About urban wilderness cic
Urban Wilderness founding co directors Laurel Gallagher, Isla Telford and Jenny Harper are three women with a driving belief that inclusive access to high-quality art can transform people and places. Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, is now celebrated as an example of how place-based creative interventions can make significant changes personally, environmentally and economically.
Our catalogue of artist commissions which engage with green space, land use and access, and climate adaption include Wastelands and The Happenings.
We work with feminist assumptions that collaboration, care, and respective communications build progressive place-based partnerships that adapt previous power-structures for a more equitable future, for the benefit of all.
Over the past 4 years Urban Wilderness has secured funding for Longton from Arts Council England, National Lottery Community Fund, Central Government Levelling Up Fund and Stoke on Trent City Council. Established partnerships with Keele University, Shademakers, and Without Walls bring national attention to our work.
visit us at the moony club
Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during term time and by appointment during school holidays
contact
ADDRESS
The Moony Club, 15 Bennett Precinct, Longton Exchange, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, ST3 2HT
urban wilderness cic - co directors
Laurel Gallagher is a creative director responsible for education, partnerships and dissemination. A visual artist with a background in arts education, Laurel is passionate about young people’s rights to public space and creative autonomy. Laurel holds a research fellowship with the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity and co-authors research papers with academics.
Isla Telford is a creative producer and event director with a commitment to using art to invite equity of access to the public domain. Isla leads on fundraising, programme planning and project management, working closely with artists, community partners, and young people to transform concepts into artworks, events and workshops. Isla is a member of Without Walls Green Production consortium, and is Production Director of Six Towns Carnival.
Jenny Harper directs Urban Wilderness’ financial and legal processes, leads on commercial and in-house design work, exhibition installation, and strategic evaluation. Jenny is a documentary photographer interested in real stories and how people interact with each other and places. She brings our projects to life by capturing artists and communities through photography and film.
urban wilderness cic - support staff
Jay Harper, Financial management
Sarah Bonham, Event production
Charlotte Davies, Production and Programming
Val Smith, Volunteer Coordinator
Vicki McGarvey, Administrator
Blythe Taylor, Workshop facilitator
Daby Obiechefu, Workshop facilitator
urban wilderness cic - Non-Executive directors
Nicola Winstanley, socially engaged arts advisor
Charlotte Foster, media and marketing advisor
Cynthia Coady, employment advisor
URBAN WILDERNESS CIC - ADVISORY BOARD
Longton Town Forum, Community Group
Youth Forum, 8 - 17 year old Art Club members
Sarah Chevolleau, Director of Staffordshire Association for Black Lives Equality (‘SABLE’)
Susan Clarke, Executive Director of Stoke Creates
Gemma Thomas, Director of Appetite
Rowan Hoban, Director of Wild Rumpus
Chris Thompson, Chair of Foxlowe Arts Centre
Lisa Tomkinson, Community Development at Community Ventures
Martin Brown, Independent Researcher & Performance Archivist for Architecture, Culture, and Urbanism
Associate Academics
Dr Deidre McKay, Professor of Sustainable Development at Keele University
Dr Jenny Hallam, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Derby
Dr Ben Anderson, Lecturer in Twentieth Century European History at Keele University
Our Pledge
We lead with kindness, take time to listen and check in.
We work with transparency and openness.
We share knowledge, information and equipment.
We are committed to improving sustainability and tackling our planet’s Climate and Ecological Emergency.
We pay on time.
We do not appropriate, but collaborate and always credit the creative or community expert.
We celebrate and welcome diversity. We respect everyone’s different lived experiences and the benefits that can bring when we work together. We will not discriminate.
Our organisations and spaces where we work are places where everyone can trust that they are safe and can be their whole authentic selves.
We won’t always get everything right, but we will continue to listen, understand and value the concerns of people we work with.
Policies
We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders:
Urban Wilderness CIC is a partner in Without Walls, a network of organisations bringing innovative outdoor arts to towns and cities across England. Find out more on withoutwalls.uk.com."