Festival Stoke Creative Practitioners
Here we feature some of the people we have worked with over the years, at Festival Stoke.
Jodie Gibson & Richard RedwinArtist/Sculptor Richard Redwin and Socially-Engaged Artist/Creative Producer Jodie Gibson created the Essences installation for 2020. Jodie oversaw the selection of and engagement with the twelve members of the public and Richard made the heads from recycled materials. A dynamic collaboration bringing together socially engaged participatory arts practise with skilful 3D sculptural techniques and practical making-skills.
Scratch & Sniff TheatreEmily Andrews and Toby White together form Scratch and Sniff Theatre and have provided engaging and fun street theatre at two of our festivals.
To quote them "Scratch & Sniff are two average humans stepping blindly into the world of theatre. They come to entertain, enthrall and generally make a mess. Join them." 
Richard RedwinRichard Redwin is a multi-disciplinary artist working in visual, three-dimensional, and interactive mediums. Once an aspiring writer, now his artistic work explores ways to tell stories and engage audiences that move beyond the written word. His recent obsessions include mask making, kinetic sculptures, and light design.
Rachel BallardIn 2017 Rachel created a surprising small garden for 'Greening Church Street'; incorporating a recycled filing cabinet as a plant container, with picket fence and lawn, it created a stir in the town. During 2018 Rachel joined with artist Anne Kinnaird to deliver 'Greening Church Street' as part of Kew Garden's Grow Wild project. Incorporating recycled and reused items such as filing cabinets and colanders turning them into various planters and hanging baskets that add splashes of colour around the town, turning unwanted materials into homes for nature to flourish. Rachel is now working alongside Letting in the Light's Anne Kinnaird to extend the project into 'Greening Stoke' in 2019.
Chris OldhamIn 2014 Chris Oldham interpreted used digital composites using multi-layered collages weaving in visual journeys and mental puzzles. "My pictures ask the viewer to spend time reading the images and decoding the clues to the locations in the pictures or be absorbed in the shapes, textures and spaces inside the images."
Letting in the Light + Denise O'SullivanIn 2014 Letting in the Light joined with Denise O'Sullivan to 'site-vibe' the festival site - creating massive windmill structures and hosting windmill making workshops. Hundreds of colourful windmills were planted over the weekend.
Alice ThatcherArtist in Residence at Art Stop during August - November 2018, with her final exhibition in January 2019. During her residency Alice used the time to research and experiment with new techniques, in addition to hosting workshops. Alice creates beautiful paper porcelain artworks.
Siobhan McaleerDuring March 2018 artist Shiv went out into the local pubs and cafes of Stoke with her easel and paints. She created her own unique and bold artworks and engaged the locals in arty-conversations.
Sylvia BullSylvia Bull graduated with an MA in Childrens' Book Illustration from Anglia Ruskin University in 2008. Having spent over 10 years as a Story Artist for Aardman Animation, Sylvia's work often has a story to tell. Drawn from childhood memories, or from classic Myths and Children's Fairy Tales, her prints prints evoke remembered emotions, people and places.
Sylvia is working with Festival Stoke on the Werburgh and the Wild Goose project. sylviabull.com 
Oliver Sherlock
In 2017 Oliver, along with Samuel Freeman, used technology with creativity to create three sculptural LED light pieces which hung outside shops along Church Street.
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Rhiannon HunterRhiannon Hunter is a visual artist whose work responds to physical and psychological connections to belonging. She is interested in relationships between places, people and environments. Her work spans mediums to include print, collage, drawing, sculptural form and participatory research that involves working with individuals and groups. She trained in Fine Art Textiles at Goldsmiths University, London and has written for arts journals and exhibited internationally.
Laurel GallagherLaurel’s work investigates processes of transformation and metamorphosis. Her paintings capture states of flux between illustration and abstraction, chaos and control; abstract layers of dripping paint inviting us to look through worlds of possibility and build our own reality.
In 2017 Laurel created 'Follow the Birds', big, bright, bold, beautiful birds around the town. feralstate 
Adam Pryce & Nic WinstanleyIn 2017 Artists Adam and Nicola worked with local people to create three large tile murals which are now proudly installed around Stoke Market and called...'Proud of Stoke'.
www.adampryce.com winstanleynadin.uk 
Dan ThompsonDan Thompson is an award-winning social artist, writer, and speaker living in Margate.
His work is about people and places, and the stories that connect them. Exploration, walking, and leading guided walks form part of my practice. My work often touches on themes of migration in the UK. He is also interested in the creation of social capital, in activating abandoned or underused spaces, and in DIY approaches to art, culture and social action. From 2014 - 2015 Dan Thompson spent a year visiting Stoke on a collaborative residency with Appetite Stoke. He researched stories about London Road and created the book 'It's all about the Road', reading presentations at the London Road Festival 2015. Visit Dan's website here. 
