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LOOKING FORWARD Art Projects

@thisislookingforward

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Forward-thinking Curatorial Studio ➡️ Curating | Researching | Programming📍London

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We are proud to announce that Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) and Looking Forward have been awarded the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Design Generators fund, run by the Design Museum’s Future Observatory, to support the UK-based strand of Andrew Merritt's project Slow Disasters. 'Field Kitchen: Designing Edible Futures for Rewetted Landscapes'.

Taking place across the Norfolk Broads, the project will bring together creative practitioners, climate scientists, farmers, chefs and community organisations to explore how wetter forms of farming, known as paludiculture, could support biodiversity, sustainable food production and climate adaptation 🥣🤝🌾🌊🌱.

We will work with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, the Broads Authority, Broadland Catchment Partnership and the University of Cambridge to identify crops suited to wetter landscapes. They will then collaborate with Norfolk farmers, the Norfolk Food and Farming Discovery Trust and the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association to develop food products and new economic models for regenerative farming.

Project core team:
▶ Andrew Merritt, Lead Artist
▶ Carolina Lio-Rodrigues, Project Curator and Director at Looking Forward
▶ Louis Nixon, NUA Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange
▶ Dan Lockton, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Worlds
▶ Andrew Ferrell, NUA Senior Research Fellow
▶ Candice Allison, NUA Development Curator
▶ Francesca Fantoni, Assistant Curator at Looking Forward

Stay tuned in the next few months for updates and programme announcements! by @thisislookingforward

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a month ago

How can clay and sound become archives of identity and resistance?

In our latest Art Notes publication, Carolina Lio explores the work of Phoebe Collings-James (@phoebethegorgon), examining how her multidisciplinary practice confronts race, womanhood, diaspora and the enduring structures of colonialism.

Moving from the rebellious figure of the ‘Infidel’ to the politics of art and craft, radical pedagogy and the influence of Jamaican dub, the article traces how Collings-James uses clay and sound to dismantle inherited hierarchies and give physical form to identities in continual transformation.

🔗 A Physical Archive of Identity and Survival: Phoebe Collings-James is available to read for free on our Substack - link in bio.

Phoebe Collings-James exhibition and artwork credits, in order of appearance:
1. Body Vessel Clay, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, 2025
2. In Practice, SculptureCenter, New York, 2024
3. In and Out of Place. Land after Information 1992–2024, Kunstverein Hamburg, 2024
4. The Infidel, 2023. Courtesy Arcadia Missa
5. Body Vessel Clay, Two Temple Place, London, 2022
6. bun babylon; a heretics anthology, Arcadia Missa, London, 2023
7. Let this be the anchor, KH Künstler:innenhaus Bremen, 2026
8. A Scratch! A Scratch!, Camden Arts Centre, London, 2021

#PhoebeCollingsJames #ContemporaryArt #ArtNotes #Ceramics #SoundArt by @thisislookingforward

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2 months ago

Publication of a new chapter by Looking Forward’s founding director, Carolina Lio-Rodrigues, in "Sustainable Design, Art, and Innovation: A New Paradigm on Creative Practice" published by Springer.

“Artistic Practices as Environmental Research: Designing and Implementing Public Engagement for Sustainability” explores how socially engaged art can operate not simply as commentary on the climate crisis, but as a form of environmental research: creating spaces for experimentation, generating ecological knowledge, bringing together different forms of expertise, and contributing to longer-term processes of environmental and social change.

Drawing on Carolina’s curatorial work with Looking Forward and @thevisibleproject , the chapter focuses on three projects working across marine, agricultural and wetland ecologies:

▶ CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones by @cookingsections, which rethinks food systems and aquaculture on the Isle of Skye through regenerative approaches to marine ecologies.

▶ @casadelleagriculture, co-led by @coppolalu in Castiglione d’Otranto, Puglia, where agroecology, cultural practice and community organising come together to regenerate abandoned farmland, biodiversity and rural knowledge.

▶ Field Hospital / Field Kitchens (@slowdisasters) by Andrew Merritt, curated and produced by Looking Forward: a transdisciplinary project bringing together art, archaeology, ecological research, food and local knowledge to investigate landscapes affected by long-term processes of extraction and environmental degradation.

