Andrew Howe

Education/Qualifications

BA (Hons) Creative Art, Open College of Art accredited by University for the Creative Arts (2016)

MA Engineering Science, University of Oxford (1987)

Diploma in Water & Environmental Management, De Montfort University (1994)

Chartered Engineer (1992)

Member,  Institution of Civil Engineers (1992)

Member, Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (1994)

Career Summary

I am an interdisciplinary artist and project manager, based in Shrewsbury, working solo and in collaboration with other practitioners and community groups.  I use walking and mapping to explore how people interact with places, informed by experience of over 30 years in engineering and environmental consulting.  My practice includes painting, collage, photography, printmaking, books, and digital media. 

As member of Meadow Arts’ network of creative practitioners, I am experienced in delivering arts engagement projects with schools, community groups and in public workshops.  I am trained as an Arts Award adviser for Explore/Discover level, and have completed courses in Planning for Work in Formal Education (Arts Connect), Creative Facilitation for Young People (Artsworks), Managing Difficult Situations and Attachment Theory, Neuroscience and Parenting (Severn Arts). 

Experienced with socially-engaged projects, I aim to be inclusive and a catalyst for change, comfortable working in multi-disciplinary teams, and communicating with a diverse range of audiences/participants.  I hold key skills in curating exhibitions, reporting and mentoring.

Socially-engaged, Community and Learning projects

My experience covers a range of different audiences, participants and settings:

• engagement workshops for general public and community groups,
• organised and led art walks,
• schools projects as independent creative practitioner and on behalf of Meadow Arts,
• projects with Looked After Children and young people with disabilities
• public events alongside curated exhibitions,
• developed an educational programme and learning resources for a public funded heritage project,
• created a walking event for livestream online festival,
• artist talks and presenting papers at academic conferences.

Founding member of the Cinderloo1821 community organisation raising awareness of the Cinderloo Uprising in Dawley in 1821.  With funding from Heritage Lottery, Historic England and other partners, I lead a programme of activities including projects with local schools in Telford and with community groups, this is funded as part of Historic England's Heritage Schools programme.  I made a film "Bear Witness - The Lie of the Land" with Jill Impey revealing layers of history in the landscape and human responses.

Recent/Current

• Mosses and Marshes project (funded by Arts Council England, Regional Arts Fund New South Wales, and Australian Cultural Fund), collaborating with Australian artist, Kim Goldsmith, via Arts Territory Exchange, making links between Fenns, Bettisfield and Whixall Mosses (UK) and Macquarie Marshes (AUS).  Partners include Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Natural England, and corresponding Australian organisations, 5 other artists, artist/curator Gudrun Filipska of Arts Territory Exchange, MediaActive Projects CIC and Wem Youth Club.
• Beauty and Utlility, Avon Meadows, Pershore.  Commissioned by Meadow Arts working with the Flood Plain Meadows Partnership to make artwork and work with community groups
• Scour II project (ACE funded), May-Oct 2019 – I led two art walks and creative workshops exploring the history and landscape of the River Arrow valley in Redditch.  Published a collaborative zine using artwork and writing made during the workshops.
• Creative practitioner for Meadow Arts delivering a four day project with students at Mary Webb School, Pontesbury involving walks and outdoor sculpture making, collaborative work using dye plants, printmaking, 3D assemblages and artist books
• working via Arts Territory Exchange with artist/academic, Gareth Jones, based in Japan and China, using walking and psychogeography to explore relations between virtual and real spaces in the UK and Far East

Gallery and project management

As a trustee of the Shropshire Visual Art Network (VAN)  (2006-2018), I  helped implement a number of arts projects.  I was a key member of the VAN Gallery project to develop a contemporary art gallery and retail venue, from which VAN has been able to commission new work and workshops by artists. 

I co-curated an exhibition with Peter Williams: Collage Now, featuring 11 artists working in collage and assemblage. 

In 2015, I curated the “A Voyage of Enterprise” exhibition to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Market Hall, Shrewsbury on behalf of Shropshire Council.  The exhibition featured art (including commissioned work), architecture, history and narratives of people associated with the market past and present. 

Solo Exhibitions:

Jan-Feb 23         Inhabited, King’s School, Worcester

Sep 2022         Wetlands, Gateway Gallery, Shrewsbury

May-Jun 22         Mosses and Marshes, Outback Arts Gallery, Coonamble, NSW, collaborative exhibition with Kim V. Goldsmith

Apr-May 22         Mosses and Marshes, M16 Artspace, Canberra, AUS, collaborative exhibition with Kim V. Goldsmith

Oct 21 Mosses and Marshes, Qube Oswestry, collaborative exhibition with Kim V. Goldsmith

Jun 2017            Shrewsbury Open Studios

Apr/May 2017     In Parallel and Entwined, The Hive, Shrewsbury inc. walk event/workshop

Mar 2016            In Parallel, Participate Contemporary Artspace incl. artist talk

Feb 2014             Land in Hand, joint commission with Mairi Turner to document the development of Coton Hill allotments, published book and exhibition at Visual Art Network Market Hall Gallery, Shrewsbury

July 2011             Shrewsbury Open Studios, my studio

July 2010             Shrewsbury Open Studios, my studio

Jan 2010              Imperfectly Natural, Gallery3, Gateway Arts Centre, Shrewsbury

Feb 2007             C45P3R.com, No.35 Penson Chambers, Oswestry

Nov 2006             Phantom Cities, Bear Steps Gallery, Shrewsbury; joint exhibition with Colin Blundell

