About
Julia Heslop is an artist based at The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She has a BA in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art, a Master of Fine Art from Newcastle University and a PhD in Human Geography at Durham University. She is currently a Newcastle University Academic Track (NUAcT) fellow in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. She works interdisciplinarily across the boundaries of art and architecture and her work often takes the form of large scale architectural installations, painting and printmaking and video. The potentials for deep participation in re(creating) environments and landscapes are at the centre of her practice and she often works in participatory, slow ways with groups and communities. She uses her work to ask questions about the ecological impacts of development, land and property ownership, housing precarity, urban planning and local democracy.
She is a trustee of The NewBridge Project and co-founder of the co-operative Dwellbeing Shieldfield.
Residencies
2022: Festival van het Andere Theater (FAT), Leiden, Netherlands
2018: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Bothy residency, Isle of Eigg, Scotland
Teaching
Present: School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University
2013 - 2016: Geography Department, Durham University
2010 - 2012: Fine Art Department, Newcastle University
Awards
2021: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Bursary
2021: Newcastle University Pioneer Award
2021: Place and Engagement Fund, Newcastle University
2019: Faculty Impact Fund, Newcastle University
2019: Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal Grant, Newcastle University
2018: Social Justice Fund Grant, Newcastle University
2017: Centre for Social Renewal Grant, Newcastle University
2016: Centre for Social Justice and Community Action small grant award, Durham University
2016: ESRC DTC Impact Award for Protohome
2015: ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Award
2014: Institute for Hazard, Risk and Resilience small grant, Durham University
2014: Second Prize for ReCall: Beyond Memorialisation project. See project here and here.
2014: NCL Plus Award, Newcastle University
2013: Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral funding
2012: Bartlett Travel Bursary, Newcastle University
2011: Bartlett Travel Bursary, Newcastle University
Selected talks and presentations
2021: People, Profits, Prospects, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
2021: UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference
2009: The Shieling Project, Archifringe, Inverness
2009: Reorganising Cultural Organisations, BALTIC 39, Newcastle
2018: Teesside Together, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough
2018: Art and Housing Struggles Conference, London
2018: In Certain Places Symposium, Preston - Speaker
2017: Housing Study Day, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough
2016: Royal Geographical Society Conference, London – Session organiser, chair and speaker
2016: Governance and Self-Governance ESRC Seminar series, Newcastle University
2016: The Maverick City Symposium, Liverpool Playhouse
2016: Protohome, Newcastle upon Tyne
2016: European Community Led Housing Network, Brussels
2015: Speaker Durham Moot, Durham
2015: The American Association of Geographers Annual Conference, Chicago
2014: The Northern Correspondent Discussion, Newcastle
Education
2013 - 2017: PhD in Human Geography, Durham University
2010 - 2012: Master of Fine Art, Newcastle University
2005 - 2009: BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting & Printmaking, Glasgow School of Art
2007: Pratt Institute, New York, USA
Commissions
2022: Grains to Tyne, Commission for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art for ‘What’s for Tea’, Travelling Gallery
2021-22: Lines of Enclosure, Commission for Lancaster Arts
2018: Gathering commissioned by the Hatton Gallery
2018: Protohome commissioned by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art for 'Idea of North' exhibition.
2013: Traversing the Round commissioned by the Maison de la Culture, Amiens, France for the 'Art, Cities and Landscape' festival. See festival brochure here.
Selected exhibitions and projects
Jul 2022: Waardig, Festival van het Andere Theater (FAT), Leiden, Netherlands
Feb - Jul 2022: What’s for Tea, (commission) Travelling Gallery, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Sep 2017 - Sep 2022: Dwellbeing Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne
Sep - Nov 2021: Prospect Us, Shieldfield Art Works, Newcastle upon Tyne
Jun - Jul 2021: New Perspectives, Lancaster Arts, Lancaster
Dec 2020: A Winter Solstice, podcast for Star and Shadow Radio. Listen here.
May - Jul 2019: One Hundred and Thirty Million Pounds of Earth, Shieldfield Art Works, Newcastle upon Tyne
Sep 2018 - Feb 2019: Gathering, (commission) for Exploding Collage, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
May - Sep 2018: Protohome, (commission) for Idea of North, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
May - Aug 2016: Protohome, Newcastle upon Tyne
Jan 2016: Four Words, Liverpool Media Wall, Liverpool
May - Jun 2015: Urban Organisms, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne
Aug 2014: The Spider Web City premiere at Uncharted Festival, Ali Pasha Castle, Porto Palermo, Albania
Apr-May 2014: ReCall, Nordic Embassy, Berlin. See results here and here.
Sep 2013: No Map, Only Memory, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Lisbon, Portugal
Feb – Jun 2013: Traversing the Round, (commission) Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, Amiens, France
Sep 2012: REcall, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy
Aug - Sep 2012: Master of Fine Art Degree Show, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Oct 2011 – Mar 2012: You Can Take It With You, Chester (for Chester Performs), Liverpool Playhouse and The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne
Sep 2009: Brigadoon, Southside Studios, Glasgow
Jul 2009: Kill Your Darlings, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
Jun 2009: The Glasgow School of Art Degree Show, Glasgow
Articles and reviews
2022: Cultured North East: Review of ‘What’s for Tea?’
2022: EPOCH: ‘Lines of Enclosure’
2019: The Chronicle: Review of 'One Hundred and Thirty Million Pounds of Earth'
2019: Corridor 8: Review of Shieldfield Art Works Exhibition
2016: Interview with BBC Radio Newcastle
2016: Interview with Tyne Tees News
2016: Article in The Big Issue
2016: ‘Home Truths’, article for The Northern Correspondent
2015: Interview for Cerrojo Urbano
2015: 'Predicaments: Unresolved and overlapping (a response)' in South Leeds Life
2015: 'Art, Cities and Landscape' publication
2014: Interview in The Northern Correspondent, Issue 1
2013: 'Self-build in a time of austerity', article for The New Left Project
2013: 'Social Spaces: Open for Business?', article for 'Convention, Habit or Custom' publication.