Anita Strasser

Anita Strasser is a photographer, visual sociologist and writer based in Deptford, south-east London. She studied Photography at the London Institute, College of Printing (now London College of Communication), completed a Masters in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching (King's College, London) before doing a Masters in Photography and Urban Cultures at the Sociology Department of Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is currently doing an AHRC-funded PhD in Visual Sociology at Goldsmiths. Her main research interests are urban communities, the regeneration and gentrification of London, the representation of class, visual research methods and participatory photographic practice. She is also interested in mountain folk, walking/­mountaineering as sociological research practice, storytelling and oral histories. In October 2020 she published her first mono­graph in German Erzäh­lungen aus dem Steinernen Meer (Tales from the Stone Sea), a visual ethnography and oral history of a mountain range in the Austrian/Bavarian Alps. More info here: anitastrasser.com Anita is a member of the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths, Urban Photographers Association and the International Visual Sociology Association. She has exhibited her work widely in many (inter)national solo and group shows. She works as a Language Development Tutor on the Masters Programme for Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication (LCC).

https://deptfordischanging.wordpress.com/

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ContributorAnita Strasser
Marge Bradshaw

Marge Bradshaw is emerging documentary and social photographer born in Blackpool and based in Bolton. She started her photography career in 2018 after spending twenty years working in marketing and audience research roles in the cultural sector. Her artistic practice predominantly focuses on exploring people and place – often with a hidden story to tell. Drawing on her background in ethnographic research and inclusive practice, she captures authentic stories and involves her subjects in the creative process wherever possible. Alongside her creative projects, she works commercially as a music, events and family documentary photographer. Her work has previously been exhibited at the Science Museum, London and with Museums Northumberland.

https://www.margebradshawphotography.co.uk/

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ContributorMarge Bradshaw
Deborah Ann

Deborah is a London based artist making constructed paintings in paper, spray paint and pastel. Recent work is a series exploring ageing. Through recorded subjective accounts with participants on ageing, the visceral and complex nature of old age and the ageing process informs the central focus of the image. Influenced by a training in sculpture, the images are approached as a form of construction, where the assembling of elements allows for a process of direct physical engagement with medium. A variety of papers with different surface qualities are pre-coloured to allow for an interplay of flat plane, depth and perspective, the background either coloured or left uniformly plain in tone, to allow the iconic nature of figures and symbols to be articulated. The narratives emerge through the tensions between formal layout and the charged content of the subject matter. Originally from Africa, Deborah’s work draws influence from tribal art, ancient Egyptian paintings and sculptures, and the symbolic and pared down nature of the later paintings of Peter Kinley.

http://www.deborah-ann.co.uk

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ContributorDeborah Ann
Ian Nesbitt

Ian Nesbitt is a socially engaged artist, lapsed filmmaker and grassroots activist tending towards post-activism. He is interested in creating spaces for exchange that go beyond the everyday. Pursuing active interests in walking, DIY culture, emerging social movements, more-than-human entanglements, degrowth strategies, and experimental documentary film, his practice is openly collaborative, working with artists and non-artists alike. His projects explore ideas of commonality, working alongside citizens and communities to create spaces for exchange that are beyond the everyday. His work as a filmmaker focuses on exploring identity and community through making work collaboratively, often using chance interactions to open up personal and shared terrains.

iannesbitt.co.uk

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ContributorIan Nesbitt
Frances Disley

Frances Disley is based in Liverpool at The Royal Standard

Recent Exhibitions, projects and performances include : Pattern Buffer, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, 2020; Crossings, Complex, Dublin, 2020; Thumbs Up, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; 2020, Cucumber Fell in the Sand, Humber Street Gallery, Hull, 2019; Tripleflex, Bluecoat, Liverpool, 2019; Solo Show, OUTPUT Gallery, Liverpool; 2019, Inner Landscapes, Hilbert Raum, Berlin, 2019; Residency – Activation #1 Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, 2019; We Are Where We Are, Baltic 39, Newcastle, 2018; Mustard Blanket; Grampian Hospital Arts Trust, Aberdeen, 2018, “RRR”, live interactive performance/dance/workout/installation and single channel video, part of At the Library, comissioned by Sefton Libraries, Netherton Activity Centre, Liverpool (2018); “R&R”, performative workshop series comissioned by Sefton Libraries, Bootle Library (2018); “Abacus”, Bluecoat, Liverpool (2017); “SWAP Editions Edition 1 – ADHOC”, launched at Castor Projects, London (2017); “ART VAN” event part of Site Gallery’s public programme, Endcliffe Park, Sheffield (2017); performance “Charcoal Heather / Therma Sphere Max” St Nicholas Church (Liverpool Biennial Light Night Presentation), Liverpool & REC ROOM, Houston, Texas (2017); Liverpool Biennial Arriva Bus comission (2016), Liverpool Biennial Associate Artists exhibition, Liverpool (2016); “HERE”, Glasgow International, Glasgow (2016); performance Roll Fix Slip, Bluecoat Performance Space, Liverpool, UK (2015);

