Welcome to the team!

Where are you from?

 

 

 

We are so pleased to welcome Sophie Gresswell as our first My Story, Artist in Residence. Sophie will be taking up residency at Hitchin Library this autumn.

An exciting and new aspect of our work with Hertfordshire Libraries, this new initiative is generously supported by Arts Council England and sits well within the Let’s Create strategy to ensure great art is made available and accessible to all communities, supporting everyone to develop and express creativity throughout their life.

The team at Hitchin Library are delighted to be working with Sophie and are already working on an exciting engagement programme.

‘The Hitchin Library team and I are delighted to be welcoming Sophie as our Artist in Residence; Sophie’s art and work celebrates identity, diversity and community, three things of such importance that we are honoured to host Sophie and very excited for her to engage and collaborate with the Hitchin community’
Bekah Nicolas, Library Manager at Hitchin Library

About Sophie

Sophie Gresswell is a multi-disciplinary artist using spoken word, painting, audio and digital technology to explore identity and belonging and her work sits perfectly within the participatory ethos of My Story and cocreation of art work inspired by lived experience.

Sophie works internationally and has more recently been working with local communities to create public artworks, which include a responsive public art and audio installation entitled ‘Luton Journeys’ along building hoardings in Luton and developing projected art installations for The Dunstable Centre library space.

In late 2019 Sophie wrote, animated and starred in a short film exploring mixed heritage called ‘Where are you from?’ commissioned by BBC Arts and Arts Council England as part of the New Creatives program, the film was first shown on BBC 4 in March 2020 and has since been featured in the Fringe of Colour arts festival.  Visit BBC Arts – New Creatives, Where Are You From? to enjoy this insightful piece. Please note the video contains challenging content and strong language.

In 2020 Sophie was commissioned by BBC Arts and Arts council England to develop an experimental audio piece with musician @Castelmango to develop poetry written in hospital whilst recovering from a major spinal operation.

Played on BBC Radio 6 music in July 2021, ‘Recovery’ celebrates the characters and humanity she met along the way – the care, the sparkle, the inspiration and warmth of those that shared her ward reach out of the story.

Share in Sophie’s journey through pain, morphine and exhaustion as ‘sleep devours the hours’ of her recovery.

visit www.sophiegresswell.co.uk/recovery