Posts in Artist Development
Pig Walk Parade

Pig Walk Parade is Urban Wilderness CIC’s flagship annual community event in Stoke-on-Trent — a playful, participatory procession celebrating place, creativity and collective imagination.

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Winter Gathering

Winter Gathering is Urban Wilderness CIC’s annual seasonal celebration — bringing communities together through light, creativity and shared ritual during the winter months.

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In the Balance

In the Balance is an artist-led programme by Urban Wilderness CIC that explores the intersections of art, environment, and community. Through workshops, talks, walks, performances, and immersive experiences, it invites audiences to engage with complex ecological and social questions while revealing the thinking behind the artwork.

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Giant Lantern Puppet Masterclass - Andrew Kim

Urban Wilderness CIC hosted a Giant Lantern Puppet Masterclass with Andrew Kim, where artists and volunteers designed and built large-scale puppets for the Winter 2025 production, developing skills in puppet making and performance.

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Supporting the Stoke-on-Trent People’s Parade

Urban Wilderness CIC delivered an artist development commission supporting local artist Daby Obiechefu, adapting costumes from the Pig Walk Parade to create the Blooming Longton section of the Stoke-on-Trent People’s Parade, with schools and volunteers participating.

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Living Mythologies - Urban Wilderness commission

A participatory artist commission by Urban Wilderness CIC in Badgers Wood, part of the National Forest, exploring wellbeing, creativity and connection to place with young people living with long-term health conditions.

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Threads of Kindness

A community-led making project inviting volunteers to create handmade gifts for café owners in Longton, building welcome, connection and belonging through shared creativity.

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Where Are the Trees? Where Are the Birds? - Raphael Daden

Urban Wilderness CIC commissioned sculptor Raphael Daden to create a Sky Works canopy installation in Longton, combining light and birdsong to explore the absence of nature in the town centre and reimagine the public realm after dark.

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Artist Training - Tim Davies

Urban Wilderness CIC hosted a two-day professional workshop with inflatables designer Tim Davies, training local artists to design and build large-scale inflatable props for carnival and outdoor arts.

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Garden of Possibilities

Urban Wilderness CIC co-created the Garden of Possibilities with young people from 42nd Street for the National Trust’s Castlefield Viaduct — a quiet, restorative space shaped by youth voice and urban nature.

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Mapping Our Space

Delivered in partnership with PiCL, this Urban Wilderness CIC project supported Reception pupils at Sutherland Primary School to reconnect with outdoor play after lockdown through weekly exploration, storytelling and creative making.

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How to Say Goodbye to a Power Station – Dana Olărescu

A socially engaged art project by Dana Olărescu responding to the decommissioning of 20th-century power infrastructure — part of Decommissioning the Twentieth Century. Using posters and community engagement, it gives voice to workers, residents and future imaginaries around West Burton Power Station.

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Museum of Possibilities - Urban Wilderness

A co-creative public art commission by Urban Wilderness CIC inviting communities to imagine what should be preserved, shared or re-imagined at the former Chatterley Whitfield Colliery — not just historic artefacts, but everyday stories, hope, and future possibilities.

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Decommissioning the Twentieth Century

A major AHRC-funded research project led by Keele University in partnership with Urban Wilderness CIC, exploring how 20th-century industrial and energy infrastructure becomes heritage — and how communities can shape that process.

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ALIGNMENT – Natalia Kasprzycka

ALIGNMENT is a material-rich installation by Natalia Kasprzycka built from Etruria marl clay, waste bricks and found objects at Burslem Port. Commissioned for The Happenings 2021, it explores slow decay, site history and the transformation of industrial landscape.

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Reconnect & Grow - Tracey Meek

“Reconnect & Grow” is a living installation by Tracey Meek at Longton Exchange (Oct-Nov 2021), pairing fungi, moss and organic materials to question our relationship with nature and propose new symbiotic ecosystems in public art.

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TRACOBAND – Lola Adodo

TRACOBAND is a choreographed outdoor dance performance by artist Lola Adodo, blending live percussion, community volunteers and historic-inspired movement. Presented at Keele University and All Saints Community Garden during The Happenings 2021.

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Arkadia – Rushton & Mallinson

Arkadia is a large-scale installation by artists Stephanie Rushton and Mally Mallinson, installed at Longton Exchange in Sept-Oct 2021. Drawing on dystopian and post-human narratives, it transforms found materials, plants and imagery to challenge our relationship with nature, consumerism and climate change.

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Grit - Sophia Hatfield

A solo performance devised by Sophia Hatfield in collaboration with women’s running groups and the Canal & River Trust, staged along the Etruria Canal on 26 September 2021 as part of The Happenings Festival of Public Art in Stoke-on-Trent.

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