Across these different contexts, the chapter argues for understanding socially engaged artistic practices as living laboratories: spaces where artists work alongside scientists, farmers, local communities, policymakers and cultural organisations to test alternative ways of inhabiting, restoring and caring for damaged environments.

🤩 Curators and other art colleagues can request a free PDF copy of the chapter by emailing us at hello@lookingforward.online.

📷 Casa delle Agriculture, Il Mulino di Comunità (Community Mill), Castiglione d’Otranto, Italy.
📷 CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones. Isle of Skye, Scotland. Photo by C. Hattersley. by @thisislookingforward

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2 months ago

🧶 Our community engagement programme Soft Ground is back!

We are excited to announce the continuation of Soft Ground. These are a series of free weekly drop-in textile-based art sessions designed to support mental wellbeing.

Every Friday (2–4 pm), starting on 31 July and running until 11 September, you can find us at 📍SET Social Peckham (@set.social.peckham)

🤩 Artist/facilitators Sue Mayo and Jenny McIlhatton will each lead a series of mindful workshops using recycled materials and fashion waste.

🔗 The sessions are open to all and particularly welcoming to neurodivergent participants. For more information and to reserve your free spot, head to the Soft Ground Eventbrite page via the link in our bio.

Note 🧐 No session on 21 August

This programme is curated by Sylvia Keck (@sylviasolangeslr), Community Engagement Curator at Looking Forward, and generously supported by the National Lottery Community Fund. by @thisislookingforward

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3 months ago

We are pleased to share that our founding director, Carolina Lio Rodrigues, will be presenting and chairing a session at the 14th European Conference on Arts & Humanities (ECAH2026), taking place at SOAS and UCL, in London, starting today.

On 12 July at UCL, Carolina will chair the session “Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts”, speaking on “Art as Social Infrastructure” and bringing together contributions exploring how artistic and visual practices engage with trauma, political iconography, public space, identity, power and social transformation.

The session will include four presentations followed by a Q&A:
▶ Dr Irina Valentin on the transformative role of art in the wartime Ukraine trauma context
▶ Reza Tavakoliabandansari on the intersection of visual culture and power in Iran
▶ Prof. Ronie Parciack on how Delhi's street art responded to the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act
▶ Carolina Lio Rodrigues on curating as a relational and durational practice, learning from the experience of the Visible Project

#ECAH2026 #IAFOR #ArtsAndHumanities #LookingForwardArtProjects #ContemporaryArt #Curating #SociallyEngagedArt #VisibleProject #ArtAsSocialInfrastructure #CuratorialPractice #PublicArt #CommunityEngagement #ArtAndPolitics #LondonEvents by @thisislookingforward

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3 months ago

Tomorrow! Conversation at 7:30PM with Marzia Migliora and Eva Brioschi at Galleria Franco Noero, Turin.

Sette Mostre Immaginifiche—published by NERO Editions and produced by Looking Forward Art Projects with the support of Archivorum, Fondazione Torino Musei, and Collezione La Gaia, and curated by Anna Cestelli Guidi, Matteo Lucchetti and Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano / Napoli—is the first monograph dedicated to Migliora’s work.

@galleriafranconoero @marziamigliora @eva.brioschi @archivissima
@liarummagallery @annacestelliguidi @lucchettimatteo by @thisislookingforward

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4 months ago

In our latest Network Spotlight, we feature Sonia E. Barrett (@soniaelizabethbarrett)

How do we dismantle the physical remnants of empire? For contemporary artist Sonia E. Barrett, the answer lies in material transformation, collective labour and a deliberate decentring of authorship.

In 'From the Map Room to the Oval Office: Sonia E. Barrett’s Political Landscapes', Emily Daymond-King and Carolina Lio unpack Barrett’s profound, collaborative practice. From shredding and braiding colonial maps at the Royal Geographical Society to tracing imperial design motifs inside the modern Oval Office, Barrett proves that questions of empire are an urgent and existential present.

🔗 Head to the link in our bio to read the article on Looking Forward’s Substack ‘Looking Forward Art Notes’.

