Historic England X ACAVA

Stoke-on-Trent, May 2021.

This work was co-designed & created with the first year art and design students at @art_nscg_newcastle, supported by @historicengland @acavaarts and @sotcitycouncil .

Together, we took inspiration from around the Spode site, looking in particular at the plants (‘weeds’) that grow abundantly there, that grow in resilience even in unfavourable conditions.

We spent time drawing each one and from their took our designs into the print room, pressing and screen printing onto remnant textiles from my studio, and I did some drawing with some inks created from those plants. They are currently hanging in a high-street facing window space on Church Street alongside other artist & community collaborations from the project.

The project is intended to draw people to the high-street, to see work from professional artists working in collaboration with local people too, and in theory is a great idea. But it can’t just be a one-off. These once-thriving spaces, would benefit hugely from more and consistent artist-led and community driven initiatives like this one. Especially here in Stoke.