People

Owen Griffiths
Owen Griffiths is an artist, workshop leader and facilitator. His practice is centred around participatory processes which empower and explore collaborative working methodologies that challenge power and the normativity of engagement and regeneration practices. His work is connected to ways of re-thinking being and coming together in order to create new forms of resistance; exploring climate and social justice, food systems and pedagogy.

In 2014 he was a British Council Fellow USA working with artists and community growing networks in California. In 2016 Griffiths was awarded Creative Wales Ambassador role by Arts Council of Wales researching land use, community and participation through placemaking, food systems and regeneration. He has developed projects with 1418 Now, National Museum Wales, Cultural Olympiad, Social Services, Natural Resources Wales, Schools, Housing Associations, HM Prison Services, as well as galleries, cultural organisations and local authorities. Between 2017 -19 he was a co-director of Gentle/Radical a community arts and social justice project in Cardiff. He is a graduate of the School of Walls and Space at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen and an affiliate of the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University. Griffiths is 2017-19 artist in residence at St Fagans National Museum of Wales. He leads two long-term community projects; GRAFT a soil-based syllabus - an alternative community garden at the National Waterfront Museum and The Trebanog Project a community cultural regeneration project working with Artes Mundi.

www.aboutreconnection.com


Sophie Hope
Sophie works full-time as a lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London in the Film, Media and Cultural Studies Department on the MA in Arts Management where she teaches arts policy and cultural theory. Her practice-based research explores histories and experiences of cultural democracy, socially engaged art and community arts (e.g. Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse podcast series with Owen Kelly and 1984 Dinners), the language and labour of commissioned art (e.g. Performative Interviews, Social Art Maps and Cards on the Table card game) and physical and emotional relationships to work (Manual Labours with Jenny Richards).

Sophie also writes about and facilitates workshops to support the development of practice-related PhDs (see Corkscrew) and the ethics of employability in the cultural sector (e.g. Critical Work Placements).

www.sophiehope.org.uk

Rose Hatcher
Rose Hatcher is the founder and director of the Fish Factory Art Space in Penryn, Cornwall. Inhabiting a large warehouse, this artist led project space incorporates artist studios, a gallery, vegan cafe and community space. Working in a variety of roles Rose has also facilitated a large number of satellite projects and worked with other curators to produce a wide range of projects including international residencies and multi-site festivals. The focus of the Fish Factory has been making workspace and opportunities accessible and interesting to diverse groups and promoting positive social action and experimental practice.

In her visual arts practice Rose Hatcher explores the idea of the materiality of the image as object in contrast with the ephemeral, yet ever present digital condition. Her technique involves the manipulation of paper and the re-photographing of images. It throws into question the use of digital techniques and the loss of tactility in modern culture.

www.fishfactoryarts.com
rosehatcher.tumblr.com



Anthony Schrag
Anthony Schrag was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in the Middle East, UK, Canada and is currently based somewhere in Scotland.

He is a practising artist and researcher who has worked nationally and internationally, including residencies in Iceland, USA, Canada, Pakistan, Finland, The Netherlands and South Africa, among others. He works in a participatory manner, and central to his practice is a discussion about the place of art in a social context. His work examines the relationship between artists, institutions and the public, looking specifically at a productive nature of conflict within institutionally supported participatory/public art projects.

He has been the recipient of numerous awards including The Hope Scot Trust, Creative Scotland, British Council, the Dewar Arts Award, the 2011 Standpoint Futures: Public residency award, as well as a Henry Moore Artist Fellowship.

The artist Nathalie De Brie once referred to his practice as 'Fearless'. The writer Marjorie Celona once said: ‘Anthony, you have a lot of ideas. Not all of them are good.’

www.anthonyschrag.com