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ContributorFrances Disley
Sally Lemsford

Conversations and situations have always been at the centre of my practice – co-produced installations and participatory performance in public places with passersby and self-generated festivals. Critical engagement in the social context. Now socially distance, my work is manifesting as social comment zines and online events. Digital platforms and formats, connections and dis-connections, are structural and procedural – live streaming, digital recording/editing of sound and film, online publishing using social media. There are a myriad of possibilities for connecting locally and globally. This is validation with integrity rather than following the status quo, celebrating the unexpecteds of co-production and guerrilla actions.

sallylemsford.co.uk

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ContributorSally Lemsford
Amelia Hawk

Amelia Hawk is an artist based in Birmingham. She is interested in how conversation can be an art form and what it means to centre conversation at the heart of a practice. She has recently set up a podcast called Otherwise Silent to champion unheard voices.

www.amelia-hawk.com

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ContributorAmelia Hawk
Genevieve Rudd

Genevieve Rudd has led and organised community arts projects since 2011 and is based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Alongside freelance arts engagement projects, she currently works as an Associate Artist/Tutor at Sainsbury Centre of Visual Arts, and leads Artist Educator Social Network, a peer-led network co-founded with Kaitlin Ferguson for artists working with people in East Anglia. In 2017-18, Genevieve was Youth Engagement Officer (maternity cover) at Time & Tide Museum, and from 2019-20, she was Chair at Waveney & Blyth Arts. Genevieve has developed projects with people in care homes, museums, galleries, libraries, youth clubs, schools, community festivals and in outdoor public spaces. In particular, Genevieve’s projects consider heritage, cultural and environmental themes. She holds current professional member with AccessArt, Artists’ Union England, Artworks Alliance and GEM (Group for Education in Museums).

http://www.genevieverudd.com

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ContributorGenevieve Rudd
Paul Evans

I am a contemporary artist based at Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield. Since 2010 I have utilised a range of socially engaged and collaborative artistic strategies to explore our relationship with science, nature and heritage. Where possible I aim to work on projects that lead to definite social and/or environmental benefits. Awards include the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement Engage Award, 2014 and the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community, 2017.

https://pkevans.wordpress.com/

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ContributorPaul Evans
Emma N.J. Long

Emma studied Fine Art at Staffordshire University where she formed a 'feminist' creative duo ; 'Mad Cows' with a fellow student to explore the 'real' crisis and consequences of the lack of 'healthy' British Beef/cake. They went on to produce a number of collaborative performance, video and mixed media sculptural works which challenged the white middle-class persona of the 'artist' and the elitist strategies of the art world, presenting the opinions of people they interviewed on the Hanley streets as 'larger and louder than life' characters in a subtle, hush hushed white cubed context.

Upon graduating in 1999, she delivered art projects in various settings whilst attending a Foundation Course in Art Therapy and was orginally based at Bankley Studios, Manchester where she developed her interest in co-producing community events for the general public. She trained as a Tutor and taught courses for further and adult education providers before moving on to work as a Community Arts Manager for 12 years where she developed a level of expertise in Intergenerational Art. Since December 2018. Emma has been researching Social Practice and developing as a Socially engaged Practitioner. She initiates, produces or contributes to projects which explore issues specific to a place and these can broadly relate to health, heritage, culture and nature. In working with and for people and participants, she encourages appreciation and exploration of contemporary and participatory art techniques ranging from drawing and painting to photography and performance, yet incorporates approaches and materials from ‘everyday’ life.

