About my Practice
I am a visual artist, curator-producer and educator, with over fifteen years experience in socially engaged approaches to practice. I am interested in how art can be used as a collective experience to promote care for the people and places around us. I work closely with grassroots groups, local charities and health organisations to explore ideas of regeneration, identity, memory and environmental change.
My practice uses collaborative and play-based methods of making, often using the accessible medium of photography and alternative photographic processes as a starting point. The works may then develop into textiles, installations, creative writing, moving image or publications, depending on the interests and focus of the people I am working with.
I have undertaken residencies and developed longterm partnerships with organisations including Allotment Society UK, NHS England, Centre Point, Open Eye Gallery, CCA Glasgow, Age UK and Manchester Histories, and a recent commission, Human Library Project, with Step Up Mcr, which was shortlisted for the Manchester Culture Awards 2025.
Another example of my longer term collaborative work is with the Many Hands Craft Collective (a grassroots older adult group based at Victoria Square, Northwards Housing Association building). For the past ten years, we have explored arts and craft as an activist tool. Between 2016-2018 the group collaborated with me on a Masters by Research project (Present and Continuous) exploring the role of photography as a socially engaged arts practice. The project resulted in an exhibition at Manchester Craft and Design Centre and a photographic publication launched at the Bound Book Fair in 2020. I continue to work with the group and other guest artists today.
I am currently developing more sustainable and regenerative approaches to my arts practice, motivated not only by the climate emergency we find ourselves within, but also since becoming a mother with a hyper awareness of what we are leaving behind for future generations. This includes a six-year long body of work focusing on the declining health of rivers in the UK, and local communities relationship to and aspirations for our waterways.
I am currently undertaking a part time PHD at the University of Salford, exploring the potential of socially engaged approaches to engagement between cultural sectors and higher education where I hope to bring all aspects of my practice together. I am also a proud member of POST photography collective
For a full CV or for more information please feel free to email me here
You can also find out more about my curatorial and producer work via www.wewioraandbooth.com