Anna MacdonaldIn 2013 Anna Macdonald brought 'Car Conversations' to Open Air Gallery. Working with children from Stoke Minster School she created a fun and colourful artwork involving 6,000 small cars.
Adam PryceIn 2014 Adam Pryce created striking repeat pattern graphic banners interpreting Stoke traditions in a fresh way. They adorned the buildings along London Road and the town centre for Open Air Gallery.
Mitchell RobinsonIn 2017 Artist Mitchell designed hand created beautiful gift bags, using Lino-cuts, featuring well-known potters across the eras: Josiah Wedgwood, Susie Cooper and Keith Brymer-Jones. They were available with customer purchases in selected local shops around the town centre of Stoke during December 2017.
GKA GayThe Roaming Poets, coordinated by GKA Gay, performed at bus stops, in pubs, outside shops during January 2018. Their poems were installed in the bus stops of the town centre for a month.
Kate RobinsonDr. Kate Robinson BA (Hons) MRBS
Sculpture, drawing and the spoken and written word using body, voice, stone, metal, wood, ice, sand... Meaningful social engagement...Art can be in an approach as much as it can be a thing. Contexts range from galleries to parks to prisons and public squares, from archaeological sites to public and private memorials. Creative and academic writing and the telling of stories through word and image... Kate is working with us on the Werburgh and the Wild Goose Project. 'Woman Man Sun Moon' pictured katerobinsononline.com 
Peter Jones
Peter is a skilled ceramicist, but we also know that he is is very clever at installing artworks safely in public spaces; Peter was tasked with installing our spring Art Street exhibition around the town centre in a non-disruptive and effective way.
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Martin GoodingMartin Gooding is a artist, poet and theatre maker, best known for rambling, mythology glazed words, surreal monologues, strange organic creations and for his work with B-Arts. His work has been shown at Green Man Festival, Timber Festival, Your City Festival, ADP Riot Tour and What is Now?
Cultural SistersThe Cultural Sisters is a participatory arts organisation. We work with people in community, education and health settings.
Established in 1995 and based in Stoke-on-Trent, we have a core group of experienced professional artists who design, deliver and manage creative workshops, consultations, Arts in Health projects, outdoor performance, events and commissions. In 2017 artists Debs and Fiona hung bright coloured lampshades in unexpected places around the town for 'Inside Outside'. www.theculturalsisters.co.uk 
Alice CunninghamAlice Cunningham is a visual artist with a diverse practice and the ability to sensitively work in many mediums.
Cunningham has worked and exhibited throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and Africa. She was shortlisted to represent the UK in the first UK Young Artists Biennale in Europe. Alice has lectured in Fine Art at Universities throughout the UK and works with charities organising creative events to engage hard to reach or marginalised groups. In 2017 Alice created 'Let by' incorporating stunning portraits of local people along with quotations - as 'Let by' signs outside properties in Stoke. www.alicecunningham.co.uk 
Goldpeg & MalarkyGrafitti artists Goldpeg and Malarky transformed four sites along London Road in Stoke during the summer of 2013 with their bright and bold illustrations.
Behjat Omer ABehjat worked with us over two festivals in 2012 and 2013 when he exhibited his wonderful and evocative drawings as part of Open Air Gallery.
Behjat Omer A 
The Unknown ArtistsOver the years at the festivals we have had guerrilla artworks appearing. We love them, but have not yet discovered their creators.
Rebecca DaviesArtist Rebecca Davies created a pop-up cinema on Church Street Stoke in November 2017. Showing a selection of independent films, Rebecca also reworked 'Everything but Flowers' by Talking Heads, especially for Stoke-on-Trent. Featuring local artists and filmed in the atmospheric former Spode Pottery board room.
Polly ShaveIn 2017 Photographer Polly Shave installed echoes of autumn on the pavements outside Stoke Minster with her beautiful leaf patterns as part of 'Botanica Decorus'. Pedestrians encountered stunning artworks under their feet.
Nic WinstanleyNic is contributing to the Werburgh and the Wild Goose project.
Whilst being a true daughter of the city, Nic has lived in the town of Stoke for just over three years. "I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to challenge my own perception of the town and discover things that not even I knew about or had ever really thought about deeply. I have been devising ideas that lean away from expensive material constructions and more towards participatory, experiential, thought provoking and accessible (in the physical sense) interventions that highlight what is worth coming to Stoke for, and how Stoke can become more open and inviting to others." nicwinstanley.com |
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