Approved: 29.11.2021

Jill Impey

Artist, Community worker, Film-maker, Lecturer / academic, Project manager

Approved: 29.11.2021

Exploring the role of the artist revealing truths, through notions of shifting borders, boundaries and thresholds; my film installations look at the formation of human identity, in relation to place, culture, art, heritage and migration. Drawing on personal experience of displacement and difference as a neurodiverse artist, the work considers location, reality and façade, inclusion and otherness, evolutionary development and the unquantifiable sublime.

Read more ...

 
 
 

Thoughts

     

    Artist Statement

    Exploring the role of the artist revealing truths, through notions of shifting borders, boundaries and thresholds; my film installations look at the formation of human identity, in relation to place, culture, art, heritage and migration. Drawing on personal experience of displacement and difference as a neurodiverse artist, the work considers location, reality and façade, inclusion and otherness, evolutionary development and the unquantifiable sublime.

    My practice strives to make manifest the interconnectivity between humans, nature and wellbeing. I have a participatory process, based in research, encouraging engagement through the handling and creative interpretation of historic artefacts, contemporary artworks and natural found objects, that often relate to a social and sensory archaeology of place and time. This process culminates in filmed and recorded interviews and collaborative artworks. In exhibition these recordings are often juxtaposed with audiovisual installations and representations of natural phenomena in heritage or unusual exhibition spaces, and re-activated by residencies or workshops. My gently inclusive workshops bring together diverse individuals in expressive creative activity, within stimulating curated environments, to draw, print, respond through words, photography, film and sound recording. In some of my work I assume a prerformative persona, using costume and props to heighten thematic links and investment in the experience. I am a Reiki and Shiatsu practitioner, with a holistic approach to wellbeing and self-development.

    My aim and ambition is to further develop collaborative working around the decolonisation of the museum and further research inclusion and inclusive practices to build into my projects.

    CV & Education

    Work 

    2012- present: Artist in film, installation and participatory practice

    2014- present: member of re:collect, contemporary artists working in heritage contexts

    2015-present: Co-Director & founder ofParticipate Contemporary Artspace CIC

    2016-present Creative Practitioner for Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, Meadow Arts 

    2003-2015, Course Leader & Lecturer UAL AB L3/4 Diploma in Art & Design,Shrewsbury College

    Qualifications

    Bronze & Silver Arts Award Assessor 2017 

    Iatsu (Shiatsu) and Reiki, Level 2 practitioner 2016 & 2017

    Masters in Fine Art with Merit, Staffordshire University 2008-2010

    PGCE, University of Wales, 2006

    City & Guilds 7307 Further and Adult Education Teachers Certificate, 2002, Leicester College

    TEFL – Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Bradford College, 1995

    BTech Hons. 2:1- Textile Design, Science & Technology, Bradford University, 1981-85 with Industrial placement

    Funded Projects:

    2022-23 The Weather Report : Inclusion, Colaboration, Connection, ACE Funded film tour with performative engagement workshops, UK and New Zealand, culminating in the development of a decolonisation and inclusion, tool-kit.

    2018-2021 The Weather Report, ACE funded in 2020, a curated a creative space (online or live) in which people from coastal and immigrant communities (in England in 2021 and New Zealand in 2018) reflected on relationships with heritage. They explored feelings about the weather, the sea, immigration, colonisation and notions of connection and took part in recording sessions that contributed to a film.  Hosted by Lucida Impey, a mental health nurse just returned in 1948, from New Zealand. 

    2020 Participate Contemporary Artspace CIC, Getting Out There, COVID19 funding from ACE and Shropshire Council to support the gallery and studio artists to deliver online exhibitions and workshops during the lockdown period and beyond.

    2017- 2018 The Beat of The Butterflies’ Wings, Tour of Midlands, ACE: Intergenerational project focusing on the importance of self-expression on wellbeing, & reflecting on the words of Wilfred Owen

    2018, An Undertaking…..re:collect collaboration, St. Chads Church, Shrewsbury, Mentored project, ACE 

     2016- 2017, The Beat of The Butterflies’ Wings, ACE : Intergenerational project exploring and sharing  thoughts and experiences of war & peace through creative expressive processes, interpreting stimuli from a travelling collection of contemporary artworks.

    2014-2016, Curiosity, re:collect interventions, ACE: re:collect site responsive exhibition with a touring Cabinet of Curiosity

    2012-2014, beinghuman, cultural identity project, ACE : project involving young people in a contemporary art and heritage context. in partnership with Wolverhampton Art Gallery, The New Art Gallery Walsall and the new Museum & Art Gallery in Shrewsbury 

    Commissions:

    2019-20 Creative Conversations , 2 films of participant engagements with creative wellbeing workshops for the over 55’s developing digital and analogue skills.

