Artist in Residence Programme.
IOU has created a rolling 6 month opportunity for artists to live, work and develop their creative practice at the IOU Hostel, Hebden Bridge
IOU Artist in Residence
IOU has created a rolling 6 month opportunity for artists to live, work and develop their creative practice at the IOU Hostel, Hebden Bridge
The Artist in Residency opportunity is open to artists specialising in any art form interested in IOU’s approach. The residency includes living rent and bill free in a self contained artist apartment to develop their practice and create an art project in response to time spent living at the Hostel.
During their residency artists have the opportunity to lead a workshop at the Hostel or the IOU studio and to hold a final exhibition of their work
Please see our social media or join our mailing list to find out when applications are open.
Our past Artists in Residence have been sharing memories and stories from their time at the IOU Hostel and how their work has developed since. Catch up on our new instagram account IOU Artist in Residence
Welcome to our new Artist In Residence Nat Whitney
Nat is an audio-visual participatory artist working with creative technologies and tactile materials to construct interactive, sensory objects and environments inviting curiosity and play.
‘I am are intrigued by social interaction and exploring how physical computing can be harnessed to create accessible spaces for human–technology co-creation.
Driven by a belief in the power of play and collaboration, my work invites embodied interaction and explores connections to ourselves, each other, and our surroundings.
During the residency, I will delve into IOU’s archive to inform a new interactive audio-visual installation and performance. The work will explore frameworks of memory and information processing through both human and non-human performing bodies’
Our Past Artists in Residence
Jessie Li
Jessie (Jiaqi) Li is a Chinese art practitioner and researcher. Her work explores the intersection of human emotion, community narratives, and social systems. Rooted in everyday encounters, her creative practice interweaves personal memory, family archives, and historical research
EsK - Stewart Knight 2024-2025
A multi-disciplinary artist from Little Hulton, Greater Manchester, Stewart's residency focused on the cairns found in the South Pennine hills. His final exhibition is a series of interactive structures constructed from founded and gifted objects, exploring how cairns could form in urban contexts using everyday materials.
Georgia D'Silva - 2024
Georgia creates small-scale dioramas, dealing with notions of memory and place. "The six incredible months I spent living & working with IOU Creation Centre was exactly the opportunity I needed after graduation- a period when I felt a new sense of freedom but also lacked direction. During my residency, I led workshops, gave artist talks, assisted in an IOU production, exhibited alongside other artists in the Culturedale artist showcase, and even held a solo exhibition. These are experiences I could never have imagined myself having a year ago!"
Beth Cockcroft - 2023
"I saw the residency as an opportunity to devote my time to creating without so many external pressures, and reconnect with and reflect on what inspires me. I also saw it as an opportunity to reconnect with the local area- a place I grew up in before moving around the country- as I truly think Calderdale has its own unique culture and sense of community."
Alicja Mrozowska 2022 -2023
"Working with IOU as Artist in Residence has been an amazing experience that has progressed my work and my confidence as an artist. Acquainting myself with Hebden Bridge and Halifax has prompted me to reflect on who I am as an artist, what the essence of my work is and observe things from the perspective of the audience through meeting guests, studio visitors and people in the community. The studio and hostel spaces are unique ecosystems with a great team, that have inspired me and encouraged new ideas to form and grow"
Charlotte Mellor Meacham 2022
Charlotte is a freelance multi-disciplinary artist, based between Hebden Bridge and Portugal. Within her art practice, she likes to use a variety of mediums. These range from more traditional approaches, such as analogue photography and printing, making and sculpture or sewing and illustration, through to more digital work for her visuals, animation or her posters and design work. Alongside this, she also makes and sells her own designs of handmade headdresses and through the summer, while working as the IOU Hebden Bridge Hostel artist in residence, she customised a series of headphones for a sound/art project, with the idea that the guests of the Hostel could use them for ‘silent discos’
Artists in Residence Final Work
Jessie Li : Temporary Tenants
Based on Jessie’s six–month residency at IOU Hostel, Hebden Bridge, her final project and exhibition explored moving, memory, and domestic archives through two interactive works, a Trading Trolley and a Story Kitchen.
As objects and stories circulated, 48 exchanged items show how unused things can still hold value and become vessels of memory.
Review by creative practitioner and writer Kelly Loughlin
“Exhibition exploring memory and moving – what we take and what we leave – through the items and stories gathered during her time as IOU Artist in Residence.”
Esk -Stewart Knights
‘Cuiridh mi clach air do chárn -I’ll Put A Stone On Your Cairn’ Exhibition
The final exhibition of multi media artist esK (Stewart Knight) as IOU Artist in Residence, is a playful take on the stone cairns that feature on the South Pennine hills.
A series of interactive structures constructed from founded and gifted objects, his work explores how cairns could form in urban contexts using everyday materials.
“Cuiridh mi clach air do chàrn” – an ancient Gaelic blessing saying I’ll put a stone on your cairn. (I’ve got a fiver for anyone who can help me pronounce this correctly). Cairns as navigational tools, cairns as memorials, mysterious rock formations which look like they must have been shaped by human hands, rocks that seem to ooze stories – the Calder valley has them all and I have become fascinated by all.”
And there was my answer. For my project with IOU I would make interactive, cairn-like structures out of found-objects to be placed around Hebden Bridge; memorials and compasses pointing towards the mishmash of ideas and histories that I have come to know whilst here.”
Georgia D’Silva
No.182 Exhibition
An interdisciplinary installation encapsulating Georgia’s experience as Artist in Residence at IOU Creation Centre Hostel, giving audiences an immersive journey into the heart of a community.
Titled No.182, reflects the number of days Georgia has lived in the Calder Valley community. It was exhibited in the Hostel’s Snug, against the stunning backdrop of Nutclough Woods, and featured a collection of six new dioramas depicting local domestic spaces.
Created from reclaimed cardboard, clays and acrylics, each diorama is a replica of a home in Hebden Bridge.
To complete her time as Artist in Residence Alicja produced a stunning painting that is now displayed in the Hostel reception. She is also developing a programme of work to exhibit at IOU Walkway Gallery for the Calderdale Year of Culture 2024
“I feel that the hostel reception piece is an example of my confidence growing. I have elevated my painting technique to a larger scale, incorporated new ways of working with paper, used found materials and simplified the subject matter, content with saying less. Moving forward I’m excited for new challenges, continuing to learn and working with IOU in the future”
Our first Artist in Residence, Charlotte Meller Meecham, completed her art and sound project at the IOU Hebden Bridge Hostel and the result are these beautiful customised headphones that our Hostel guests can use for their own exclusive silent disco.
“I love to make things that balance both function and form, plus I have years of experience making headdresses for festivals and events, so I was thrilled to be able to harness these interests and complete a project that will hopefully stay a unique feature of the IOU Hostel for years to come.”
Launched in April 2022 the Hostel is a unique way for IOU to engage with local residents and visitors to Calderdale and to support artists, creatives and the cultural ecology of the region.
With 14 bedrooms, sleeping up to 40 the independent vegetarian Hostel is set in stunning woodland and gardens in the vibrant town of Hebden Bridge, with excellent transport links to Leeds and Manchester. The hostel welcomes solo travellers and groups all year round and is available for exclusive hire for retreats, workshops, meetings and team building events.
The Hostel is not for profit, with surplus reinvested into the IOU artist community and hostel programme.
