I seem to return to this blog whenever I’m given the rare gift of time. A long-term artist residency allows me to think, reflect and approach my work with a real sense of purpose. This one does feel like a big adventure, not because it takes me to a far-off country, but because it takes me just up the road to East Lancashire. Before I interviewed for this role, I’d never been to any of the places I’m about to work. I’ve secured an insanely rare opportunity in the UK: a commission with time built in to actually get to know some of the communities I’ll be working with, allowing the creative response to unfold as we go. The rarity of these types of opportunities is a blog post in its own right, and I’ll probably write it at some point. For now, I’ll just say that I know their enormous value. I’m so passionate about who accesses art in all of its forms, drawing, sketching, music, theatre, dance, installation, writing, poetry, filmmaking, podcasting, you get the point, because finding art changed my own life beyond recognition and the desire to share that is always present.
Before launching into residency proper I felt like I needed
to update (for my own head – more so than yours probably) how I got here. This
post is the backstory to this residency: the route that led me to work in the
way I do now, heavily influenced by my own involvement in a Liverpool project more
than ten years ago. In one of life’s rich tapestry crossovers, that project
also brought me into contact with people I’ve now met again through this
residency.
Firstly, I am fully aware that writing a blog these days is old
school and way too long and rambling for most people.
But writing in this way clears a section of the spaghetti
junction inside my head. It helps me to process and most importantly reflect on
what I’m doing which benefits the people I’ll be working with. I suppose it’s a
giant download of thoughts. I am also interested in who I picture as my reader.
Wherever you are I hope there’s a comfortable place to sit and a beverage of
choice. What I can say is, if you’re curious about how one artist approaches a long-term residency with communities,
this may be useful. For everyone else just curious, I’m made up to picture you
reading along too.
THE SUPER SLOW WAY – what is it?
Well, they’ve been going now for 10 years and over the
course of the decade they’ve worked throughout East Lancashire to bring art and
community together in a meaningful way. With a long-term mindset that allows
projects and communities to develop naturally. It’s a step-by-step approach
that resonated with me. They believe that two main ingredients - time and
creativity - can positively affect every day local life. That’s my incredibly
short nutshell take on the work they do! This recent video they put out to
celebrate their 10 years is a really great snapshot of the type of work they
do:
https://youtu.be/_QEtWltzcKg?si=EM6yJpkwrs0LkftI
Much of the work they do aligns with my passion for art and
where it sits overall as a vehicle to use as a way to engage and connect human
beings. This particular way of working within art, social practice, has
been an inherent aspect of the way I work before even connecting it to this
relatively new academic term for it. Everything has a label sooner or later,
but I must admit I find it helpful now when explaining my approach to project
work within community settings. I’m intrigued by how we connect and uplifted by
the act of encouraging positive connection through creativity. I feel that
crackle of creative electricity when a group has gathered because of something
you have invented and activated. It could be a discussion around a piece of
artwork, or a workshop, then seeing the relationships in the room develop as
people are introduced to someone they may not usually meet in their day to day
lives. I see this as integral to how projects develop. Inventing something from
scratch in your head then making it happen in real life and inviting people in
on that journey to work with. This ignites an incredible feeling of camaraderie,
and realising a project in this way, with other people bringing their skills
and knowledge too, generates an incredible feeling of collective satisfaction. Maybe because we’re told on repeat how awful
the world is and people don’t want to get involved, when actually that’s more
about scaremongering and control. The world is full of extraordinarily
interesting people; you just have to listen for it. And that’s where the role
of an artist in this scenario comes in, we listen and respond in a creative
way.
During my application process to Super Slow Way, I started to analyse why I’m so drawn to this way of working. It feels as though I’m seeking communities and looking for ways to be part of them - a massive *geg in really! Some communities already exist; others are created through the project itself. Even when this connection is fleeting it’s integral to the life of the residency: together we generate creative energy, one spark leads to another, rooted in encouraging more people to participate in and make art.
So, what was my original spark? The thing that took me from
making predominantly sculptural work to gravitating towards a more collective
social practice? This is the full-circle moment. I first crossed paths with
Laurie, who runs The Super Slow Way, more than 10 years ago while she was
working in Liverpool on another project extremely close to my heart.
It was around 2011 and at the point in my own family timeline
we were being subjected to the disastrous central Government led, Housing
Market Renewal Scheme. Surrounded by rows and rows of empty tinned up
Victorian terraced houses, our homes, sitting waiting to be demolished. Our
house was one of 1800 homes destroyed. This is so well documented elsewhere,
and I really don’t want to enter that headspace again while I’m writing this, but
if you’re new to my work and interested to know more, I’ll share a link to a short
film we made that captures succinctly that period in time.
