Julia Heslop is an artist, writer and researcher based at The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.  She has a BA in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art and a Master of Fine Art from Newcastle University. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Human Geography at Durham University. She works interdisciplinarily across the boundaries of art and architecture and it often takes the form of large scale architectural installations, cross art-form performances and video.

The potentials for deep participation in the urban environment are at the centre of her practice and she often works in participatory ways with groups and communities. She often works in slow ways with groups over many months. Her most recent work aims to translate knowledge across borders, mobilising methods of participation in housing and planning from Albania to the UK to examine whether participation in the urban realm offers a progressive stance on the shaping of homes and the urban environment. Through a critical examination of self-build housing and upgrading processes in one informal community in Albania, she translated knowledge and practices from this neighbourhood to Newcastle and co-created a self-build housing prototype working with individuals in housing need.