Visually, Emma is enthused and intrigued by the quirks, characters and narratives of individuals and seeks to draw these out through combining the human figure with text in various ways. Embedded within her practice are the principles of equality and advocacy; giving a voice to the unheard; illuminating the grassroots experiences of everyday people; providing a creative platform for people to explore, expose and challenge hierarchal and political structures, systems and policies. She is equally concerned with the ethos of ‘art for all’, engaging people who have no arts background; facilitating the exploration of creative potential, emphasising the well-being aspect of art-making, to effect change in a community – large or small for the greater good.

https://www.instagram.com/emma_artissocial77/

http://rossendalearttrail.org/emma-n-j-long/

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ContributorEmma N.J. Long
Sarah Dixon

Born in London, raised in Cyprus and the Middle East, and now based in rural England, Dixon is a socially-engaged conceptual artist using primarily painting, participation, performance and installation. Her work explores collaborative art making and ideas around how the 'human social organism' can be reinvented. Self-taught, By training a biologist, she has worked in the Amazon, the Hindu Kush and elsewhere. As co-founder of The Women’s Art Activation System, with Sharon Bennett - she activates women’s art, specifically pushing at the limits placed on middle-aged women with children. Her work has been shown at the ICA, QUAD Gallery, Oblong Gallery and on a cyberbus in Moscow. During the 2020 pandemic lockdown, Dixon created a phone box community art show, performed via Zoom at Grace Exhibition Space New York, received an Arts Council England Emergency Grant and took part in UNIDEED 2020 virtual residency in Biella, Italy.

https://sarahdixonfineart.co.uk/

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ContributorSarah Dixon
Metal

Metal’s ambition is to transform the potential of people and places through great art and inspiring ideas. Metal was founded in 2002 by Jude Kelly CBE, working with current Artistic Director and CEO, Colette Bailey since its inception. It has been active in Liverpool since 2004, in Southend-on-Sea since 2007 and in Peterborough since 2012. From these bases, Metal work with artists and local agencies to provide the catalyst that is helping to transform the potential for thriving creative and cultural industries in these three places. We provide networking, training, residency space for artists of all artistic disciplines and develop projects that connect artists and communities.

www.metalculture.com

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ContributorMetal (Arts Org), Kate & Metal
Kate Genever

Drawing from, with & together is at the core of & catalyst for my practice. Over extended periods Kate works alongside communities to consider, reveal & celebrate how they improvise & imagine at times of stress. Settings include parks, plotlands, farms, asylum seeker centres & museums - places where people make do with few resources & are driven by limitations. Outcomes of this co produced work can include drawings, exhibitions, events, participatory programs, strategic organisational & community development. Over 25 years Kate has explored how meaningful opportunities to get involved with great art & culture can empower and nurture. Kate has delivered long-term commissions for multiple regional & national partners including YSP, Metal, 14/18 Now, Leeds Art Gallery and Hull City of Culture. She has undertaken ACE and British Council funded work including long term inter-disciplinary and cross regional work in collaboration with academics, artists and organisations. This includes international residencies in Venice, Rotterdam and Gdansk.

www.kategenever.com

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ContributorKate Genever, Kate & Metal
Idit Elia Nathan

Idit's work draws on a wide variety of traditions and methods; it is participatory, collaborative and theatrical. She collaborate with artists, curators and diverse communities to develop often site-specific interventions and artworks. These include interactive installations, live events, games, audio visual works, playful walks and artists’ books amongst others. Idit often uses play as a productively provocative space in which the participant is challenged to confront their accepted understandings. Using optics, scale and perspective in specific processes and settings, participants respond to contemporary dilemmas of identity both as actors with free will and actors in an historical context. Idit's work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and public collections. In 2018 Idit completed a practice led research at Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, where her PhD thesis titled Art of Play in Zones of Conflict- the Case of Israel Palestine explored playful and interactive artworks in the context of interminable conflict and ongoing political change. Her thesis is available online at the British Library's archive and UAL research. Since 2012 Idit has also worked collaboratively with artist Helen Stratford. In 2015 the two formed Play Anywhere Now or Never project.

https://www.iditnathan.org.uk/

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ContributorIdit Elia Nathan
Lauren Velvick

Lauren Velvick is variously a writer, curator and/or artist based in the North of England. She is currently a Director and Contributing Editor of contemporary art and writing publication Corridor8, and is a regular contributor to Art Monthly. She was recently Associate Curator at The Art House, Wakefield and Assistant Curator at Humber Street Gallery, Hull. Departing from an educational background in history of art, her practice has consisted of projects to excavate and reassess cultural histories, and attempts to destabilise the category 'artist'. At present Lauren is engaged in a project to harness and focus the incidental, communal creativity and storytelling fomented by economic precarity and online communication.

https://l-velvick.tumblr.com/

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ContributorLauren Velvick
Elspeth Billie Penfold

Elspeth Billie Penfold is a textile artist who brings her experience of teaching and research into performative works . In 2012 she formed a group called Thread and Word. Through call-outs she works collaboratively to develop work with a focus on materials and process, using walking as a method to explore creativity.

https://elspeth-billie-penfold.com

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ContributorElspeth Billie Penfold