Without These Walls short film:
https://youtu.be/b-bE-zHqJZo?si=poIVdddTk2vLk88G
The realisation whilst preparing to write my proposal,
thinking about how I first met Laurie, was that maybe, ever since we lost our
community, I’ve been searching for it ever since, in other people and places,
desperate to feel that sense of belonging once more. This was like a light bulb
moment for me in understanding my processes and redirection of work from that
huge loss. I certainly took my community for granted, that everyone knew your
name and looked out for you, everyone was either friends, arch enemies, someone
you looked up to, someone you felt sad for, someone you made fun of, someone
you were scared of, a rich tapestry of tales behind every front door. My Nanny
lived at the top of our road too and was in and out all the time. She passed
away during this period too, when all of our houses were tinned up and the
street was wall to wall ghosts. We lost the matriarch and person that connected
everyone together, all the cousins and Auntys and Uncles. Then a few years
after that came the blow that compounded this whole period of grief and loss
that you don’t know you’re cemented so deeply into until you come out the other
side. We lost our Mum and things would never be the same again. It was definitely
harder having lost our community too. A sense of safety in the familiarity of
people and place. There was nothing recognisable about life anymore, nowhere to
ground yourself. Everything had changed beyond recognition. I didn’t intend
writing all of this to make anyone feel weighted with it, it’s just such a key
aspect to my practice now, and it all ties into my thought process when I was
writing the application for Super Slow Way - and how some monumentally significant
dots were joined because of it.
I know I’ve literally gone around the houses here. But, as I
started saying before, Laurie was working in Liverpool, running the Liverpool
Biennial, and our paths crossed with a project she was working on called 2 Up 2
Down, around the corner from my house that was about to be demolished. This is how
I first met the artist, Jeanne Van Heeswijk, who had been commissioned to work
with communities in our area of North Liverpool. I remember walking around our
street, Granton Road in Everton, and the surrounding streets with Jeanne and
producer Maria while we were filmed
talking about what had happened. I remember initially not trusting them at all,
and I certainly didn’t understand how this was art! The mad thing is, I was
doing an MA in Fine Art at the time too but still struggled to grasp this
project. We all got to know each other over the coming years and I learnt so
much, my life literally became the artwork, but I also felt this enlightening
moment when I realised how art could be used in this incredibly powerful way
and it changed my outlook of art forever. The legacy from the 2Up 2Down project
that was initiated is a bakery called Homebaked that is a successful community run
bakery that is still going strong to this day. The former bakery owners, the
Mitchell’s, had owned and ran their bakery for over 80 years and were also
earmarked for demolition and had moved out. The Biennial had negotiated with
them to use the space as community hub in the interim. This led to many locals,
including me, popping in regularly to see what was happening. What was
happening was us gathering and talking and eventually the idea grew, what if we
could keep our bakery?
If you’re interested in finding out more about how it developed,
you can read more about the history of Homebaked via their website:
https://www.homebakedbakery.com/pages/about-us
If you are still following this, congratulations! That was the background to my application; now, in blog terms we’ve finally reached the starting point of the residency itself. I was drawn to The Super Slow Way because of everything I’ve already talked about, the organisational approach that resonates with mine and the track record of rich projects they’ve produced, and artists and communities they’ve already worked with, is truly inspirational. But I was also as intrigued by the canal system itself, and the specific call out to connect with this. I’d never really spent any time thinking about canals from the historical perspective, and how they were specifically built for industry. A water road literally built to move materials and goods in and out to mills and factories along the Leeds and Liverpool canal stretch. But what happens when that industry no longer exists? I’m intrigued to explore that question and to discover the towns and villages running along it, the residency call out to engage with communities from Hyndburn, Burnley and Pendle.
I’ve had three visits so far, the first for my interview
with the SSW team and the community representatives in Blackburn. Then a day
split between Clayton-le-Moors, Finsley Gate Wharf in Burnley, then finally
Nelson in Pendle. My third and most recent was a two-night stay, giving me more
time to explore Nelson and Burnley and begin following up some ideas from that
first full day.
Visit 1: Blackburn and my interview
Blackburn Cathedral, 2026.
Incredible
value for money menu! Blackburn, 2026
Visit 2: Clayton-le-Moors
I met Ruth, Laurie, Marcail, Jenny and Charlotte in the
morning. We chatted and walked around Mercer Park and joined the canal, discussing
possible venues for a sketch club, one of my initial ideas for getting to know
people. I noticed a large pub near the canal that could maybe offer some
potential? As we’re heading into Autumn, we’ll need to be mainly indoors, so
the basic requirements are somewhere warm and dry, with loos, interesting things
to sketch, and the cherry on top would be access to teas and coffees! This
opened up a much bigger conversation about pubs as public spaces in general, and
whether offering more activities could prevent them closing down as they are in
many parts of the country right now at an alarming rate. These historic
buildings could be incredible places to work with, although I am aware that
pubs can feel inaccessible to some people. I think it’s about approaching it
with an open mind and not seeing them as just a place that serves alcohol, as I
know that can be an issue for some people, but seeing them as public community
spaces. It can be quite intimidating walking into a pub for the first time,
especially when you’re alone or outside your own community. But I love the idea
of opening up the perception of traditional pub activities that could help break
down some of accessibility issues while creating opportunities for pubs to
thrive again.
Canal tow path at Clayton-le-Moors, Sep 2026
We then left the Claytonians! A lovely bunch who made me
feel very welcome and headed for a meeting in Burnley at Finsley Gate Wharf.
