I have facilitated the development and delivery of high-quality arts projects with different communities since 2016. This has included co-created artworks (Govanhill Baths Community Trust, 2021-23), community consultations (Bablyon Arts and National Trust, 2023), working groups (GAMIS, 2021-22; EMBASSY Gallery 2017), place-based projects (Artlink Central, 2019-21), development programmes (Impact Arts, 2018-2019), workshops (Stellar Quines, 2022; Glasgow Sculpture Studios, 2020; Fife Contemporary 2018; MAP Magazine, 2018; Imaginate, 2017; The Art School, 2017-18) and creative resources (Newcastle University, 2019; A Moment’s Peace, 2020-21). In recent years I have also facilitated in walking together we make the path, a social dreaming inspired workshop, for organisations including Culture Collective (2023), Govanhill Baths Community Trust (2021-23), Devonshire Collective (2023) and Eastside Projects (2021). See examples of work below.
Dreamlands (2021-23) was a cross-disciplinary community research project that wove together different images, objects and ideas arising in collaboration and conversation with people in the Southside of Glasgow. The project explored how the act of sharing our dreams might create possibilities for new thought about how we organise and occupy space in our shared waking world. I developed the body of work as Govanhill Baths Culture Collective Artist in Residence, interpreting the theme of 'OCCUPY!' through socially engaged artistic practice.
The project centred two group strands - the dreamlands pottery (a collective of women from global majority backgrounds exploring themes of dreaming through working with clay), and in walking together we make the path (a monthly social dreaming workshop open to people of marginalised genders) - alongside public facing events, publications, screenings and installations.
Shahre-Farang, photo of installation at Pitlochry Theatre by Fraser Brand
Shahre-Farang (Another Birth Remix) (2022) was a Stellar Quines commissioned artwork developed in response to the play Sister Radio, written by Sara Shaarawi, directed by Caitlin Skinner and co-produced by Stellar Quines and Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
The artwork was a sculpture and sound piece that held fragments of conversations, ideas and poems from people living in the Iranian-Scottish diaspora. The voices explored feelings of rupture and repair in Farsi and English, tracing personal and political histories in relation to the play’s themes of memory, rebellion and loss.
The sculpture takes its name from the ‘shahre-farang’ tradition of storytelling using a peepshow box. ‘Shahre-farang’ boxes, popular in Iran during the 19th and 20th century, showcased pictures of Western cities, while travelling storytellers would stand behind them, weaving together tales of life outside Iran. In the sculpture designed as part of this artwork there is no peephole through which to see the ‘shahre-farang’ - both the audience and the voices housed in the box are already in the ‘Western City’.
Shahre-Farang (Another Birth Remix) features the contributions from: Roya, Sara, Laleh, Roya K, Rezvan, Mina, Aref and Mina H. The artwork was developed alongside workshop facilitator Beth Godfrey and sound designer William Aikman.
*Another Birth is a poem written by the Iranian feminist poet Forugh Farrokhzad, an extract of which is featured the sound piece.
**‘Esphand’ is a popular plant in Iranian culture, its dried seeds often burnt in conjunction with chants to ward off the evil eye. In the West, it is often considered a noxious weed, invasive and difficult to uproot. The floral pattern embossed onto the sculptural element of Shahre-Farang (Another Birth Remix) is based on the ‘esphand’ plant.
Future Artefacts workshop, photos by Erika Stevenson
Future Artefacts was a series of workshops across late 2021 and early 2022 open to women affected by asylum and immigration system. We imagined what someone might find under the ground (or water) in Glasgow in centuries to come, and thought about what it might tell them about our lives today. The project was a piece of exploratory community engagement undertaken for Govanhill Bath Community Baths and funded by Culture Collective.
Future Artefacts index, photos by Erika Stevenson
Between July 2019 and July 2021 I was Lead Artist for Camelon Arts; a three year, town-wide, participatory arts programme in Camelon, Falkirk. The project is managed by Artlink Central and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. During my time with Camelon Arts it was staffed by myself, Project Assistant Mark Bleakley and a roster of guest artists.
5 Tales of Camelon (2019) was an intergenerational schools project looking at local history. The project was a collaboration between P3s and P4s (at Carmuirs and Easter Carmuirs Primary Schools) and older residents. Oral histories from the residents formed the inspiration for the school children, who worked with the Camelon Arts team and guest artists Emma Finn, Gemma Crook and Tim Fraser to make 5 short fantastical films about the town - full of aliens, huge fishes and haunted smells.
The Big Screen was a project produced as part of the Camelon Winter Festival Weekend. It was a travelling LED video screen van that toured the streets of Camelon and Tamfourhill over 12th and 13th of December 2020, featuring local singer Dionne Hickey, community contributions from local groups and three videos made with talented residents as part of the Camelon’s Got Talent project.
In April and May 2020 Camelon Arts launched a creative activity every Monday for children in Camelon and Tamfourhill to do together while apart. We sent out over 200 Make It Monday packs with all the materials needed for each month’s four activities.
Over Summer 2019 Camelon Arts and Laura Aldridge held workshops with different Camelon and Tamfourhill residents to make over 200 Camelon Artefacts out of clay. The results were then pit-fired; a process of 'firing' ceramics at the bottom of a bonfire pit, using organic materials (such as copper wire, salt, coffee grinds and banana skins) to create patterns and colours on the surfaces of the ceramics.