Claire Simpson: CV

Freelance artist, educator, project facilitator and trainer

Artists Statement:

I work predominantly through collaboration with community groups, organisations, artists, schools and venues; creating work though projects, residencies, commissions and training. I’m based in the East Midlands and work throughout the country, having involved in projects in schools, forests, festivals, day centres, pre-school groups, community centres, museums, galleries, theatres and coastal areas amongst other places. I’ve worked with people of all ages, particularly undertaking a lot of work with pre-school children, primary-school aged children and people with learning disabilities.

I believe that we all use our imaginations and creative instincts to play, to learn, to explore, to communicate and to make sense of our surroundings, ourselves and our experiences. Whether working in collaboration or by myself I seek to work in a way that is about engaging with this sense of exploration and playfulness.

I’m driven by working through collaborative projects which enable people to creatively explore their own ideas, imaginations and expressions. I am especially interested in the relationship between different art forms and in exploring and expanding this through projects; linking visual and tactile art with music, dance, movement, words and performance. I relish working on projects with other artists / art forms and for years have regularly worked in this way and have a number of partnerships with artists and organisations which have been developed over the past 17 years.

I’m interested in exploring the relationship between people and places, working on projects which explore and record impressions of landscapes and buildings and the stories and histories associated with them. I’m fascinated by tales, words and narratives – real and imagined – and how these can be described visually and the shadows and traces people leave on their journeys.

I’m driven by a love of the natural world and many projects I work on seek to explore this and to collaborate with educationalists and others. I’m also passionate about the quirks of human nature – by the way we collect, arrange, select, explore, create stories and make things. I create work using a wide variety of tactile materials - layering textures, colours and marks through photography, textiles, print, drawing, paint, papers, light, projections and found natural objects.

With groups I use materials / techniques specific to each individual project and seek to find processes which are inclusive, igniting playful exploration and imagination. I often use combinations of textiles, print, drawing materials, paint, papers, projections and shadows, puppets and costumes. This has led to the creations of books, banners, installations, performances, exhibitions, and processions. I’m interested in projects which create the opportunity for celebration, discovery, for a sense of awe, magic and enchantment.

Education:

• Bretton Hall College (1988 – 1991, BA (Hons) in Fine Art / Inter Arts).
• Lincoln Art College (BTEC General Art and Design, 1987 – 1988)

Employment history:

• I am self employed - working freelance full time.
• September 1997 – October 2003 part time as co-manager of Mantle Community Arts in Coalville, Leicestershire. I worked as a freelance artist in addition to this part-time position.
• 1992 – 1997: Education and Outreach Officer at Blackfriars Arts Centre, Boston, Lincolnshire.
• 1991 – 1992: freelance artist working from a studio at the Guildhall Arts Centre, Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Current / Recent Projects:

My professional practice takes several strands and incorporates commissions, work for exhibitions, collaborative projects with other artists and with community groups and delivering training. All aspects of my work cross-over into each other and whilst there are specific distinct elements to my practice, I work very much in a collaborative way and any one project might incorporate several areas of interest to me. Some recent projects have included:

Exploration of environments and landscapes:

• Stories Out of Place, 2007 – on-going – Arts Council grant funded artists research project with Katy Doncaster, devising work in response to two National Trust sites - Calke Abbey and Clumber Park
• Summer of 2005: a residency with the Norfolk Coast Partnership Trust working with Katy Doncaster. We made a series of banners, shadow theatre and environments with Wells Next the Sea primary school.
• Throughout 2003 and 2004 I worked with the Newark Harvest project, exploring allotment sites with primary school children and recording what we found through drawings, prints, photography and words. This work was brought together in autumn / winter 2004 in a series of collages to form a season by season guide to allotments, which have been exhibited at various events.
• Oct 2002 – Jan 2003: Hemlock Stone Story Trail, (Broxtowe Borough Council), with storyteller Panya Banjoko. We worked with two infant schools and a special school to create a visual story trail (using drawings, paintings, print-making, paper-making, photography and collage) and illustrated book around a local landmark - The Hemlock Stone.

