Top 10: Art House Open Lectures

Vanley Burke

Often described as the ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’, Vanley’s iconic images have captured the evolving cultural landscape, social change, and stimulated debate in the United Kingdom over the past four decades.

Vanley’s artistic enquiry is not limited to black and white documentary photography, as his eccentric rebellious nature lends itself to sculpture and painting, and crafting art that gives life a shape. His simple motivation has been the preservation of culture and history through creation, documentation and discovery, which often leaks into the private.

Juneau Projects

Juneau Projects work across a broad range of media including painting, sculpture, animation, performance, music and installation. Much of their work is made in collaboration with others, and focuses on the relationship between society, culture and the natural world.

They are currently working on an Art Fund supported project with us, collaborating with young people from Riverside Youth Centre in Pershore to create an artwork together inspired and responding to Avon Meadows Community Wetlands. Read more about the project here.

Leah Gordon

Leah Gordon is a photographer, film-maker, curator and writer. She makes work on Modernism and architecture; the slave trade, the enclosures, industrialisation and grassroots religious, class and folk histories. 

Monument to the Vanquished | Part 1 | The Commoners, a A Meadow Arts project by Leah Gordon and Annabel Edwards, can be seen at The Hive, Shrewsbury until 11 November 2022.

Lucy Wright

Lucy Wright is an artist and researcher living in West Yorkshire. 

Following a stint as the lead singer in BBC Folk Award-nominated act, Pilgrims’ Way, she turned her attention to exploring and documenting the ‘hidden’ folk arts of the UK and beyond, particularly those practiced by women and other marginalised people. Her work, which includes painting, writing and social practice tells alternative stories about British culture and heritage, often referencing and subverting historical folk practices to explore and comment on contemporary issues, as well as inventing new traditions for our divided society.

Hamja Ahsan

Hamja Ahsan is an artist, writer, activist and curator based in London and Maastricht. He is the author of the book ‘Shy Radicals: Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert’, and thefounder and co-curator of the DIY Cultures festival of creative activism, zines and independent publishing since 2013. His practice encompasses all media: conceptual writing, building archives, performance, video, sound and making zines.

De’Anne Crooks

As an artist-educator, much of De’Anne’s practice considers the collaborative and collective experiences of others. Engaging their practice as a form of activism rather than a teacher of art, De’Anne’s relationship with pedagogy (the science and principles of teaching) and contemporary art has cultivated a strong sense of play with political, moral and emotional themes.

Roo Dhissou

Roo explores the ins and outs of her practice by taking our lucky audience on a whistle-stop tour across performance, video, and the exploration and making of integral cultural tools (watch out for Jhāṛū, Manjha, and Velan!). We really loved how Rupi explored how play is such an integral part of her practice and how she embraces the act of play and being playful with making work – so as to not box her practice into a single art form.

Isla Badenoch

Isla Badenoch is a writer, director and artist from the mythic rural landscapes of the three shires, England.

An intuitive storyteller, Isla has a resilient curiosity for telling unexpected stories of kindred spirits leading unusual lives. Her work is grounded in her roots as a self-taught documentary filmmaker and combines a dark sense of humour with cinematic visions to reveal beauty within the strangest of places.

Kate Genever

Kate Genever tries to make sense of the world through drawing. They take drawing to be more than a technique – rather a disposition that reveals our connections with the world of materials and each other. A drawing from, with and together. 

In places, over extended periods, Genever considers how we improvise and imagine in response to immediate problems. Be it in villages, refuges, caravan parks, lockdown… they build deep connections with people in the celebration and support of site-specific responses, DIY architectures and community actions. 

Jack Evans

Jack Evans’ playful sculptures reference the disconnect between the romanticisation of ruins and the reality of modern architectural evolution. His work featured in our 2019 exhibition in partnership with English Heritage, In Ruins at Witley Court. His work Capital was shown within the ruined mansion, where its Corinthian capitals with goat-head motifs (that were originally created for Whiteley’s Shopping Centre in London) alluded to a loss of decorative architecture and traditional arts to soulless redevelopment.