Rural Facets

A project exploring ruralities and artist practices in collaboration with VASW. Rural Facets was a trio of gatherings for artists to network, share practice and amplify our own narratives of the rural.

Rural Facets artists’ edition coming soon, join our mailing list ( in footer) to get up-dated about launch…

Happening in the New Forest, online and at Lower Hewood Farm Rural Facets was created and convenned by artist Laura Eldret and commissioned by Visual Arts Southwest. The project is part of More Than Ponies and co-hosted with PaC artists (James Aldridge, Gemma Gore, Alys Scott-Hawkins, Melanie Rose) in June and September 2024.

The series of gatherings was for critically engaged artists who identify with the / as rural or any of it’s many facets. Intended to forge new connections, create a forum of support and celebrate contemporary rural relevancies, criticality and artistic practice- creating a community of sharing and caring. Alongside the gatherings a co-create and distribute a Rural Facets poster edition – a mapping of our creative ruralities, as an act of advocacy for rural practice and provision, a raising of artist voices that often are isolated.

Rural creative contexts are so often defined as lacking. The government define rural areas as having less people, sparse and isolated. Perpetuated rural creative practices are often distancing e.g landscapes (places faraway, over there), folk forms (from long ago). And with mainstream negative narratives of the hyper modernisation of rural places with robot run farms and trampling trespassers, Rural Facets responds to Visual Arts Southwest’s prompt ‘How can I stay?’ by accounting for and addressing: Why those who stay stay? Why those who return return; and Why those who draw from it (the rural) do? It will be celebrating our creative rural realms and finding ways to thrive.      

Together we explored ideas that readdress narratives of the rural as lesser, lacking and defined in opposition to urban places. Positioning rural concerns and practices as critical for all society, together we shared, cared and accounted for contemporary narratives of rural contexts of contemporary making, radical thinking, roaming, resistance and collaboration.

Rural Facets was a series of three events, accompanying resources and a collaborative output.

  1. On Friday 21 June (10am – 1pm) we met to walk/ roam/ traverse together in New Forest, Hampshire.  Readings and activities on ruralities were shared by PaC artists and refreshments served.

  2. On Saturday 29 June (10am – 12midday) we gathered online in an event that included a series of short presentations with guest speakers and mapping exercises for all participants to share their rural narratives and practice. This content forms the basis of the Rural Facets poster edition.

  3. On Saturday 7 September we gathered at Lower Hewood Farm in Chard, Dorset. All participanting artists were invited to shared their own artworks and research. The day included lunch and some farm-based activities.

Rural Facets was intended to allow for genuine time for participants who are invited to contribute thinking to think, share their practices and navigate this expansive area of discussion (ruralities). Rural focused reading/ watching/listening material was shared but not a demand to partake in.

What/ who are PaC?

PaC is a peer group for artists convenned by Laura Eldret. PaC: practicing acts of commons / placing artists in common / practicing artists commoning / utm. Together we walk, explore and create a commons of exchange and support to strengthen one another’s practice. Monthly meet-ups take place in the New Forest area. We enact commoning as a social practice and action, a process of forming new knowledge and collective ways of being. PaC positions the commons not as an object, but as a social relational act of care and reciprocity. PaC activities are inspired by the ancient agricultural commoning practices of the New Forest. Rural Facets model is inspired by PaC.

Access:

We recognise that experiences of the rural are informed by individual needs and identities, and the intersectional nature of these. We are keen to include a diverse range of voices at these events. If you are facing barriers to attending, financially or otherwise, please do get in touch.

The edition:

  • Rural Facets poster will be an edition collaboratively created with all participants in the gatherings.

  • It will be distributed as a print and digital edition with support from VASW.  

  • The thinking for the edition has been influenced by the wonderful Still I Rise exhibition mind-map. Designed by OOMK and Cédric Fauq (courtesy Nottingham Contemporary).

  • The edition will be edited by Laura Eldret as part of her PHD research which is being supported by UWE, Bristol.

  • All contributing artists will be named as co-authors.

  • The work will be released under a creative commons license.  

Transport and resources:

  • Sites for the gatherings are defined as accessible, please let us know if you have any particular requirements.

  • To ensure genuine accessibility we believe in the need for diverse forms of delivery and this has informed the sites of gathering. We however recognise that everyone may not be able to attend all events. We ask that participants are at least able to attend one AFK (away from the keyboard) event and the online gathering.

  • We encourage sustainable travel. Chosen sites that are close to train stations (Brockenhurst, Crewekerne and Axminster) and we have limited funds to pay for connecting taxis etc.to gathering points. We would also like to facilitate carpooling. Therefore, we would appreciate you letting us know how and in what direction you are traveling from so we can connect participants.   

