CV
Exhibitions and Featured Work:
2024
- Vital Capacities residency exhibition (forthcoming, online)
- 30/30 (online) Artquest
- No Jobs In The Arts Zine Issue 8 (cover artist)
2023
- Adam Reynolds Annual Award Shortlist Exhibition Exhibited online at Shape Arts and on billboards in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow
- 30/30 (online) Artquest
2022
- From The Ground Up (guest speaker), Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge
- 30/30, (online) 12ø Collective, London
- Sick Gaze, (Solo) Level Centre, Rowsley, Derbyshire
2021
- 30/30, (online) 12ø Collective, London
- “Precarious Straights”, The Other MA & The Old Waterworks, Southend
- Oracular Theatre Install Film (subtitles), Sophie Chapman and Kerri Jeffries
- Soft Sanctuary Season Online, Human Libraries, Bootle, Sefton and Liverpool
2020
- Photography editorial, “A Journey Through Slime” for Wellcome Collection Stories”
- “Present State Examination” An exhibition curated by Morgan Quaintance and Amanprit Sandhu of DAM Projects, hosted by Turf Projects.
- “Picturing Lockdown” A photographic series commissioned by Historic England as part of their archival project. These photographs sit in an official archive held by Historic England.
- 30/30, (online) 12ø Collective, London
- Montez Press Interjection Calendar Launch live reading, Rile Space, Brussels, Belgium
- The White Pube’s Web Residency (January/February)
2019
- “Pets” The Other MA (TOMA) Project Space, The Royals, Southend-On-Sea
- “Shape Open”, Shape Arts Annual Open exhibition, Bow Arts, London
- “Hand Holding”, Montez Press Summer Radio at Cell Project Space, London - Listen to the whole show here
- Ashover Show, Derbyshire
- 30/30, (online) 12ø Collective, London
2018
- Not Words, Group show, West Studios, Chesterfield
- 30/30 (online) 12ø Collective, London
2017
“File Under Female”
- Solo Show, Kingsway Corridor, Goldsmiths University, London
- Published artwork made in collaboration with The White Pube as part of “File Under Female” distributed and exhibited across Derbyshire Library Services and made permanently accessible via the Women’s Art Library, Derbyshire Library Services and as a PDF across all libraries in England 2017
- “File Under Female” at Chesterfield Library Lecture Theatre – a panel discussion featuring Bella Milroy, The White Pube, Althea Greenan, Claire Collison
2016
- “Doom-Loop”, Solo show, Rye Attic, Nottingham
- Nottingham Trent University Degree Show (BA), Nottingham
- “Wayfaring”, Duo exhibition with Heather Hodkinson curated for Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2015
- “Sharing the Gift from Eleanor (Woven Arms)” - The Birth Rites Collection Biannual Award 2015, Media City, Salford (Winner, part of the permanent collection as of 2016)
- Alumni exhibition, “Present Futures” at Chesterfield College, Chesterfield
Curation:
2024
- Further Afield, produced in collaboration with Level Centre, a project that explores the work of disabled artists who are rurally based or whose creative practices are rooted in rural settings through a programme of interviews and written work.
2021
- Mob-Shop, An exhibition, publication, and podcast series launching in 2021 featuring exclusively disabled artists. Funded by Arts Council England and working in collaboration with 12o Collective.
2020
- Soft Sanctuary, An online edition of Soft Sanctuary hosted by the Human Library website featuring podcasts, recipes and written work.
2019
- Soft Sanctuary, Autumn Programme of artist-led workshop days commissioned by At The Library held at Bootle Library, Sefton. Commissioning exclusively disabled artists the series ran through October, November and December hosting a free lunchtime meal designed as a “Sick-Day Banquet”. A mental health colouring book commissioned as part of the programme is still available to download here.
2016
- Wayfaring, Duo show with Heather Hodkinson curated for Surface Gallery, Nottingham
Projects:
- Further Afield
Further Afield is an ambitious, disabled-led project that explores the work of disabled artists who are rurally based or whose creative practices are rooted in rural settings. It is produced in collaboration with Level Centre. The programme seeks to celebrate the work of disabled artists and question what we expect to find in rural art, striving to broaden the current understanding of what the rural embodies, who experiences it, and what kinds of art is made there.
In a series of six interviews available in audio and video format, Bella Milroy speaks with disabled artists from across the UK, exploring what living and making art in rural spaces means to them. The conversations explore topics such as barriers to access, isolation, rural infrastructure, creative community, imagination, and the desire for diverse, inclusive and accessible opportunities.
For each interview there is an accompanying text created by one of six different disabled writers. They were commissioned in response to the recordings as a way of furthering the conversation about art and disability in rural settings.
Further Afield is a project supported by Arts Council England, Level Centre, Shape Arts, Derbyshire Libraries, Haarlem Artspace, Arts Derbyshire and Wysing Arts Center. Find out more about the project, and how you can watch & listen to the interviews and read the texts, here.
- Mob-Shop
Mob-Shop is a project exploring mobility shops, mobility aids, and the devices designed for disabled and chronically ill people. The project aims to expose the concept of mobility shops in where they sit within the cultural consciousness of disabled experiences, and center them in ways that could potentially offer new and better alternatives to the dreaded, grey-beige-purgatory of how they exist today. Void of fashion, youth-culture and any form of autonomy and self-expression, Mobility Shops are a fascinating example of the excruciatingly, rigid, ableist narrative that cuts right to the heart of how society sees disabled people. Funded by Arts Council England and working in collaboration with 12o Collective, Mob-Shop launched a programme of new work in 2021 featuring exclusively disabled artists. Find out more here.
