Short Read.
b.1982
Andrew Wilson (he/him) is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne UK, a studio holder at The NewBridge Project, a steward for the community co-operative Dwellbeing Shieldfield, and a member of West End Housing Co-op.
Working both individually and in collaboration with many other artists, individuals, groups, and organisations Andrew’s work results in slow, invested, and thoughtful projects with a specific interest in alternative social, political, and economic possibilities, the collective experience of joy, and peer-led models of support and education.
Outcomes often include publications, events, workshops, drawings, recordings and more recently film and archive. Andrew’s work is best known for the relationship between these specific outcomes and the multiple opportunities for encounter they provoke.
Longer Read.
Andrew is currently undertaking period of research and development to identify potential for a community-led media in the north-east of England. This work involves making connections with appropriate individuals, groups, and organisations to develop relationships, ideas, and strategy, whilst researching both existing and historic examples of community-led media within the north-east and further afield.
In 2023, in partnership with SHED, Andrew launched Learning Exchange Residencies - an artist residency opportunity offering time, space, and resource for artists based in the north-east to build connections and create potential for collaboration and co-learning. To-date artists have travelled to Nantes, hosted by Paradise and Rotterdam, hosted by Charlois aan het Water Foundation and Stichting N.A.C.
Between 2022-24 Andrew worked with grass-roots initiatives, community members, and arts organisations, in the residential area of Shieldfield on a community portrait project called 100 People. The project produced the feature-length documentary film 100 People: A Portrait of Co-existence (2023) and a community archive hosted by the community co-op Dwellbeing Shieldfield (DS) and collectively owned by its members.
In 2021 Andrew’s film This Trust Idea was screened at SIDE cinema as part of their Collective Now season alongside Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Rojava Film Commune and Unicorn Riot.
From 2019 - present, Andrew has been co-organising The Shieldfield Community Cup – an annual community event that brings together a broad mix of people and organisations via the humble act of kicking a ball about. Volunteer ran, it is free to access and encourages participation from all regardless of age, ability, ethnicity, gender, or background.
Andrew has been a member of the NewBridge Project Programme Committee on two occasions, 2014-15 and 2019-21, co-curating projects such as:
37 Pieces of Flair - a group exhibition, film season, and series of related events that examined the social and cultural context of mental health diagnosis, including contributions from artist’s Graham Dolphin, and John Smith, filmmaker Roy Andersson, researcher Lynne Friedli, and writer Mark Fisher.
The Regeneration Game - a live interpretation of the classic Saturday night TV show ‘The Generation Game’ that explored the seedy business of inner-city regeneration (and the role played by artists within this). Created by BAZ, a Birmingham based artist duo Matt Westbrook and Chris Poolman.
Two Day Conversation – a series of talks, discussions and screenings that brought together artists, arts organisations, artist-led initiatives, local authorities, funding bodies, developers, universities, researchers, and architects to explore artist’s studio models, the ecologies they create, and their social, cultural, and political contexts.
Blazing New Worlds - a programme of commissions, events, and workshops which explored current and future roles of artist-led spaces, the NewBridge Projects potential role in Shieldfield (having just moved there), as well as the physical and political shifts revealed by Covid-19.
The Hologram - the very first in-person Hologram course delivered over 3 weeks by artist Cassie Thornton and organiser Lita Wallis. One-part social practice, one part technology of revolution, and one part feminist science fiction come to life, The Hologram is a lightweight, replicable, autonomous protocol for human care and cooperation.
In 2019 Andrew undertook a two-month artist residency at ZK/U in Berlin, co-funded by The NewBridge Project and Durham University as part of an international research project. Andrew created a 30min film titled Nasa Lie the Earth is Flat No Curve which has been screened in several cities including: Berlin, Rotterdam, Leeds, and Newcastle.
In 2018-19 Andrew undertook an artist residency with Shieldfield Art Works (SAW) and initiating a project entitled North-EastEnders. Via workshops, screenings, public forum, and celebration events the programme supported residents diverse in age and ethnicity to collectively articulate their differing experiences of the neighbourhood via a series of co-created short films.
In 2016 Andrew co-initiated the citizen-led civic media project We Are Our Media - which created a broad range of experimental opportunities for public participation and social inclusivity in the production and consumption of tabloid journalism. Active between 2016-19 We Are Our Media supported 100+ participants and/or co-creators in more than 20x peer-led workshops or media literacy courses, producing 2x 32-page tabloid newspapers (The Eclipse), and distributing more than 28,000 copies across the North East.
In 2015 as artist duo Lloyd-Wilson (Andrew and artist Toby Lloyd) were nominated for the Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN) artists films for their long-term Artist House 45 residency in South Leeds. You can watch the video here.
Andrew has many years’ experience working as an artist with adults who experience social exclusion or marginalisation in its various forms including:
Chilli Studios - 10+ years as a sessional artist supporting the delivery of creative opportunities to adults who are, or are at risk of, experiencing mental health problems, and those who experience other forms of social exclusion within their communities.
Class of McGowan - project management and creative workshop facilitation for a project that supports adults living within a residential care home supported by Mental Health Concern.
Launchpad / The Recovery College Collective (ReCoCo) - delivering programming partnerships and peer-led opportunities with this radical mental health recovery college based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Bothe Launchpad and ReCoCo were set up to provide support for and by those with experiences of mental health and addictions.
The Art Room - temporary studio manager of the Art Room at St. Nicholas’ Psychiatric Hospital before its closure in 2009.
Andrew was born in Newcastle upon Tyne but grew-up in Kent attending St. Johns R.C. Comprehensive School in Gravesend.
After attenting an Arts Foundation course at KIAD (Kent Institute of Art and Design) in Rochester, Andrew returned to Newcastle in 2004 to undertake a BA hons in Fine Art at Newcastle University.
Aside from a 3-year stint in Leeds between 2015-17 (undertaking a live/work residency) Andrew has remained in Newcastle upon Tyne since.
Contact: Iamandrewwilson@yahoo.co.uk
