If awarded the Dover Prize, I would use the funding to develop a new participatory artwork rooted in Darlington’s heritage, co-created with local residents. This project would build on my established practice of socially engaged art that centres care, working-class identity, and collective authorship. I want to explore how joy, resistance, and community solidarity can manifest through shared making and storytelling, particularly in places historically excluded from dominant art spaces and funding.
The bursary would allow me to spend time in Darlington to build trust and relationships with local people and organisations. I would run a series of workshops and creative gatherings to collaboratively shape a large-scale, site-responsive installation. This would culminate in public events that celebrate the voices and experiences of those involved. The funding would cover research, artist fees (including for local collaborators), materials, travel, access provisions, and documentation. I am particularly interested in Darlington’s engineering history and what the legacy of ‘bridge building’ could mean literally and metaphorically.
Alongside the project, I would invest in professional development, including mentorship in youth facilitation, deepening my ability to hold inclusive creative spaces. I would also work towards producing a publication or zine that reflects the process and shares learning, contributing to wider conversations about Darlington’s heritage and place-based practice.
This opportunity would mark a significant step forward in my artistic practice by giving me the time and resources to scale up my participatory work and embed it within a new context. It would also allow me to take creative risks and develop new methods for larger scale public interventions.
Ultimately, I hope to create work that not only resonates locally but demonstrates how working-class narratives and community-led making can lead contemporary cultural discourse. The Dover Prize would enable me to root that vision in Darlington, supporting both my own growth as an artist and the visibility of the town as a place where ambitious, socially engaged art can thrive.
My practice is rooted in socially engaged, participatory work that centres class and place. I am often led by site specificity and interested in history and heritage. Through my Creative Producing work, I bring an understanding and sensitivity to working in areas of historic low engagement in the arts. By co-creating with communities, my projects make space for reflection and dialogue, approaches that could foster strong connections with local audiences in Darlington.
I believe art should be accessible, relevant, and rooted in lived experience. My work creates platforms for people to share their own realities. My experience as Chair of a DIY arts space and as Creative Producer across 7 rural market towns allows me to approach this funding with an asset based approach; to work ‘with’ Darlington rather than ‘at’ it.
This approach has the potential to raise the profile of creative practice in the area by demonstrating how contemporary art can thrive in community settings and speak directly to local contexts. Through workshops, live events, and public installations, I aim to spark dialogue and inspire new engagement with the arts, contributing to Darlington’s work on making creativity accessible.
Art:
Whether it’s burning bible quotes into toast, interviewing a psychic medium, or building a Hollywood sign for coastal Suffolk, I’m interested in playful ways to engage with complex ideas.
Working across sculpture, drawing, film, and socially engaged projects, I explore themes of care, resilience and the complexities of working-class identity. My work often starts with research or social engagement, evolving into participatory experiences that invite reflection and dialogue.
Context:
As a first-generation university graduate from a lineage of rural Suffolk labourers, I care deeply about class and place. My approach has been shaped by alternative artist development paths like Chisenhale Studio’s Into The Wild programme and serving as Chair of OUTPOST steering committee, a DIY volunteer-run gallery and studios. I try to challenge traditional thinking about self-care and success, advocating instead for alternative forms of support and community. Awarded a scholarship from the East Anglian Art Fund, I studied Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts, graduating in 2020 with 3 awards. I use a free Tumblr because professionalism is fake and an exclusionary concept I am uninterested in.
Work:
Alongside my art, I work in organising, learning and curating. As a freelance facilitator, I run workshops and alternative learning opportunities. I tutor via Starving Artist Opportunities and am a Creative Producer for an Arts Council Action/Research project: MarketPlace, empowering rural communities to shape the arts where they live. Among other titles, I have also been: a waitress, a stable-hand and a dog walker (sometimes simultaneously).
Credits:
In my socially engaged work, I have been commissioned by Camden Arts Centre, Norfolk Museums Service,Young Norfolk Arts Trust, The Art Station, Mall Galleries, Motion Sickness Project and Spill Festival. Funding from A+N Artist’s Information Company, The Art Fund, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and Firstsite Gallery has supported my research. My art works have been exhibited in France (Compagnie Nathalie Béasse, Nantes), Brighton (Gallery DODO, Phoenix Art Space), London (Mall Galleries), Cambridge (Motion Sickness Project), my parent’s house and more.
