James Aldridge Artist
James Aldridge Artist

Living By the Ash Tree Waters

In this project with Andover Trees United, I worked with three local schools and their associated communities, to explore and learn about local chalkstreams. Together we developed activity backpacks, using the children's design ideas, which can now be used by ATU with local groups, to support them to learn more about the Andover area's rich ecological heritage.

Earthworks Project for Well City Salisbury

The Earthworks project with Wessex Archaeology for Well City Salisbury saw me working with a group of Salisbury Residents, based in Victoria Park for 8 weekly evening sessions. Together we walked out from the park to explore the local area, documenting our experiences using art, and hearing from experts in archaeology and mapping. Spring/Summer 2022

Wildlife in the Red - Wessex Museums

For the Wessex Museums Trust's Wildlife in the Red and Museum Connect projects, I was asked to create two short videos, sharing ways that groups of young people could respond to objects from museum collections during the time of Covid. The first film responded to the Donald Grose Herbarium at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, and showed how to make and use a Biodiversity Journal. In the second, I visited Salisbury Plain before making a Great Bustard mask/headdress, inspired by the stuffed Bustards at Salisbury Museum, and the Great Bustard Group's reintroduction project on the Plain. Spring/Summer 2020

Ash Tree Stream

Ash Tree Stream was an art and outdoor learning project funded by Arts Council England. Working in partnership with Andover Trees United, CAS (Chapel Arts Studios) and five Andover schools, we used art as a way to learn about Ash Trees and Ash Die Back disease, within the context of Andover's cultural and natural heritage. See here for recordings of associated online events including a panel discussion on the role of art within outdoor learning. October 2019 to December 2020.

Ebb and Flow with Wessex Archaeology

Ebb and Flow took place as part of Wessex Archaeology's events for the 2020 CBA Festival of Archaeology, the theme of which was Climate and Environment.  A film was created which followed Geoarchaeologist, Claire Mellett and myself, as we took a walk alongside the River Avon through Salisbury, exploring the relationship between the river's past and future. Alongside the main film, we produced several short films to share ways of using arts processes to document experiences of rivers (see link above). October 2020.

The Laboratory of Dissent, Winchester School of Art

The Loboratory of Dissent was a collaborative artists' residency involving a group of CAS (Chapel Arts Studios) Associate Artists, working across the Winchester School of Art site, to explore the concept of Dissent, and the theme Inside/Outside. The residency began with a symposium at which Karen Wood and I shared our Urban Rural Exchange work, and ended with an installation of artwork, experiments and performances at The Winchester Gallery. My own work explored embodied experinces of the River Itchen and the WSA architecture. November to December 2019.

Interactive Artist Walks with Karen Wood (Salisbury and London)

Two walks sharing our working practices with local people. One linked to the Urban Rural Exchange Exhibition at Spitalfields Studios, East London. The other with CAS (Chapel Arts Studios) in Salisbury, in conjunction with the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Exhibition at Salisbury Museum. October/November 2019.

Asking Andover - Artist Residency

A Living Memory project and artist residency, suporting local people to share memories of Andover through an evolving, co-curated exhibition, arts workshops and facilitated walks. A partnership project between Hampshire Cultural Trust and CAS (Chapel Arts Studios). March to August 2019.

Urban Rural Exchange

Urban Rural Exchange - a year long collaboration with London based artist Karen Wood, visiting and mapping each other's home area, leading to an exhibition at Spitalfields Studios in November 2019. My work has been supported by a bursary from A-N. November 2018 - November 2019.

Walking Back to Marden - Kings Gate Public Art Project

In Autumn 2018 I was awarded a bursary from Ginkgo Projects and Bloor Homes, as part of the Kings Gate Pubic Art Project. The bursary enabled me to develop new skills in recording and editing sound and video, in the research and exploration of the site of Marden Henge, a neolithic henge monument in Marden, Wiltshire.

