Artists’ Graft

The event is a hybrid talk, involving five speakers: Theresa Easton, Ewan Mackenzie, Dr Susan Jones, Tom Hopkin and Kat Bevan. Each speaker will have 15 minutes for their presentation, followed by 5 minutes for Q&A.

In art worlds where creativity meets uncertainty, five voices come together to explore what it means to practise and make a living as an artist in the North East. 

Dr Ewan Mackenzie is a musician (Dextro and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) and lecturer in Work and Employment at Newcastle University.

Ewan will be presenting on his ongoing research into hope labour and liminalities in cultural and creative work. This research explores the power relations that shape the lived experiences of creative life and work against a background of intersecting structural crises, with a view to reclaiming hope for democratic and collective ends. 

Dr Susan Jones is an independent researcher and commentator specialising in close examination of interrelationships between artists and the infrastructures for the contemporary visual arts and culture. 

Susan will be presenting research on the ‘cultural credibility gap.’ In-depth study of artists’ lives has identified the disjunction between government’s creative industry ethos and contemporary visual arts organisations’ business models and the conditions most supportive of visual artists’ resilience over a life cycle.

Kat Bevan is an artist with a background in visual and community-based practice and a PhD student in Cultural Sociology at Northumbria University.

As government policy increasingly targets health inequalities, artists delivering participatory creative health projects are recognised as playing a key role in these efforts. Kat’s research asks: how does this work affect the artists’ own health? Her findings contribute to her ongoing PhD exploring the intersection of participatory arts, health inequalities, and local cultural development.

Dr Tom Hopkin is a musician (Louse and KNYF) and co-founder and co-director of The Lubber Fiend, a Grassroots Music Venue opened in Newcastle, in 2022.

Theresa Easton: As a co-founder of Artists Union England and a previous regional organiser with the trade union, representing members during disputes with employers and commissioners, I have always been interested in the ethics of care and artists with a socially engaged practice. As austerity continues to erode publicly subsidised socially engaged projects, how can we as a sector ensure best practice for artists, participants and organisations?

This event is part of Northumbria University's contribution to the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2025, funded by UKRI.

Artwork by Joe Munsey (@munseydesign, https://www.instagram.com/munseydesign/)

Kat Bevan, PhD student researching Creative Health and health inequalities

Dr James O’Keeffe, KTP Associate in Mechanical Engineering

All Welcome

This event is of particular interest to:

Artists and creative practitioners, who are navigating questions around sustainability, resilience, and health in their practices.

Arts organisers and organisations, who play a key role in shaping and supporting local arts ecosystems.

Arts funders, whose strategic decisions impact on how artists’ practices are resourced and supported.