It’s a really nice spot and as I get my bearings; I’m sure I’ll return often as
it seems to be a good central spot for the areas I’ll be working in, although my
geography of all these areas is still very hazy! My final stop was Nelson in
Pendle and another incredibly warm welcome from Masg, Farah, Naz, Diane and Andrew.
It was a hot afternoon, and we meandered through the town centre towards the
canal, catching up and talking about life in Nelson, local politics, events,
exhibitions and activities they had organised, Liverpool Football Club (it
always gets in somewhere) project proposals, bike rides and trips to Sweden! An
eclectic and highly stimulating end to my first full day. I was truly exhausted
when I got back on the train – but in a really good way.
Finsley Gate Wharf and The Egg, Burnley, 2026
Nelson, town centre, 2026.
Nelson, town centre, 2026.
Canalside, Nelson, 2026.
Canalside, Nelson, 2026.
Visit 3. Brierfield, Nelson, Barley and Burnley.
My most recent trip was the first to involve staying over,
something we hope to do regularly as activities begin to emerge over the year.
I was invited to stay at In-Situ, https://www.in-situ.org.uk/
a long-standing art beacon in these parts – that also offer artist accommodation,
so I set off to Brierfield in Pendle. That morning I met Ben and Michael, took a
whistle-stop tour of the accommodation and then headed off to Dubai Shawarma,
highly recommended if you’re ever in Nelson. After recharging, we walked around
town, which already felt a little familiar from my visit a couple of weeks
earlier. While Ben took a work call, I wandered around on my own, keeping an
eye out for potential football watching establishments as Liverpool were
playing Atletico Madrid the following night and I hoped to find somewhere I
could watch! A few people had mentioned The Station Hotel, a massive grand old
pub near the bus and train station. I couldn’t believe the size of it when I
got inside, and some of the original features that have survived its many refurbs
over the years. I got talking to Gemma, who runs the place now, and over a cup
of tea she told me it was sadly the last pub in Nelson! She told me about the events
held there each week, including fitness clubs and afternoon live music sets to
attract more people. It resonated so much with that conversation we were having
in Clayton a few weeks previously. I told her that as well as trying to find
the Liverpool match, I was also an artist working with Super Slow Way and mentioned
the sketch club. That sparked the idea of having it there. Gemma seemed really
interested and we chatted a while longer, some locals started showing me some
photos of another pub, now closed down across the road. The more time I spent
there, the more I thought it could be great daytime sketch club venue: full of history
and space, with such a warm welcome. Definitely food for thought…
Next day I headed into Burnley town centre, again to
orientate myself a bit and wander, always with the sketch club in the back of
my mind and on the lookout for potential sites and locations. I found myself in
the local shopping centre and it reminded me so much of St. John’s Shopping
Centre in Liverpool years ago. I was quite taken with the book shop stall in
there, all books £1 and all money paid via an honesty box. If I didn’t have to
carry them around all day, I would have bought so many books! It’s a really
smart stall too with a brilliant selection of books, I wonder who is behind it
and who organises it all? Be great to have a chat. I then noticed something I
think every town centre should have, a customer ‘rest area’ – so simple but so
needed, it means anyone can take a break when needed and not feel pressured to
buy anything either. It seems like people involved at the market are really
community minded, well that’s how it felt to an outsider and first-time
visitor. And you can probably guess by now where my thoughts drifted again, another
potential sketch club site? The market would be incredible to sketch with all
the stalls and people in and out.
Burnley Market, 2026.
Burnley Market, 2026.
It was at this point I remembered I had to be at Finsley
Gate Wharf for a meet up, so found my way back there and had the pleasure of
sitting in, ‘The Egg’, a public artwork by a former Super Slow Way artist
Stephen Turner and the local community. It’s here I met my other fellow artists,
Trish and Nick of Instar, and we chatted about our initial thoughts
around the project and getting our heads around it all. I then set off again in
search of The Royal Dyche, a pub I had to see with my own eyes! If you’re into football,
then you should definitely google it!
Inside The Egg, 2026
The Royal Dyche pub, opposite Turf Moor, Burnley, 2026.
My last day of this 3-day extravaganza was back in Nelson
and meeting with so many people who were having their Community Land Trust
meeting in Café Riwa. It was nice to recognise some faces already and meet
loads of new people. Too many to mention and it will take me aaaages to
remember everyone’s names and their projects but that’s one of the reasons I’m
writing it all here, save my peri menopause brain and to document a snippet of what
goes on behind the scenes of an Artist in Residence.
CLT meeting in
Nelson at Café Riwa, 2026.
You’ll find this hard to believe but I’ve actually skimmed
over so many parts of these trips so far, but THE main aspect I want to
emphasise is how friendly and welcoming everywhere I’ve so far is. I’m looking
forward to this project so much and thank you to all the community members who
chose me in the interview. I really am excited to get to know you more and
collaborate as we go.
*geg in is Liverpool slang for arriving uninvited, but in a non-aggressive
way!