Work with pre-school / early years groups:

For many years I have been exploring the nature of creative play with groups and have worked extensively with pre-school children throughout the UK. As well as many other projects listed here, this work has recently included:

• November / December 2007 – study visit to Reggio Emilia, Italy, taking part in an International study week exploring “actions of listening and making learning visible”
• September 2007 – January 2008: working with 2 groups as part of the Create2gether early years arts project with Nottinghamshire County Council early years team
• March – July 2007: Residency with 2 foundation stage classes (reception) at Carsic Primary school, Creative Partnerships BAM. Part of the Migration project within the school.
• June 2007: working with the other project artists to deliver sessions as part of the CreatAbility conference, West Sussex
• February – May 2007: Residency at Huntingdon Primary and Nursery, Nottingham, working with 2 nursery classes and reception class. Creative Partnerships Nottingham.
• March – June 2006: second stage of CreatAbility project in West Sussex with 10 groups and a team of other artists. A book has been published (Sage) about this work and a conference took place in June 2007. www.sagepub.co.uk/skinner
• January – March 2006: Create2gether project with Blyth pre-school and Little Bears pre-school, Carlton, Nottinghamshire.
• January – March 2005: Pilot stage of CreatAbility project with 4 pre-school groups, West Sussex. Working with visual artist Teresa Grimaldi.

Schools work:

I regularly work in schools, both primary and secondary. I have extensive experience of working with early years groups and primary schools and with special schools throughout the country. Many other projects listed here incorporated work with schools and I have also run numerous one-off sessions in many different schools. Schools projects have included:

• January – June 2008: working with 3 schools as part of the HEROW study group with Creative Partnerships Nottingham
• January – June 2008: work with Greenfields school, Nottingham, as part of the Creative Partnerships Nottingham global citizenship action research group.
• May 2007 – on-going: residency with Dunkirk Primary School, much of which is part of the Creative Partnerships Nottingham global citizenship action research group, project involving several schools.
• February – May 2007: Residency with Huntingdon Primary School, Creative Partnerships Nottingham. Working with year 4 and foundation stage.
• On-going since 2000: regular work with Orston Primary School (Nottinghamshire).
• January – February 2005: working with artist Katy Doncaster and 7 school and community groups to create a fleet of large floating lanterns and processional decorations for the Chinese New Year celebrations in Broxtowe and at the Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham.
• November / December 2004: I created an Owl and Pussycat in their boat and then worked with pupils at St Anns Well School to create sea creatures for an installation in the Wallner Gallery at the Lakeside.
• 2003 and 2004: I worked on long-term projects with two inner city primary schools in Nottingham (Lenton and Unity), through Creative Partnerships. Exploring environments, creating large banners, costumes and exploring colour through projection and light boxes. In Lenton this included in-depth work with nursery pupils with myself and dancer Oksana Tyminska to explore shadow theatre, looking at African creation tales. This also incorporated a residential trip to Cornwall with Lenton pupils, visiting the Eden project, creating beach art - and then creating a rainforest environment with all school pupils as a permanent installation for the school library.

Collaborative multi art-form projects:

• August 2006: I worked with Isabel Jones and Duncan Chapman to create an interactive Snakes and Ladders board for the Aldeburgh Festival (Suffolk). I worked in a prison with young male offenders to create a 9 metre square canvas game board – which was then brought together with devised and improvised live and digital sounds. The game was then played with us by members of the public at a family event as part of the festival at Snape Malting.
• In 2006: working with composer Duncan Chapman and schools in Shropshire and Devon to create work as part of Darwin’s Dream, a new musical theatre production. This involved a team of artists, scientists, designers, composers, photographers, theatre producers and musicians.
• 2005/6: several projects with the Britten Sinfonia in Cambridge. This included a residency with the children’s wards at Addenbrookes Hospital and with primary school groups in Chesterton. These projects again explored combinations of music and visual art and included the creation of large maps, imagined journeys, a series of large banners looking at insects / plant-life and a series of large three-dimensional bugs / plants.
• Autumn of 2005: I worked on “Africa Yethu”, a project with the BBC Philharmonic and the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Working with a team of musicians, poets, dancers and artists and with schools across Manchester and Cheshire; creating large scale masks for a festival weekend in October 2005.
• August 2005: Osmosis residency in Telford - working with Salamanda Tandem and Architects of Air as part of a team of artists including composer Duncan Chapman and Isabel Jones, artistic director of Salamanda Tandem. We worked with groups to explore the Luminarium (large, coloured, inflatable structures) and to run workshops reflecting on the experiences of the structures.
• 2003 / 2004: I led part of a large-scale collaborative project – Heaven Above, Earth Below - in Manchester with the BBC Philharmonic and the Bridgewater Hall. I worked with secondary school pupils to explore Chinese folk stories and mythology. We created large banners and hangings and around 100 floating lanterns which were processed and then floated on the canal basin beside the Bridgewater Hall as part of a weekend festival. A documentary about the project was also created for CBBC.
• Winter 2003: I worked with TYPT - the youth theatre groups of Trestle Theatre Company - creating shadow work, puppets and set as part of their production of Grimm Tales. Working also with director Rachael Savage, musician Janie Armour and Trestle staff, this project culminated in performances at Trestle Arts Base in St Albans.