Images:
1. Sonia E. Barrett. Photo: Martina Tuaty
2. Sonia E. Barrett, ‘Sky’, Villa Romana, Florence, 2019
3. Sonia E. Barrett, ‘Table Nr 6’, 2012. Photo by Bruno Weiss
4. and 6. Dreading the Map, created as a map-lective, The Royal Geographical Society, London, 2021, Antique dated and contemporary maps, paper, string, metal, 400 x 500 x 500 cm
5. Dreading the Map, 15th Dakar Biennale, 2024
6. Dreading the Map, 24th Bienal de Arte Paiz, Guatemala, 2025 by @thisislookingforward

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5 months ago

📰 Looking Forward’s Community Engagement Curator Sylvia Keck-Soler (@sylviasolangeslr) has published an article in the Social History in Museums Journal drawing on insights from last year’s Feedforward series on Creative Wellbeing:

“Engagement, Outreach or Participation? Reflections on Community Work and Creative Health in London Art Institutions.”

The paper explores the tension between grassroots creative health initiatives and formal institutional structures, highlighting case studies from the Barbican, South London Gallery, Horniman Museum, and Whitechapel Gallery. It argues for a shift in the museum’s role from director to mediator, focusing on resource-sharing and ethical, participatory practices.

📖 Read the full article in Social History in Museums: Curating Communities (Vol. 49, Autumn 2025) by the Social History Curators Group.

📸 Photos:
1. Cover of journal
2. Headway East London, Barbican Centre © Leon Foggitt, 2023
3. Headway East London, Barbican Centre © Leon Foggitt, 2023
4. A workshop at South London Gallery © Charlotte Henry
5. Hands On Base © Joel Knight / Horniman Museum and Gardens @hornimanmuseumgardens

#CreativeHealth #CommunityEngagement #Museums #ArtInstitutions #ParticipatoryPractice #CuratingCommunities #LondonArts by @thisislookingforward

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5 months ago

Last Month on our Substack 👀

Looking Forward Art Notes (thisislookingforward.substack.com) ✨ is a journal for rethinking how we engage with art, culture and life.

We’re catching you up on everything you might have missed from March and April, from critical art reviews to interviews with the artist-facilitators leading our wellbeing programme Soft Ground:

📘Keerthana Kunnath: Gender, Diaspora and Visual Agency @kee_kunnath
▶ Kunnath's work as a provocation against heteronormativity, reimagining what it means to be a woman in South Asian society.
📸 Photo 1: Keerthana Kunnath, Njan (I), 2021.
📸 Photo 2: Keerthana Kunnath, Aval (Her), 2021.

📕Making Home: Labour, memory, and belonging at the Museum of the Home @museumofthehome
▶ The domestic space as a site continually constructed through everyday practices, personal histories, and social conditions.
📸 Photo 3: Beryl M as part of �Hackney elders project by Sophie Verhagen, 2007.
📸 Photo 4: Mina Salimi, Still from Shelf Life (2019)
📸 Photo 5: Museum of the Home, Home Galleries. Photo: Em Fitzgerald.

📙Realism of the Psyche: The enduring influence of Ken Kiff @ken.kiff_estate
▶ Ken Kiff’s position in 20th-century British art and his philosophical framework of “Psychic Realism”.
📸 Photo 6: Ken Kiff, Talking With A Psychoanalyst: Night Sky, Sequence 113, acrylic on paper, 1975-80.
📸 Photo 7: Ken Kiff, Man on Street, lithograph in colours on wove paper, 85.5 x 62 cm, 1991.

📗Weaving Neurodivergence, Textiles, and Community: A conversation with artist-facilitator Kim Chin @_kim.chin
▶ Exploring neurodivergence and the importance of collaborative practice in an increasingly isolating world.
📸 Photo 8: Kim Chin, What does Home Mean to You?

📕 Practices of Repair: Sue Mayo on storytelling across materials and social worlds @breaks_and_joins
▶ A conversation on community theatre, creative facilitation, and the politics of participation.
📸 Photo 9: Sue Mayo, Rooms with a View.

🔗 Link in bio for free direct access
➕ Subscribe to our Substack for the full conversation, directly in your inbox by @thisislookingforward

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6 months ago

It’s time for a Substack Roundup 👀

Looking Forward Art Notes (thisislookingforward.substack.com) ✨ is a journal for rethinking how we engage with art, culture and life.