Do you have a degree in visual or applied arts at undergraduate and/or post-graduate level? Please provide details. (200 words)
Awarded a scholarship from the East Anglian Art Fund, I studied Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts, graduating in 2020 with 3 awards. I have since studied The Art of Social Engagement at Chelsea College of Arts (2023, funded by Norfolk and Norwich Festival) and Curation: From Art and Design to Beyond at Central St Martins (2025, funded by The Art Fund). My practice has been deeply influenced by alternative learning programmes such as Into The Wild by Chisenhale Gallery, London (2022-2023, a programme that offers 9 months of collaboration, workshops, talks, crits, site visits, residencies and mentoring sessions), Signals Plug In Creatives, Colchester, Essex (2022, a programme of bespoke training for creatives using technology) and In The Studio, Mall Gallery, London (2018-2019, year-long programme aimed to equip emerging talent with the tools, ideas and experiences to pursue their art career).
Awarded a scholarship from the East Anglian Art Fund, I studied Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts, graduating in 2020 with 3 awards. I have since studied The Art of Social Engagement at Chelsea College of Arts (2023, funded by Norfolk and Norwich Festival) and Curation: From Art and Design to Beyond at Central St Martins (2025, funded by The Art Fund). My practice has been deeply influenced by alternative learning programmes such as Into The Wild by Chisenhale Gallery, London (2022-2023, a programme that offers 9 months of collaboration, workshops, talks, crits, site visits, residencies and mentoring sessions), Signals Plug In Creatives, Colchester, Essex (2022, a programme of bespoke training for creatives using technology) and In The Studio, Mall Gallery, London (2018-2019, year-long programme aimed to equip emerging talent with the tools, ideas and experiences to pursue their art career).
The Art Fund – Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant (2024-25, grant to undertake research that will extend and develop curatorial expertise, collections-based knowledge and art historical interests)
Norfolk and Norwich Festival Young Artist Bursary Award (2023-24, grant to support furthering of cultural and community leadership abilities)
A-N Bursary Award (2022, bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company and Arts Council England to support research and travel)
Firstsite Collectors Bursary Award (2021, grant to support artistic development and research)
High House Graduate Residency (2021, selected on graduation by Antony Gormley and Vicken Parsons for a month long fully funded residency at the High House Estate, Norfolk.)
The Dean’s Award for Studentship (2020, prize awarded by the Dean of Faculty in recognition of outstanding academic achievements. Awarded for my undergraduate fine art studies at Norwich University of The Arts.)
Dubery and Brogden Scholarship (2017-2020, 3 year scholarship awarded by East Anglia Art Fund in recognising and supporting emerging talent to attend Norwich University of the Arts)
Yes, I was actively involved in organising self-created professional opportunities through my leadership role as Chair of OUTPOST, an artist-run charity in Norwich. The gallery is run by a voluntary Steering Committee who each have a 2 year tenure to ensure power is constantly shifting. The committee lead on all programming, working together to design and deliver a shifting programme that evolves and changes with each cohort. I was responsible for managing the steering committee of the gallery and the operations of the studios, which housed over 75 artists, from 2022 to 2025. We delivered a year-round programme of exhibitions, residencies, and events that supported early-career and underrepresented artists.
I developed partnerships and collaborations, including co-programming with the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and represented OUTPOST at public forums, academic institutions, and regional networks (speaking for Norwich University of the Arts, East Contemporary Visual Art Network and Norfolk Contemporary Art Society). My work ensured the steering committee were supported not just creatively but structurally, and that OUTPOST remained a sustainable, artist-led space. This role reflected my long-standing commitment to building inclusive, collaborative environments where artists can take risks and shape their own professional development.
I have not been commissioned by a public institution but have been commissioned by First Light Festival (Suffolk), The Art Station (Suffolk), Young Norfolk Arts Festival, The Sainsbury Centre, Norwich Castle and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival (2022 & 2024).
My work has been reviewed in Elephant Magazine, 2020 and Artpulse Magazine, 2019. I have been featured in Sluice Magazine, BBC What In The World, Norwich Evening News and Eastern Daily Press.
Compagnie Nathalie Béasse, Nantes, France 2023
Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire 2023
SPILL Festival ThinkTank, Ipswich, Suffolk 2023
High House, Norfolk, Antony Gormley’s estate, 1- 28 February 2022
Bloc Projects, Suffolk Libraries, 18 October – 22 October 2021
High House, Norfolk, Antony Gormley’s estate, 1 July – 31 July 2021
Address: 75 Silver street, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 4TU, GB
Local Authority: Norwich City Council