- Soft Sanctuary
Programme of artist-led workshop days commissioned by Human Libraries, held online and at Bootle Library, Sefton. Commissioning exclusively disabled artists, the series ran through October, November and December 2019 hosting a programme of live events, written essays, recipes, film & podcasts featuring exclusively disabled artists. A second iteration of the programme launched in 2021 and exists permanently on the At The Library website.
- File Under Female
File Under Female is a collaborative project created when I was artist-in-residence at the Women’s Art Library, (WAL) Goldsmiths, University of London. The project evolved during 2017 into a solo show of my work, publication and panel event.
The Conversation – The Physicians’ Most Important Tool
A keynote address at the Royal College of Physicians Annual Conference 2017 (as featured in the RCP Commentary Magazine). This speech was supported by the Royal College of Physicians as part of my work with their Patient and Carer Network, and voted top 5 speeches of the conference. You can read it here.
Artist talks and live events:
- Space / Time / Life: What the Rural Offers panel event, Wysing Arts Centre and Paul Mellon Centre, 2024
- Professional Skills Lecture, Kingston School of Art, 2024
- Inclusive Collaboration, resource presentation for FuelRCA, Royal College of Art, 2023
- Access As Practice, Into The Wild 2023 programme, 2023
- In Conversation with Carol Sorhaindo, Wysing Arts Centre, 2023
- FuelRCA: Curation and capacity with Bella Milroy, Royal College of Art, 2022
- Soft Sanctuary for Human Libraries, 2021
- Nottingham Trent University Final Year Students, Nottingham 2019
- Chesterfield College artist talk to Foundation Art & Design students, Chesterfield (2012 - 2018)
Awards:
- CVAN East Midlands Bursary for Derbyshire Artist, 2024
- Grants for the Arts funding from Arts Council England to deliver a programme of recorded interviews, written work and research, 2024
- Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England, consisting of studio-led research into how to build a more accessible and sustainable practice, 2022
- Grants for the Arts funding from Arts Council England to deliver the exhibition, publication, and podcast series for Mob-Shop, 2021
- Grants for the Arts funding from Arts Council England to deliver the exhibition, publication, symposium and on-going project, File Under Female 2017
- Winner of the Birth Rites Collection Biannual Award 2015.
Residencies:
- Vital Capacities, online, 2024
- Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn, Cambridge, 2023 - 2025 (current)
- Peak Cymru and Arcade Campfa, Abergavenny, 2023
- The White Pube’s Online Web-Residency (Jan/Feb) 2020
- Goldsmith’s Women’s Art Library, London, 2017 (carried out as part of the Birth Rites Collection Bi-Annual Award).
Bibliography:
- No Jobs In The Arts Zine Issue 8 (cover artist), 2024
- “Reclaiming Lazy”, As featured in Arcadia Missa’s “How To Sleep Faster Issue 10 2019
- “It Smells Just as Sweet (A Rose Of A Different Name)”, The Interjection Calendar for Montez Press” 2019
- “Disability Aids – Devalued by Design” and “How to talk to your doctor” for Ablezine, 2019
- “Using Economics to empower people” Guardian Letters, February 2018
- CILIP and National Libraries Week Blog 2017
- “The Conversation - The Physician’s Most Important Tool” as delivered for the Royal College of Physician’s annual conference, Medicine 2017 and featured in the RCP Commentary Magazine
Permanent Collections:
Birth Rites Collection housed at University of Kent, Canterbury.
Events and Experience:
- Artistic Associate at Level Centre 2021 - 2023
- Curator and director of Mob-Shop 2020 - 2021
- Workshop Facilitator, “Heat Pad Hugs” for The Other MA (TOMA); Serious Play programme hosted by Disabled Artists Network, July 2020
- Workshop facilitator; “How to Make Bad Art”, Nottingham Trent University Final Year Students, December 2019
- Workshop Facilitator; Access as Meditation as part of “Soft Sanctuary” at Bootle Library, 2019
- Workshop Facilitator; Plant Propagation Workshop as part of the project Sean Roy Parker’s “Pool Our Resources” at Bootle Library; as part of Frances Disley’s show, “The Cucumber Fell in the Sand” at Humber Street Gallery ; as part of “Soft Sanctuary” at Bootle Library, 2019
- Visiting Artist Tutor to Chesterfield College Foundation Art & Design students in association with West Studios, (2018-19)
- Workshop facilitator as part of the project “Not Words", 2018
- “In Kind” panel event as part of “At What Cost” project at Glasgow International festival 2018
- Project creator/manager of File Under Female 2017
- Member of the Patient Carer Network as part of the Royal College of Physicians (2014-Present)
- Keynote address at the Royal College of Physicians Annual Conference 2017 (as featured in the RCP Commentary Magazine)
- Valedictorian Vote of Thanks Speech for the School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University (2016)
- Chairing the session, “Medicine Outside the Comfort Zone”, as a delegate of the Patient Carer Network for the Royal College of Physicians Annual National Conference, “Medicine 2016”, March 2016
- Visiting Artist Tutor to Chesterfield College Foundation Art & Design students, (2015)
- Internship with the Public Program department at Nottingham Contemporary (2012)
- Gallery Assistant at Backlit Gallery and Studios, Nottingham (2012)
Education:
2010 – 2016: Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham (BA)
2011 – 2012: Willem De Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, Netherlands