Creative Programme

Past Creative Projects

Since 2020, the English Heritage Creative Programme has aimed to produce outstanding artistic commissions, interventions and projects that imaginatively engage with England’s history.

Over the years we have been privileged to work on a number of collaborations with emerging and established artists, local communities and other creative organisations to produce art commissions, site-specific works, sound installations, exhibitions, performances and events at our sites across the country.

Below is a taste of some of these past projects.

  • Silver Lining, 2024

    Silver Lining was a new exhibition by contemporary artist Dion Kitson at the JW Evans Silver Factory, Birmingham. Kitson honoured a lost industrial past, utilising new technologies to create sculptural interventions in the factory, celebrating the history and popular culture of Birmingham and the Black Country.

  • There is Light in the Fissures, 2024

    There is Light in the Fissures was an exhibition by Ingrid Pollard MBE at Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberland. The exhibition was the result of Pollard's research as the Belsay Artist Fellow 2022/23, in partnership with Newcastle University. 

     

  • Larksong, 2023

    For the British Textile Biennial 2023, collaborative artists Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright presented a new film installation, Larksong, in Goodshaw Chapel. It featured a new poem by Emily Oldfield and a musical score by musicians and artists David Chatton Barker, Mary Stark, Sam McLouglin, and Bridget Hayden.

  • Off Centre, 2023

    Off-Centre was a dance performance at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, choreographed by Phil Sanger. Phil developed a new dance piece ’Ramped’ which connected with feelings of being forgotten, connectedness and ‘statues’.

  • The future belongs to what was as much as what is, 2022

    This multi-award-winning art installation was created by artist and designer Morag Myerscough in collaboration with the local community and poet Ellen Moran on the site of the original gatehouse at Housesteads Roman Fort, Hadrian’s Wall.

  • We are only human, 2023

    We are only human (Incomplete sculpture for Scarborough to be finished by snow) by contemporary artist Ryan Gander OBE at Scarborough Castle headland acknowledges global warming while functioning as a coastal viewpoint . The dolos shape is only completed when/if it snows. The work was commissioned with Invisible Dust.

  • England’s New Lenses, 2021

    Four young photographers were commissioned to create a new body of work inspired by English Heritage sites. Kemka Ajoku at Wrest Park, Abena Appiah at Hadrian’s Wall, Megan Mechelle Dalton at Middleham Castle, and Mia Parker-Tang at Tintagel Castle.

  • Wait Here (Double Line), 2021

    Wait Here (Double Line) was a temporary site-specific artwork by artist Tim Etchells displayed at Berwick-upon-Tweed Barracks, Northumberland, commissioned by Berwick Visual Arts and supported by the Berwick Welcome Visitor Project.

  • Painting our Past, 2021

    In 2021 English Heritage commissioned a series of portraits depicting six historic figures from the African diaspora whose stories have contributed to England’s rich history. Each artist was supported by our curators and historians to creatively portray their subject.

  • Les Murs Sont Temoins, 2019

    This award-winning sound installation by London-born artist and musician Elaine Mitchener MBE was inspired by the lives of French and French-Caribbean prisoners of war held at Portchester Castle. It responds to the building’s history of incarceration, creativity, and freedom. Listen to an extract here.

  • In Ruins, 2019

    Contemporary artworks inhabited the grounds and ruined mansion at Witley Court, Worcestershire and explored our enduring attraction to ruins and how they are relevant today. Curated and produced by Meadow Arts, delivered in partnership with English Heritage, and supported by Arts Council England.

  • The Yellow Wallpaper, 2018

    In 2018 the Turner Prize-winning artist Susan Philipsz filled Belsay Hall, Northumberland, with her haunting sound installation The Yellow Wallpaper. It was commissioned by English Heritage, with funding from Arts Council England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The work formed part of Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience.

  • Weighty Friend, 2015

    Weighty Friend was a site-specific artwork and live event by artist Faye Claridge at Iron Bridge, Shropshire, made of 2.4km of colourful rags with the help of 50 volunteers including Quakers, foundry workers, families and tourists.
    Video: Faye Claridge, ‘Weighty Friend’, October 2015. © Rajinder Sidhu