.
In 2022, I was commissioned by the Ken Griffiths Bureau to produce a four-piece visual series and NFT animation honouring HRH Princess Margaret, combining archival material and original sound design.
Earlier in my career, I was commissioned by the Oxford University Press after winning the Pirye Prize. The resulting work visualised the history of the British press through a conceptual installation exhibited in Oxford and Hong Kong.
These commissions reflect my ability to deliver innovative, research-driven, and socially engaged work in partnership with institutions committed to education, accessibility, and public dialogue.
My artwork has been acquired by and loaned to various collections in the UK and internationally. Most recently, my sculpture Living London is due to be acquired by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts Sculpture Park at the University of East Anglia in Norwich in September 2025. This follows its exhibition in Sloane Square as part of Kensington and Chelsea Art Week 2024 and reflects the Centre’s interest in ecologically responsive and socially engaged contemporary practice.
Limited prints of my work Untouchable: Glimpses of the Mercurial World are also held in the permanent collection of the Ken Griffiths Bureau in London, which combines photographic archives with contemporary commissions. In 2022, I was commissioned to produce a series responding to Ken Griffiths’ iconic portrait of HRH Princess Margaret. The resulting works (four physical collages and an unlockable NFT animation) were exhibited alongside the original photograph, and limited edition prints were subsequently acquired for the collection.
Earlier in my career, following receipt of the Pirye Prize, I was commissioned by Oxford University Press to create a conceptual installation titled History for its permanent collection.
My work House was also acquired by The Warneford Hospital in Oxford for its therapeutic outdoor sculpture collection.
My work has been featured in several prominent publications and curated platforms. The Times has profiled my practice on multiple occasions. In 2008, the article “Why old news is good news for artist who sliced up The Times” examined my sculpture using 579 copies of the newspaper to explore themes of media, mental health, memory and decay. Another article, “Celebrity Hijack artist can qualify for Turner Prize,” discussed my art practice and performance-based “happenings” during my appearance as the Conceptual Artist on Big Brother.
My performance piece Cleaning Squares was featured in Art World Magazine and THIS Gallery, and exhibited at Modern Art Oxford and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in South Korea. The project, which involves cleaning and labelling perfect squares in public spaces, has been recognised for its reflections on mental health and environmental awareness.
Additionally, my work has appeared in Time Out, 20 Years 20 Artworks by the Ken Griffiths Bureau (shown at Somerset House), FAD Magazine and the Luxury Property Forum. I have also been interviewed by The Guardian, The Financial Times, CNBC, the Ministry of Arts Podcast and Checkout.com on either climate change risk, digital art or my own practice.
I am not currently represented by a gallery. I operate independently by choice at present, which allows for greater flexibility in how I develop, exhibit, and distribute my work. I am also a member of the SHIM Art Network, a platform that seeks to disrupt and reimagine the traditional gallery model by providing alternative pathways for artists to connect with curators, institutions and collectors. This approach aligns with my values of accessibility, collaboration, and decentralised creative practice. Though I remain open to future gallery partnerships that align with my values – my current model supports a socially engaged, ecologically conscious and autonomous approach to making and sharing art.
I have participated in several artist residencies and placement schemes, both formal and self-initiated, which have shaped my socially engaged and interdisciplinary practice.
Early in my career, I took part in the Vendi Venti residency in Sabina, Italy, where I developed Value, a participatory work inviting local residents to exchange household items for parts of the artwork they considered of equal worth. This formative experience marked the beginning of my interest in co-creation and socially responsive work.
More recently, as a mother of two young children under the age of three, I have sought out more flexible and innovative alternatives to traditional long-term residencies. I was selected for the SHIM Art Network, which offers curated digital residencies and placements through international partnerships, enabling me to maintain an active and collaborative practice while working within the practical realities of family life.
While I have not participated in conventional extended residencies, many of my projects involve embedded research, community workshops and co-creation periods that mirror the depth and intention of a residency model. I am committed to developing work that is contextually grounded, publicly engaged, and adaptable to the evolving demands of contemporary artistic practice and caregiving.
Email: hello@thisisamyjackson.com
Address: 2 Maiden Road, London, — Please select —, E15 4EZ, GB
Local Authority: Newham, London