We’re catching you up on everything you might have missed in the past couple of months, from film write-ups to artist interviews:

📘 Amaal Said's Open Country @amaalsaid
▶ Somali mother and her British-born daughter walk together through the English countryside, carrying with them a distance that cannot be mapped.
📸 Photos 1 and 2: Still from Amaal Said, Open Country (2025)

📕 The Row: Quiet luxury and strategic anonymity @therow
▶ A case study on how The Row leverages its established cultural authority to maintain its elite position.
📸 Photo 3: The Row's homeware collection displayed on a rail designed by Julian Schnabel. Milan Design Week, April 2025

📗The Plant Commons: Reviving indigenous foodways in South Africa with Loubie Rusch @loubie_rusch
▶ A conversation with wild food expert Loubie Rusch on locally adaptive Cape plants and the work of reconnecting communities with South Africa’s biodiverse landscapes.
📸 Photo 4: Loubie Rusch and Dr Nicola Kühn sorting Sandkool. Photo: Melissa Baird

📘Soil at the Kitchen Table: The transpedagogical practice of Cocina CoLaboratorio @ehm90 @cocina_colaboratorio
▶ Designer and food activist Emilio Hernández discusses Cocina CoLaboratorio's work in Mexico, where gatherings around soil become tools for collective ecological learning.
📸 Photo 5: Biocultural Living Archive, 2021. Photo: Tess Plein
📸 Photo 6: Learning at the Ejidal Lands, Slow Disasters Project, 2025. Photo: Mariana Martínez

📙How Can I Be Well in Community? Interview with Birungi Kawooya @birungiart
▶ Exploring textiles, Afro-somatic practice, and neurodivergent care.
📸 Photo 7: Birungi Kawooya, Weaving Interdependence.

🔗 Link in bio for free direct access
➕ Subscribe to our Substack for the full conversation by @thisislookingforward

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6 months ago

💭 The second iteration of Feedforward series 🌀Curating in a Climate Crisis 🌀, bringing together curators and researchers to address the role of curatorial work within the climate and ecological emergency, was held on the 19th of March, hosted by Gasworks.

Here is a glimpse of the conversation and you can read more about the session on our website. (🔗Link in bio)

With thanks to the participants:
▶ Anna Bates: Curator of Product and Furniture (1900 - Now) at the V&A; lead for Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures.
▶ Madeleine Collie: Curator at Stanley Picker Gallery and founder of Food Art Research Network.
▶ Laura Herman: Curator of Digital Art at the V&A and co-founder of Utrecht University’s Inclusive AI Lab.
▶ Janice Li: Head of Curatorial Programme at Future Observatory, Design Museum.

Feedforward is a peer-to-peer format developed by Looking Forward, in which curators, artists, and cultural practitioners come together to reflect on the ethics of cultural work. Feedforward creates a slower, care-based space for sharing questions, resources, and practices.

#LookingForward #Feedforward #Curating #CuratorialPractice #ClimateCrisis #ArtAndEcology #SociallyEngagedArt #CulturalPractice #Curators #ArtAndSociety #ArtForChange by @thisislookingforward

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6 months ago

🔗 While we prepare to host the second session in a couple of weeks, you can read the summary 💬 of the first session on our website. Link in bio.

Participants in the session:
▶ Abbie Adams: Future Observatory Curator, Design Museum.
▶ Marleen Boschen: Adjunct Curator for Art & Ecology at the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational and Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
▶ Louis Buckley: Senior Curator, Nature + Love Project, Horniman Museum and Gardens.
▶ Daisy Gould: Curator and Researcher, PhD Candidate at The Courtauld Institute of Art and formerly (through late 2025) Assistant Curator of Live Programmes at Serpentine Galleries.
▶ María Montero Sierra: Associate Lecturer at Royal College of Art, Media Studies, School of Architecture; PhD Candidate at the University of Warwick and formerly Head of Program of TBA21–Academy.

🔗 While we prepare to host the second session in a couple of week, you can read the summary 💬 of the first session on our website. Link in bio.

Feedforward is a peer-to-peer format developed by Looking Forward where curators, artists, and cultural practitioners come together to reflect on the ethics of cultural work. Feedforward creates a slower, care-based space for sharing questions, resources, and practices.

#LookingForward #Feedforward #Curating #CuratorialPractice #ClimateCrisis #ArtAndEcology #SociallyEngagedArt #CulturalPractice #Curators #ArtAndSociety #ArtForChange by @thisislookingforward

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7 months ago