My work explores emotion in everyday objects, especially clothing through scale and materiality. I am an artist who likes to innovate and take risks.
My mum was born in Middlesborough and raised in Sunderland and York to parents born and raised in Hartlepool. Her values are their values, many of which have become my values – duty, kindness, respect.
My mum is now in the late stages of severe dementia and doesn’t remember much, even the 12 children she birthed and raised. We had to clean out my parents’ house in Bewcastle, North Cumbria last year after my dad’s death and my mum’s move to live with my sister. It was a traumatising and sad experience as life as a family of 12 children had many wonderful and awful moments mixed up together.
Among the belongings we sorted through was my mum’s box of paper dress patterns of all the clothes she made us over the years.
For the Dover Prize I would like to explore a new body of work based on these patterns that encompasses painting, sculpture, and projection to create a multi-faceted installation of manufactured artefacts using the box of patterns as the inspiration in telling the stories of love, anger, dysfunction and loss that have plagued my family in a way that allows others to reflect on their own similar experiences.
I would like the luxury of time and psychological space the Dover Prize would allow me to do a deep dive into new aesthetic possibilities and explore further ideas around the emotional language of materials through the creation of artefacts and ultimately an immersive environment that can take others on a journey of recognition and response. I would also like to update some of my IT equipment to future proof my art practice.
My family originates from the area near to Darlington and I’m curious to explore how the values I was brought up with are manifested in the local people. I know a lot about my dad’s Lancastrian roots but not so much about my North Eastern and Yorkshire roots.
My husband is a train driver with Northern so I would be able to travel cheaply to Darlington as often as needed from Carlisle for me to learn about the history and personality of the town, in fact I see my lack of any preconceptions about Darlington as a strength.
My work starts from a very personal space but seeks to open up conversations around shared experiences, especially the messier and confusing interactions and loyalties that families have. My family are no strangers to misfortune and death, as well as incarceration and estrangement. I have worked for many years in secondary education and dealt first hand with safeguarding concerns, especially during a stint in a pupil referral unit and I have done many community-based workshops with all ages and backgrounds. It is always a joy to me when groups come together over what unites rather than divides us.
I am an installation artist and painter who combines a variety of media to explore relationships, materials, a sense of self, and complex emotions.
Everyday items such as clothing and utensils are reoccurring themes, alongside other found objects. Recent works have used garments and printed patterns to express personal viewpoints and values. I use repetition and altered scale to invite the viewer to reconsider how they perceive familiar objects.
Expressing strong and ambiguous emotion is central to my work and each piece has a personal element. I hope to make space for the viewer to bring their own emotional responses and experiences.
I have attached photos of three pieces of public work from the last 6 months. The first is an action shot from a collaboration with performer Zoe Leigh Gadd called “Sorry for your Loss” that was put together quickly in April 2025 and performed at the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, for their open night on the 10th May 2025. I created a dress that changed form during the dance and aimed to express the difficulties of complex grief. It was a brand new direction for me and especially exciting when we involved a live opera singer.
The second photo is of a recent large painting I completed of a baby dress that my maternal grandmother made. It is part of an uncompleted series where I am trying to make overlooked love and care in the delicacy of the dress more centre stage and visible. I am currently researching spaces in Carlisle where this series could have impact as a semi installation.
The third photo is of an installation called “All of Us Together” I created in collaboration with the Moorclose Community centre in Workington, for the winter art trail that was commissioned by Cumberland Council November 2024 to February 2025. The piece explores the impact of dementia on the loved ones around the affected person, and the intimacy of personal objects. More photos ad information can be found on my website – installations section.
I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD and identify as a neurodivergent artist.
2018 Glasgow School of Art
MLitt Fine Art Practice (Painting) 2:1
2003 Institute of Education, London
PGCE Secondary Art and Design
1996 University of Humberside
BA (hons) Fine Art (Sculpture and Painting) 2:1
1993 Cumbria College of Art and Design
B-Tec Nat. Diploma Foundation in Art and Design
I am regularly developing ideas with other artists and I am currently learning more about how to apply for ACE funding so that I can facilitate more ambitious projects for artists in Carlisle in the future. I am an active member of the Cumbria Arts and Culture Network and try to be actively involved in conversation about the creative future of the city.
In 2021 I won two public commissions. The first was as one of three commissioned artists for the Artful Ways project, designed and run by Curators Somewhere NoWhere. I created an installation piece based on Carlisle’s complex and buried relationship with the transatlantic slave trade through a prominent cotton mill that is a local landmark.The piece was called ‘Tangled Threads’ and was first shown at Tullie Art Gallery.
The second commission I won was from Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House, run by Lakeland Arts, to create a piece that expressed Cumbrians’ experiences of covid and lock down. For this a created a washing line of clothes that were left up over winter to be battered by the weather and the piece was called ‘weathering the storm’. I created 16 digital repeating patterns for the clothing that were based on stories and information submitted to me by the Cumbrian general public. More information is on my website.
In 2024 I was awarded one of three commissions for the Workington Art trail by Cumberland Council.
In 2016 Tullie Museum purchased my piece called “floodlines:Bloodlines”which is a appliqué style tapestry I made of the Carlisle 2015 floods that incorporates personal written experiences as part of a residency at the Guildhall museum which is ru by Tullie. The piece has recently been put back on display as part of the new permanent exhibitions on Carlisle life.
I also have a piece I donated to the Lakeland Arts permanent collection from the Blackwell installation.
I have regularly been featured in local Cumbria newspapers and one in Cumbria Life magazine for the Blackwell installation.
Prism, Carlisle. Artist Takeover Project. October to December 2024
Merz Barn, Langdale. With Prism Arts. August 2019
Dumfries House, Ayrshire. March – April 2018
Guildhall Museum, Carlisle. C-Art Art in Extraordinary Places. September 2016
Email: rosiegallowaysmith@gmail.com
Address: 17 St James Rd, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA2 5NX, GB
Local Authority: Cumberland Coucil
