Urban Wilderness CIC is a community arts organisation based in Stoke‑on‑Trent. This archive highlights key projects and events that illustrate our practice, partnerships and impact. During this period, the organisation was led by founding co-directors Laurel Gallagher, Isla Telford, and Jenny Harper. Our flagship annual events — Pig Walk Parade and Winter Gathering — are included here as recurring anchor entries, alongside other major commissions and collaborations.
Urban Wilderness CIC set a live brief for University of Staffordshire architecture students, whose bold design proposals reimagined Longton town centre. The projects were later shared with the community at The Moony Club, inspiring conversation about culture-led regeneration and future possibilities for the town.
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreUrban 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.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC were commissioned to deliver inclusive photo walks and an outdoor exhibition as part of the Under One Roof heritage project at St Mark’s Church, engaging primary school children and the local Deaf community in creative placemaking.
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreA 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.
Read More“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.
Read MoreArkadia 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.
Read MoreThe Happenings festival in Stoke-on-Trent explored small-scale, site-specific public art, activating overlooked urban spaces through creativity, care, and connection.
Read MoreTomorrowland supported young people in Stoke-on-Trent to imagine and build better futures through hands-on construction workshops and a 2021 pop-up shop offering £200 bursaries for youth-led environmental and community projects.
Read MoreMining Migrations was a collaboration between Urban Wilderness CIC, Keele University and Chatterley Whitfield Friends exploring hidden migration histories connected to Chatterley Whitfield Colliery. The exhibition was first presented at Chatterley Whitfield Nature Reserve during the Being Human Festival 2020.
Read MoreA reflective ceramics project exploring pause, return and transform, created through online and in-studio making sessions during lockdown. Clay Comrades produced raku-fired cubes that capture personal reflections from 2020 and the importance of staying connected as a creative community.
Read MoreWinter Wastelands brought together creative responses from across Stoke-on-Trent during the winter lockdown of 2020/21. Urban Wilderness CIC commissioned artists and communities to explore connection, wellbeing, ritual and resilience through public art, clay, poetry, digital portraiture and creative rituals.
Read MoreBy a Thread is a textiles artwork by illustrator Becki Kremer, combining hand embroidery and felt on transparent netting. Installed temporarily in Central Forest Park, the work reflects on the relationship between nature and humanity through a quotation from Wordsworth’s Lines Written in Early Spring.
Read MoreDiverse Landscapes is a digital photography project by Adina Lawrence, exploring heritage and identity through outdoor portraiture in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. Models wore outfits reflecting their cultural backgrounds, colour-matched to natural surroundings and photographed with minimal processing to highlight authenticity and connection to place.
Read More