July 2006             This is Art Festival, Shrewsbury

Nov 2005             C45P3R.com, Frank café bar, Shrewsbury

July 2005             This is Art Festival, Shrewsbury

June 2005           Stone Works, Shrewsbury Music Hall Photographic Gallery

Group Exhibitions:

Jan-Feb 2023         A Charm of Goldfinches, Gateway Gallery, Shrewsbury, co-curated with Bryan Eccleshall

May-Sep 22         West Midlands Open, New Art Gallery Walsall

Mar-Apr 22         Beauty and Utility Showcase, Pershore Library; curated by Meadow Arts for the Flood Plain Meadows project at Avon Meadows with Open University and Wychavon DC

Feb 22         Akin, Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury; exhibition curated by Participate Contemporary Artspace CIC as part of the Darwin Festival

Dec-Feb 22         peat-surface-sky/Mosses and Marshes, Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury

Oct 21-Mar 22         Cinderloo Remembered, Coalbrookdale Gallery, Ironbridge Gorge Museums; co-curated and exhibited work from the Cinderloo 1821 project

Sep-Oct 21         peat-surface-sky; Wem Town Hall, an exhibition of artwork by Wem Youth Club, myself, Kim V. Goldsmith, Sue Challis and Kate Johnston

May 21-ongoing         Un-Boxing, Arts Territory Exchange touring exhibition, organised Gudrun Filipska, Caroline Kelley, Lenka Clayton and Carly Butler starting in Cambridgeshire (England) with aTE founder, Gudrun Filipska. Other venues for Un-Boxing will include Anglesey (Wales), Suffolk (England), Versailles (France), Saint Croix de Mareuil (France), and Copenhagen (Denmark). The second stage of Un-Boxing will take a more experimental form, developing its own network of hosts around a series of anchor locations including The Maryland Institute College of Art, Pittsburgh (USA), Pensylvania (USA), Pender Island (Canada), and Vancouver Island (Canada). 

Aug 20         Light! online exhibition hosted by Participate Contemporary Artspace CIC

May/Jun 2020 F50 curated by Kim Goldsmith, online festival by Art E-parties

Dec19-Mar20  A Stitch in Time, Fourth Today’s Documents (my collaborative work with artist Gareth Jones featured with other Arts Territory Exchange artists), Today Art Museum, Beijing

Oct-Nov 19     Scaffolds of Nature, Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury

Oct-Nov 19     VAN at 20, Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury

Oct 2019         Encounters, VAN Gallery, Shrewsbury

Sept 2019        Put this in your window and think of me (my collaborative work with artist Kim Goldsmith featured with other Arts Territory Exchange artists, curated by Art Language Location), Cambridge Artworks Artspace

Oct18-Feb20   Selected VAN members exhibitions, University Centre Shrewsbury

Aug 2018         Lawn and Meadow, Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury

Jun 2018          Brownfield Research Centre, AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent

Mar 2018         Encounters, VAN Street Gallery, Shrewsbury, collaborations with Paul Baines, Kate Innes and Ursula Troche

Nov 2017         Shropshire Open 2017, Gateway Gallery3, Shrewsbury

Aug 2017         Eden, Participate Contemporary Artspace, Shrewsbury, curated by Katy Hodson

June 2017        Collage Now, VAN Street Gallery, Shrewsbury (co-curated with Peter Williams)

Oct 2016         Qube Open, Oswestry

Sep 2016         Loitering with Intent, People’s History Museum, Manchester, featured a special edition of Stepz magazine “Between the Rollerama and the Junk Yard” including my article "A View on the Street".

Sep 2015             Voyage of Enterprise, curator, Market Hall, Shrewsbury

Sep 2015             “Quotidian” part of A Voyage of Enterprise exhibition celebrating 50 years of the Market Hall, Shrewsbury

Jun 2011              Visual Art Network Market Hall Gallery, Shrewsbury

Apr 2010             Worcester Open, Pitt Gallery

Dec 2008             Postcards - an exhibition of affordable art, Gallery 3, Gateway Arts Centre, Shrewsbury

Aug 2008             The Shropshire Open Exhibition, Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery

May 2008            The Telford & Wrekin Open, Oakengates Theatre

Feb 2008             Cloud Space and Art Walk, with Cloud Gallery Artists Collective, Shrewsbury Music Hall, part of Greenhouse Shropshire exhibition

Jan 2007              Abandoned Chairs, Group Exhibition, Norwich Arts Centre

Aug 2004             Dedicated to Art, Eighth Art Exhibition, Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire

Other Events/Publications

• Walking event “Act of Resistance” at the Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography (4WCOP) in Dewsbury, staged in association with Creative Scene (2019),
• Participated remotely in a festival at Skeidarahlaup in Iceland, co-ordinated with Arts Territory Exchange, by livestreaming a walk in Shrewsbury (2019),
• Article selected for publication in special edition of Stepz magazine “Between the Rollerama and the Junk Yard” (Summer 2016), to be featured in an exhibition “Loitering with Intent”at the People’s History Museum, Manchester.
• Trustee, Shropshire Visual Art Network (2006 – 2011)
• Trustee, Shrewsbury Food Hub (2016 - present)
• Work selected for publication in “Abandoned Chairs”, a book of photography collated by Norwich Arts Centre (2007)

Website/Blog

http://www.andrew-howe.com/

https://andhowenow.wordpress.com/