Testimonials

At the time of the ceremony I was in the middle of preparing for my first solo show and was struggling to give the making as much time as I wanted and the award allowed me to give as much time as needed to focus. Those moments in my studio, with both the rent for my home and studio paid, with time to make, was blissful and only possible because of the award. I remember feeling overwhelming waves of gratitude. At the end of my fellowship year I find myself surer and more ready to develop my practice in the ways that feel most fulfilling to me.

The past 12 months as an Arts Foundation Fellow have felt like a blessing after blessing, from being nominated, to winning, being featured on the BBC and experiencing my first artist residency. This Fellowship has marked one of the most transformative milestones in my life and creative practice.

As someone whose career has largely involved responding to external briefs, the fellowship allowed me to step outside the constant rhythm of working to someone else’s direction and gave me the rare opportunity to explore what it means to make work on my own terms.

When talking to people about how the fellowship changed things, and how becoming a full-time musician changed things I used this concrete example: My first full-length project took me 4 years to complete in the midst of full-time nightlife employment, 2023 saw me complete 2 full-length projects and an EP, one of those full-length projects releasing this year on the label that I was aiming to end up on 10 years down the line. 

Receiving the fellowship has enabled me to dedicate all my efforts to Resting Reef full-time, allowing me to fully immerse myself in its evolution. Having the freedom, space, and time to be creative is a privilege, and I am very grateful that the award has afforded me this opportunity over the past year.

As well as the financial and practical aspects of the award, my focus, drive and confidence as a writer have been boosted by this very generous fellowship and helped me feel less of the ‘imposter syndrome’.

It’s been great to receive recognition of my career in art so far, and for the body of work I’ve created to be celebrated. There have been a few shaky moments over time where I thought about giving up on art and doing something else entirely, but milestones like this remind me to press on with doing what I love and that my work is not going unnoticed. 

This transformation changes my practice and outlook, there is a confidence that comes from my yearning to experiment and push beyond what I have known or done before.

The award was a huge honour and a massive boost to my confidence… The money was a huge help, easing the anxiety that is so often there humming away in the background around ‘how am I going to pay my rent next month.’ To be able to live more openly and courageously as ideas are explored.

Being awarded the Arts Foundation Music For Change Fellowship was a very proud moment in my career to date, one that has led me onto an even broader and more exciting artistic journey. Music can absolutely make a change in society, and to be awarded such a fellowship shows that my work is moving others in a positive way. In terms of my artistic career, the unrestricted financial support enabled me to develop my musical skills and also build out my wider artistic practice. It has also given me the time and space to approach artists from other fields for collaboration.

The fellowship allowed me time and space to ponder ideas and experiment with materials in the knowledge that I had been cushioned by this award financially. I used to work on one idea to the next in more of a linear way. Right now I am working on 5 ideas simultaneously. The award has given me a boost in confidence, which will have a long-lasting impact on my practice. I am already noticing that my projects are becoming more ambitious because of it.

The Arts Foundation Fellowship has been an enabler in many ways, and I cannot express my gratitude enough. In a time when the cost of living is drastically rising, it felt essential to have the Arts Foundation's support in furthering my practice and career, engaging in meaningful collaborations and spending relevant time on non-commercial aspects of my work." 

It is amazing to have a chance to delve into a passion project like this and am so grateful for the opportunity this award has given me. I feel like I have really advanced my composing practice."

With the Arts Foundation support, I have managed to successfully pursue the vision of being able to further evolve the development and the implementation of novel living biomaterials for applications in our cities. Projects such as Indus, if successful will spearhead an era where we 'design for behavior change'.

Across the past ten months, the £10,000 Arts Foundation Futures award Fellowship has transformed my career as a visual artist in myriad ways. From the effect that such a substantial and sudden injection of capital has had on my mental wellbeing, providing me for the first time since leaving home with a solid, financial safety net, to the sense of validation and boost in confidence that the accolade of becoming a fellow has afforded me.

Receiving the nomination for the first Theatre-Maker award was a blessing alone. I was genuinely stoked to be shortlisted amongst such brilliant artists. When I received the news that I was the recipient of the full award I was blown away. I could not have asked for a better start to my year. 

I am currently writing this letter from Hawthornden Castle in Scotland, where I am in residence as a writing fellow until early October. I was able to take this month-long residency because I was in a position to turn down paid work. This has allowed me to get a first draft – 46,000 words – of Greyhound down on paper.

Having this money I have felt an enormous privilege, I knew I wouldn’t have to panic about my rent, I was able cover the cost of London studio rent even though my collaborator with whom I previously shared this with was injured and unable to use the space, it’s helped me to cover the costs of two storage units where I keep sculptures for performances.

Being nominated in the ‘Comics’ category - by peers - was a huge boost to my confidence. This year, for the first time, I began to set myself maximum limits on the amount of teaching I took on, to retain time for drawing and research - something I am keen to keep up, and find ways to make sustainable in the long-term.

This past twelve months of my Arts Foundation Fellowship year has been an extraordinary one - between expanding my brand, building on my portfolio and responding to the current crisis, I have been extremely busy!

I was keen to develop my material research around the re-use and re-cycling of materials, therefore I used the fellowship funding to travel up North to meet with Professor Parik at the University of Huddersfield who I was put in contact with through YSP. His research in bioplastics and technical textiles was fascinating and we had important and inspiring conversations around touch, sustainability and material manipulation amongst other things.

For some time, I have felt an urge to experience ritualistic performance. My intuition was that this kind of performance would deepen my sense of the origins of theatre and of our need to create visible forms through the body, set elements, costumes or whatever the devices may be, to describe the world within us.

Seeing my work recognized in this way amongst a selection of peers was powerful and restorative. Before seeing it I’d been seriously contemplating my ability to return to my arts practice, yet the nomination gave me hope to persevere through what was personally a very difficult time.

My time was spent exploring how advances in biotechnology and engineering can be applied to everyday objects and architecture to increase the quality of our lives.

For me, the award was not simply a financial support, but supportive in the sense that it acknowledged my work and efforts which sometimes are so unbelievably alienating in the process of producing.

With the prize money I was able to buy a bigger kiln, new burner and a new, better extraction hood. The kiln allowed me to make bigger work and I used it for a number of these new neon pieces. The more powerful extraction system enabled me to do further experiments with applied lustre and work in a more healthy studio environment.

With the Arts Foundation Award behind me I made the step I otherwise would not have been able to do and entered entirely into independent working.

Thanks to this fellowship I could dedicate half of my weekly time to the development of the first “living and breathing chandelier” using the new BioSolar Leaf as light diffusers.

For me, along with the crucial financial wage the fellowship afforded me, was the time it gave me to really sit and think about a new piece of music, its performance and really what I wanted to say in terms of content, subject matter, context and narrative.

As part of the application I made clear that if I won the Award I would have the opportunity to commit to my first ever solo exhibition at the renowned ARAM Gallery in London. I had never been in such a financial position to commit to such an opportunity before.