Work with adults and children together:

I’m keen to work on projects which explore creative play with adults and children together. I’ve run lots of projects with adults and children together and these have also included drop-in workshops at events all over the country making masks, puppets, instruments and more. Amongst others recently these have included events with:

• Sure Start at various events in Nottinghamshire.
• BBC in Manchester (Bridgewater Hall) and Gateshead (The Sage).
• Philharmonia Orchestra in London (QEH), Bedford (Corn Exchange) and Leicester (De Montfort Hall).
• Britten Sinfonia in Cambridge (West Road Concert Hall) and Norwich (St Andrews Hall)
• Festival Hall in London.

Work with adults:

• February and March 2007: sessions with the Growing Bolder project at Mansfield Museum.
• Autumn 2006: project with members of a dementia support group at Bramwell Day Centre with Involve. Creating a series of collaged panels of photographs, thoughts and memories of the local area for the inside of the centre.
• 2004: residency in Barncroft Day Centre to create a processional dragon as part of the Next Stage INVOLVE Carnival and running paper-making workshops as part of the Arts Network event at Rufford (for Next Stage).
• April 2003: Home Start – working with delegates at the ‘The Next Generation’ national conference to generate ideas and create textile pieces to celebrate the work of Home Start. To compile this work into banners for Home Start to use at future events.

Processional projects:

I’ve worked on many processional / carnival projects throughout the country with groups designing and creating their own costumes, street performances, puppets, banners, flags and lanterns. Amongst many others, this has included:

• Winter 2007: Working with adults and children to make a host of lanterns for procession in Harby, Leicestershire.
• February / March 2007: Working with several groups to make work for the opening of the Market Square procession event in Nottingham City Centre. Working with Emergency Exit Arts and a team of other artists.
• Winter 2006: Working with adults and children to make a host of lanterns for procession in Harby, Leicestershire.
• Winter 2006: Working with adults and children to create large stars / snowflakes for procession in Annesley, Nottinghamshire.
• Winter 2005: Working with adults and children to create lanterns for procession in Annesley, Nottinghamshire.
• Winter 2004: I worked with several groups to create lanterns for the Lumos event at Rufford, Nottinghamshire.
• Numerous lantern procession in Coalville and Hinckley, Leicestershire.
• Several processional projects with Aldeburgh Productions, Suffolk.

Delivering training:

For several years I’ve been developing ways of passing on ideas about arts activities and ways of working with groups; I’ve put together many information packs and training resources. I’ve also run many training sessions for pre-school workers, teachers, playscheme workers, youth workers and recently several sessions for emerging artists. I’ve recently run INSET sessions following up my study visit to Reggio Emilia.

Much of my work with pre-school groups has included training for adults that work with young children – looking at ways we can facilitate creative play and exploration. The artists team are co-authors of a book which has just been published about the CreatAbility project in West Sussex and we led sessions at a conference about this work in June 2007.

Other Exhibitions / Commissions have included:

• March 2007 – on-going development of a body of work through Stories Out of Place project with Katy Doncaster, with an exhibition of work created at Calke Abbey in March 2008.
• May 2007: Way Out Fest, Rufford Park Nottinghamshire. Commission with Katy Doncaster to create 2 stalls as alternatives to traditional village fete activities. We created 2 installations for adults and children to interact with – Fish La and Shy Coconuts.
• November - December 2006: Off the Shelf, Saltburn Artists Projects, North Yorkshire. Group Show. Several recently developed works – digitally layered collages of photographs, words and prints.
• December 2006: creating large indoor mural at Orston School, exploring fairy tales.
• October 2006: Nottingham Open. A recent work of digitally layered photographs and prints.
• July 2006: Creating large indoor mural at Orston school exploring images associated with the sea and seaside.
• 2005 – present: several wax resist / stitched textile works exhibited at Squeak Restaurant, Nottingham.
• 2004: commission for Next Stage, with artist Jessica Kemp, to create a huge processional puppet of Robin Hood and Maid Marian.
• Nov 2001 - April 2002: commission to create “Not Tonight Josephine” - a life-size female fabric puppet for The Wrong Audreys Theatre Company, in Newcastle upon Tyne (a Them Wiffies project) to be used in workshop processes with adult women with learning disabilities. Puppet is still in constant use.