Play Together, Learn Together

Play together, Learn Together was a research project set up by 5x5x5=creativity, exploring the role that creative, child-led practice could play, in supporting the transition of children between two Twerton based nurseries (First Steps Twerton and Twerto Infant School Nursery) and Twerton Infant School. I and fellow artist Catherine Lamont Robinson, together with musician Beth Vleminckx, were resident in the two nurseries in Spring/Summer 2018, before Catherine and I 'moved up' with the children to work alongside them and their Reception teacher in the Autumn Term.

Celebrating Age - Bringing the Outside In

A workshop that I ran for Celebrating Age with a Wiltshire older people's group, bringing fresh herbs, autumn leaves, shells and other natural objects inside and exploring them with clay and mark-making. (2018)

Andover Community Engagement with CAS

Working with local people through the Test Valley District Council's Four Fun Fridays street festival, together with fellow CAS associate artists and Andover Museum, from a base of The Bus of Many Things. Supporting the local community to remember significant local events to add to a timeline of Andover's past, imagining new places and buildings to add to a Future Andover town centre, and sending A Post Card to Andover, to share their favourite things about the town. (2018)

School Without Walls with St Andrews Primary School

During the Summer Term of 2018 I worked with St Andrews Primary's Year 4 children, as part of School Without Walls. The project focused on learning through creative engagement with green spaces and the built heritage of the city, through partnerships with and visits to a number of cultural organisations, including The Holburne Museum, The Museum of Bath Architecture and The Museum of Bath at Work.

#ArtAfterTurner - Willis Museum and Basingstoke College of Technology

Responding to the Turner and the Sun exhibition, with Foundation, BA and MA students from Basingstoke College, and the Winchester School of Art. Commissioned by the Hampshire Cultural Trust, with progress shared throughout the project on Instagram, and a final exhibition at The Willis Museum, Basingstoke. (2017/18)

Block_Chain>The Power of Two

A two-week, collaborative online residency, curated by Susan Francis for Chapel Arts Studios, the Block_Chain>The Power of Two structure saw pairs of artists responding to each other in a chain of unfolding creative dialogue.

 

My work, alongside fellow artist Ben Huntley, explored the presence and absence of barriers, both physical and perceptual, in an effort to go #BeyondTheBinary. See #BlockChainDissentArt on Instagram for more. (2018)

Celebrating Age - Lanfear Close Sheltered Accomodation, Amesbury

A project with Celebrating Age, supporting older people to come together and share memories of favourite places, culminating in an exhibition of collaged artwork in the communal lounge. (2017)

Hawkwood College - Research Residency

A two-week residency at this residential college near Stroud, making work in response to the local environment, and personal themes of childhood memory, fatherhood and bereavement. (2017)

Making Memories - First Steps Nursery at Secret Garden, Salisbury

A creative outdoor learning project for children from 6 months to 4 years old, at a local community garden, with integrated cpd for staff, events for parents, and an exhibition at Salisbury Arts Centre. (2017)

School Without Walls - St Saviours Infants and The Museum of Bath at Work

Artist residency for School Without Walls at St Saviours Infant School in Bath, visiting and responding to the Museum of Bath at Work, and supporting the children to explore the relevance of collections to their own lives. (2017)

Green Town Group Residency - MK Gallery

18 month residency working with local primary schools at a park and an ancient woodland, and with local families at the MK Gallery, to explore and learn about local green spaces. With associated cpd for teaching staff, and exhibition 'The Art of Outdoor Learning' (2016/17)

History of Place at The Guild of Brave Poor Things

A day's workshop, supporting volunteers on this disability heritage project, to access and respond creatively to The Guild of Brave Poor Things in Bristol, a building that they had been researching via the archives. (2016)

 

The projects and residencies detailed above have been selected from 2016-22, and have now come to an end. Current projects can be seen on the NEWS page.

 

You can download a copy of my c.v. from the News and Contact page for further examples of past work, or email me to find out more.

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