I’m a co-director of Lumen Studios, an art and science collective that creates art work and curates events, exhibitions, talks and workshops on themes of astronomy, light and environment. We curate rolling gallery exhibitions in our space under St John on Bethnal Green and at different non-traditional art sites across London. We have collaborated with Phytology on Ivana Kuppala; curated huge group exhibitions in meanwhile spaces managed by Ugly Duck - Through the Looking Glass, Cosmic Perspectives and School of Light.
During 2020 we were funded by ACE to lead an online programme for artists during Covid-19 disruption. Our ACE-supported programme included Readings for Uncertain Times - an online gathering to talk about multiple understandings of the world around us and interrogate more-than-human times where we have studied texts such as Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall-Kimmmerer, Gaia by James Lovelock, Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe and in January 2021 Underland by Robert Macfarlane. In 2021 we will be starting our wellbeing ‘networking’ sessions.
In 2019 we collaborated with Mayes Creative to run Lizard Point Residency and Workshops and in 2018 we were commissioned by the Forestry Commission to lead a residency and exhibition in Grizedale which we called ‘In Search of Darkness’. Since 2016 we have run a residency in Italy in collaboration with artist Natasha Sabatini, that brings together artists from across Europe who want to make work and meet other like-minded artists who are influenced by dark skies.
Since 2015 we’ve been running Print the Moon workshops at various locations around London and beyond, kindly supported by Polaroid. We also curate and run artist residencies in the UK and Italy, which include visits to observatories, alternative photography workshops and networking for artists.
Between 2008-2011, I was a project artist at The Cultural Sisters and a project assistant at Urban Vision, an art and architecture charity (now enterprise) based in Burslem School of Art. At Urban Vision I was part of a small team who delivered CABE, Design council and other environmentally-centred community engagement projects around the West Midlands in relation to regeneration, conservation and sustainability awareness. These included Longton Plots - 6-month empty shop activities, Escape to the Hidden Gardens (Campaign for Drawing) for the The Big Draw - delivered workshops around Leek and Stoke-on-Trent, a Sustainable Schools Project including Animation Workshops and Photographic Competitions.
Walking workshop at Lizard Point Residency