Leanne Cunningham
Working across sound art, creative writing, photography, publishing, and participatory research, she investigates how listening can function as both a creative method and a way of understanding relationships between people, environments, and everyday experiences.
Much of her work emerges through walking-based research, combining field recordings, photography, sound writing, and the collection of conversations, observations, and personal narratives. Through these processes, she explores how stories become embedded within landscapes and how attentive listening can reveal overlooked aspects of place, memory, and connection.
Lived Experience
She is the founder of Lonely Stone Press, an independent publishing project dedicated to creative and experimental forms of writing. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including recent presentations as part of the Listening Biennial and the Listening Academy in Vienna. Cunningham holds an MA in Sound Arts from the University of the Arts London and currently works in higher education, teaching on the Fine Art course at University of Lancashire.
Education
- PGCE with QTS, University of Cumbria, 2020
- University of the Arts London, London College of Communication, MA Sound Art, 2015 – 2016, Distinction
- University of Central Lancashire BA (Hons) Fine Art, 2011 – 2014, First Class
Academic Appointments
- Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art, Liverpool John Moores University, 2024
- Associate Lecturer, BA / MA Fine Art, University of Central Lancashire, 2017-2022
- Guest speaker, Sound-Image2017, University of Greenwich, London, 2017
- Guest speaker, Women in Sound / Women on Sound, The Listening Room, Goldsmiths, University of London 2016
- Archival Assistant, London College of Communication, London Musicians Collective/CLA Copyright Archive Assistant, University of the Arts, 2016
- Guest speaker, Fractured Narratives, Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queens University Belfast, 2015
Teaching
- University of Lancashire, Lecturer of Fine Art, 2026 - present
- University of Derby, Programme Leader BA (Hons) Creative Art & Design Practice, 2021- 2026
- Buxton & Leek College, Photography & Creative Media Lecturer, 2023 - 2026
- University of Central Lancashire, Lecturer of Fine Art, Film and Moving Image, 2022 - 2023 (sabbatical cover)
- Leek School of Art, Senior Lecturer of Fine Art, 2021 – 2023
Presentations
- Sound Installation, Women's Line Project, Silk Museum, Macclesfield, 2024
- Urban Wilderness: In the Balance Programme, Outdoor Sound Installation, Longton, 2024
- 24 Doors, Outside Arts, Sound and Illustration Installation, Staffordshire, 2023
- A New Page - Spoken Word Performance, Bolton Gate Arts, Stoke-On-Trent, 2022
- Performing the Void, Dilston Grove (CGP Gallery), London 2017
- Untie Before Form, Women in Sound / Women on Sound, Goldsmiths, University of London 2016
- Narrating the Urban Space, CRiSAP, London College of Communication, University of the Arts, 2016
- Compositional Venice, Hanover Project, UK, 2014
Selected Group Exhibitions
- RWA Annual Open, 2025
- Glasgow Gallery of Photography, 2023
- Knotted Identities, Bolton Gate Arts, Stoke-On-Trent, 2022
- Until We Travel, Cities and Memory, 2020
- Daily Concerns, Dilston Grove (CGP Gallery), London 2019
- Trumpets for Viola, Rounded Radio, London, 2017
- The Listening Booth, George Gallery, London 2016
Features / Awards / Commissions
- Bureau of Listening, Denmark, 2025
- Staffordshire Ale Trail Illustrations, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, CAMRA, 2024
- 24 Doors, Outside Project, 2023
- Dawn Chorus, Keele University / Urban Wilderness, 2023
- Word Power, Library X, London, 2018
- Rounded-Radio, London 2017
- The Next Station, Cities & Memories, London 2016
- Female: Pressure, 2016
- Dirty Ear Forum, PEER Gallery, London 2016
- Resonance FM, The Sound of Criticism; There is Nobody Special, Radio Broadcast, London, 2016
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