    2019-20 The Elephant in the Room, film & Installation for National Trust Powis Castle

    2018-19, Cinderloo 1821, film and schools workshops, Heritage Lottery Funded, Telford

    Exhibitions:

    2021-2022, Cinderloo1821, group and community exhibition, Museum of Iron, Ironbridge, Shropshire

    2021-2022, Winter Exhibition, Visual Arts Network, Shrewsbury

    2021-2022, Arts and Crafts Exhibition 2021 , Qube, Oswestry

    2021, Refugee Week Exhibition, Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury 

    2021, the Weather Report, Shropshire Supports Refugees, Shrewsbury

    2021, The Weather Report, National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth

    2021, Windows of Light, an exhibition by Participate Studio Artists to be viewed through the windows, Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury

    2021, International Postcard Show 2021, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, online group exhibition

    2021, Second Sight : light through the trees, The Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury and Participate Contemporary Artspace online group exhibition for The Darwin Festival

    2020, Light, Participate Contemporary Artspace, online group exhibition

    2020, Hereford First Fridays, Hereford’s a Great Place, online group exhibition

    2020 ?Dot?Dot-Dash, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, online group exhibition

    2019-20 The Elephant in the Room, film & Installation for National Trust Powis Castle

    2019, Scaffolds of Nature, Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury  

    2019, Encounters, VAN Gallery, Shrewsbury

    2019, You, me and those who came before, Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury 

    2018  The First Casualty of War, Tile museum, Ironbridge, & Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury

    2018 The Weather Report, workshops & recording in Raglan and Kafia, North Island New Zealand

    2018, An Undertaking…..re:collect collaboration, St. Chads Church, Shrewsbury

    2017-18 The Beat of The Butterflies’ Wings tour, Library of Birmingham , HMP Leicester, Attingham Park 

    2017 The Beat of the Butterflies Wings’  (as Part of the Big Draw 2017)Participate Contemporary Artspace

    2017, Eden………..Participate Contemporary Artspace, Open exhibition

    2016-2017, The Beat of The Butterflies’ Wings, Community Gallery, Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery 

    2016, Migration….Qube, Open Exhibition, Oswestry

    2016, Eden………..Participate Contemporary Artspace, Open exhibition

    2016, The Nature of War , re:collect  at Participate Contemporary Artspace  & St Chad’s Church 

    2015-16, re:collect, Curiosity Tour: Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury; Powis Castle; Wrexham Museum 

    2015: The Elephant in the Room Conversations ……. Powis Castle

    2015 The Elephant in the Room Conversations tour…… Participate Contemporary Artspace,Shrewsbury

    2015, The First Casualty of War is Truth, re:collect group exhibition, Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

    2015, Grand Opening, group show…Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury

    2015, re:collect, Cabinet of Curiosity Tour, Wenlock Poetry Festival

    2014/15, Curiosity re:collect interventions..Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

    2014, beinghumanproject 2014,…The New Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

    2013,  beinghumanproject2012, …Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

    2013,  beinghumanproject2012, …The New Art Gallery, Walsall 

    2012, Object Lessons, re:collect group exhibition, Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

    2012, 7 on the Severn and Wye…Mid Wales Art Gallery, Powys

    2012, beinghumanproject2012…Wolverhampton Art Gallery

    Workshops, Talks, Residencies & Presentations

    2021, the Weather Report, face to face workshops, National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth, Age UK, Plymouth, Ocean Studios, Plymouth, Take -A-Part, Plymouth, Shropshire Supports Refugees, Shrewsbury

    2020-21, The Weather Report, online workshops Age UK, Plymouth, Shropshire Supports Refugees, Shrewsbury, Hereford First Fridays, Hereford’s a Great Place

    2020, Meadow Arts, what is contemporary art? Online workshop for The Worcester Festival

    2017-2018, The Beat of The Butterflies’ Wings, Tour PCA, Library of Birmingham, Attingham Hall, HMP Leicester, resedencies and workshops 

    2016-2017, The Beat of The Butterflies’ Wings, community workshops & Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery 

    2016-17, Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury, Scour Mills, Redditch, Participate Contemporary Artspace, a range of Object analysis and printmaking workshops, (monotype, drypoint etching and colograph) 

    2016 Age UK, re:collect Cabinet of Curiosity, pilot reminiscence project, Shrewsbury

    2016 re:collect Cabinet of Curiosity, Museums for Health & Wellbeing Conference, Manchester

    2015, The Elephant in the Room Conversations at Powis Castle-workshops, talks & tours

    2015, Severn Fields Project, Arts for Health , print workshop for staff and service users

    2015, re:collect, Cabinet of Curiosity Tour: workshops; Powis Castle; Wrexham Museum 

    2015, The First Casualty of War is Truth, re:collect group exhibition, talks, Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

    2015, Curiosity re:collect interventions, workshops, talks & tours at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

    2013, New Curators Group Exhibition: Migration, at Shrewsbury Museum & Art  Gallery

    2013, re:collect, Object Lessons exhibition, 2 half day workshops, with Foundation Art & Design from Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery 

    2013, Arts Café, The Hive, Shrewsbury, Object Lessons presentation

    2012, Being Human Project 2012- 6 workshops in Galleries & Museums around the West Midlands involving young people with the Gallery/Museum collections

    2012, Talk – New Curators group at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery 

    Community & Wellbeing Workshops:  Shropshire Council DBS

    2018-present Cinderloo1821, Telford schools workshops on local social history and nature, Heritage Schools

    2020-21, Learn Telford, creative well-being workshops online and face-to-face

    2019, Creative Conversations, 12 creative media workshops for over 55’s, The Redwoods Centre & Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shrewsbury

    2018Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, commuity quilting and discussion workshops, in Hereford for Yinke Shonibare Studio and Meadow Arts 

    2018, Summer Art School, Bronze & Silver Arts Award, Participate Contemporary Artspace

    2018  IceAge Cave painting & Sound  workshops, for Meadow Arts , Hive Worcester

    2017, Summer Art School, Bronze Arts Award, Participate Contemporary Artspace

    2016, Summer, Practitioner plus, sessional paid work for NCS The Challenge, Birmingham