Participatory Project | 2016 – ongoing
After returning to the UK from Australia, I moved to Stoke-on-Trent and began looking for ways to develop my ongoing storyworld—an imagined space explored through painting and illustration where children follow birds out of the city and into the wild. In Stoke, I found a real-world parallel: expansive areas of rewilded brownfield land tucked between houses, schools, and canals. These overlooked spaces felt both neglected and full of creative potential.
I began to ask ‘What happens in my storyworld when urban young people follow the birds into the wild?‘
Place-Based Practice: Burslem Port
This question led me to Burslem Port, a post-industrial canal-side site in the heart of the city. I began working directly with young people from nearby neighbourhoods, introducing them to the space and asking: “If this was your place, what would you do here?”
We brought art materials, tools, and an open approach. The young people built benches and swings, painted on found surfaces, made maps and shelters, and documented the space through video and storytelling. Their responses were playful, emotional, imaginative, and grounded in the realities of their lives. Together, we reanimated the land through acts of temporary occupation, collaboration, and creativity.
Feral spaces of Middleport: Arts council 2016
Real life adventures: TNL community fund 2017
Art Practice Meets Research
As this strand of practice developed, I began working with researchers at Keele and Derby Universities. Together, we explored the links between wild space, youth wellbeing, and creative co-authorship. Our work demonstrated how access to untamed environments supports confidence, play, imagination, and belonging—and how participatory arts practices can open doors into these spaces.
Urban Wilderness CIC
This process led to the founding of Urban Wilderness CIC, a women-led arts organisation based in Stoke-on-Trent that reimagines underused public space through creativity, collective making, and ecological engagement.
FERAL STATE 