  • No one pays or is paid for attending PaC events.

  • VASW funds awarded to MTP for Rural Facets is being used to pay for venues, refreshments, hosting artists’ admin and planning time, edition production costs, documentation, access requirements and other overheads.  

  • Numbers are limited, however the registration booking system is open and those booking after capacity is met will join the waiting list. Please do not book any trains etc. until you have received an email confirming your place.  

James Aldridge is a Wiltshire based artist and consultant, working with people and places. His practice uses walking and making, to research the value of embodied experiences of place, within the context of learning and wellbeing. James has previously worked with pre-schools, schools and universities to research creative approaches to outdoor learning, providing professional development for artists, teachers and education officers, and working as a visiting lecturer. In 2020 James set up Queer River, an independent research project exploring Queer perspectives on wetland futures, resulting in commissions to write, present and exhibit with organisations including The University of Glasgow, The Museum of English Rural Life, Climate Museum UK and Wessex Archaeology. He is currently carrying out a residency titled Neuro/Queering Nature at SPUD in the New Forest, and begins a new residency this summer at Groundwork Gallery, Kings Lynn.

Laura Eldret is an artist, researcher and organiser. Her installations, posters, drawings, textiles, videos and events have been exhibited internationally in major galleries worldwide. She has been awarded commissions by major art institutions and undertaken extensive projects and residencies, from England to Argentina. Laura has organised numerous exhibitions, events and conferences. She is founding director of More Than Ponies, an occasional artist-led programme of contemporary art for/about the New Forest and beyond. She was co-founder/director of CollectingLiveArt (2007-10) and was an Associate Artist on ‘Schools of Tomorrow’ at Nottingham Contemporary (2019–23). Laura is an associate lecturer at Arts University Bournemouth and she has been a guest artist at numerous other universities. In 2023 she was awarded a CATE studentship by UWE Bristol to carry out a PhD (2023–26) titled Commoning forms & practices: Productive intersections of socially engaged art, ruralities and social ecology. She is a trained permaculturist and play worker.

Laura is interested in the commonalities that bring diverse groups of people together and the productive tensions of social encounters. Drawing on methodologies of ethnography, sociology and ecology, she explores ways to affirm the value of conversation and social encounters across species. Her art and research explores how commoning can be a creative social collective practice that creates new forms of environmental care and sustainable exchanges between human and non-human ecosystems. She is concerned with establishing new values of engagement, ruralities, collective imaginations and artistic exchange that foster wellbeing, resilience, and sustainable ways of being in a time of climate emergency.

Gemma Gore is a visual artist, arts educator + writer based in Southampton. Grounded in positions of disability, motherhood and queer-ecology to probe the qualities of interconnectedness and intimacy. Gemma's practice values collaboration. Since 2021, sharing a practice with Jo Willoughby (based in Holland): from Doggerland where together we study the cultures of water. Current commissions include Photoworks and Artswork. Awarded Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice fund in 2021. Gemma exhibits work throughout the UK and beyond. Gemma is Associate Artist at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton and is Associate Art + Design Foundation tutor at OnCampus, Southampton.

Dr Melanie Rose (Tugwell) explores place through painting, she is currently Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Leeds Arts and Humanities Institute (LAHRI) with a BA Leverhulme research grant to investigate the relationships between UK regional art collections and National Parks and was the New Forest National Park Authorities Artist in Residence 2023. Melanie is currently lead curator for the forthcoming exhibition Rising Splendour: Fred Appleyard from the Royal Academy to the Itchen Valley and is a Senior Tutor at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation. She is a member of LAND2, a national network of artist/researchers and has exhibited widely with work in both private and public collections.

Alys Scott-Hawkins in an artist based in Southampton. She uses playful experiments to explore place through drawing and moving image. Alys has more than 20 years experience of university teaching and running workshops for children and adults. She is a specialist in Artist Support: working with creative people to plan projects, access resources and apply for funding.

Alys’ work has won multiple awards and been screened at more than 30 international film festivals. Residencies include MuseumsQuartier Vienna, John Hansard Gallery Southampton, and the National Media Museum, Bradford. Exhibitions include Freud Museum, Vienna, the Biennale circuit, Venice and Parasol Unit, London.

Lower Hewood Farm is a 45-acre, certified organic small-holding located on the borders of Dorset, Devon and Somerset, producing meat, vegetables and preserves for sale locally. We run a programme of arts-related events and projects in parallel with the everyday functioning of the farm. Activities take place in a range of buildings including a farmhouse, sheds, converted barns and farm buildings, as well as the surrounding land, a portion of which is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest.