Artists Make Space 2025-26
Richmond Arts Service support artists in developing their practice by providing free studio space across the borough. In 2025-26 they are working in:
- Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham
- The Old Town Hall, Richmond
- OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
Find out more about the artists who are working on the programme.
Amanda Randall
Where: Old Town Hall, Richmond
When: October 2025 to April 2026
Biography
Amanda Randall creates abstract stone carvings inspired by plants and fungi. Working with British limestones, she hand carves stone using traditional tools. The curving forms and organic textures of her work evoke seed cases, shells, and fossils. Her work celebrates nature’s resilience and beauty while acknowledging its fragility.
Amanda curates and initiates projects addressing environmental issues. Nature on the Line (2022) and Drawing on Ham Lands (2025) featured her carvings made from locally sourced stone. She runs an annual stone carving festival in Dorset and is a trustee and tutor at the Burngate Purbeck Stone Centre. She offers carving classes for all ages to promote the mental health benefits of making by hand. A graduate of Maidstone School of Art (1982–85), she has created many public artworks, especially in rural settings. Since 2015, she has focused on stone carving to explore our deep connection with the natural world.
About Amanda's residency
Amanda says: "I am planning to develop a new series of sculptures based on the textural drawings made on Ham Lands Nature Reserve in summer 2025. I will explore pattern, texture, and repetition by creating lino prints and clay reliefs. I plan to make casts using Jesmonite or paper handmade from natural materials like leaf litter and soil. I aim to create interactive, tessellating components for display in public spaces such as cafés. I hope this will leading to new works for sale or community projects.
"The garage where I usually work lacks heat, light, and water. This makes winter work with clay, moulds, and casting materials impossible. I also look forward to the discussion and feedback that comes with being part of a creative community through Artists Make Space, as I currently work in isolation."
Find out more about Amanda:
- Website: https://www.amandarandalldesign.co.uk/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandarandallsculpture
Annie Lee
Where: Orleans House Gallery and gallery grounds
When: July 2025 to July 2026
Biography
Annie Lee is an artist, workshop facilitator and educator. Their practice spans participatory performance, collaborative events, ceramics, drawing, and photography. Care, rest, and accessibility are central to their approach. They explore people, bodies, and relationships with spaces that overlook certain identities. Through collective, interactive experiences, they question the roles of artist and audience.
Annie recently graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art. They have exhibited in the UK, New York, China, and India and been commissioned by The Photographer’s Gallery and Barbican Centre. Their work has been published in Drawn Poorly, soft verge, and Bed Zine. Projects include composing and directing Rest, a conceptual opera (Sadler’s Wells, 2023); Substrata, a curated performance night (Horse Hospital, 2024); and Slow Motion Zzzone, a resting-moving-making workshop (Slade School, 2025). They were also a semi-finalist on Portrait Artist of the Year (2019).
About Annie's residency
Annie is focusing on the environmentally conscious and community strands of their practice. They are exploring how accessibility, sustainability, environment, and identity intersect. Inspired by ideas of ‘crip time’ (thinking about and reorienting time through the lens and experiences of disabled people), queering, and regeneration, they want to explore slower, alternative ways of making art.
They are interested in how the societal pressures of productivity affect their own pace and processes. Annie is using Orleans House Gallery and its grounds as a site for research and reflection. By spending time outdoors, they hope to reconnect with nature.
This will enable them to deepen the role of rest, slowness, and stillness in their practice. These experiences are shaping a project surrounding sustainable futures. Annie’s residency centres healing, care, and cultivating connection with people and place.
Find out more about Annie:
- Website: http://www.annabellalee.co.uk/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annieannabella.art/
George Aydin
Where: Old Town Hall, Richmond
When: July 2025 to July 2026
Biography
George Aydin is a cross-disciplinary artist, working most intimately with sculpture and installation. He infuses sound, film and writing into his practice too.
George’s process is to play with materials and find experimental ways of making. These ways of making become established and are usually laborious and repetitive, to reach a new reflexive monotony. He works with a range of materials from wire, sheet and rod metal to fabric and crochet, focusing on and any material that contains infinite potential.
By engaging in the act of world-building, concepts, characterisations and starting points emerge. He is influenced by fiction and storytelling as well as art theory and draws on concept-based art generation. These processes of thinking and making amalgamate to create a sense of ‘Aliveness’, and entities that are no longer objects. Through experimenting with automation these things begin to be possible.
George received a BA in Fine Art from the University of Arts London, Chelsea, graduating in 2024.
About George's residency
Using chicken wire, George intends to upscale previous work. Measured, cut and folded chicken wire will become small building blocks. Stacking and joining these blocks creates variably sized sculptures that act as visual blurs in real space.
He will be reapproaching this work with the desire of immensity. The sculptures can be interchanged to create different imposing shapes that can be walked through and around. Building upon this process, he intends to expand on the effect of blurriness in his work, using sound and or light to inhabit an eeriness, a sense of an echo.
Find out more about George:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/george_aydin
George Cripps
Where: Orleans House Gallery
When: July 2025 to July 2026
Biography
George Cripps is a multidisciplinary artist whose practise shifts across sculpture, drawing, filmmaking, photography, and sound. He investigates themes of ancestral narratives, shared subjectivity and natural forms ‘through an agoraphobic lens’. He creates filmic stills from photographs and drawings, pushing the visual through processes of abstraction and collage. George engages in intentional acts – repeating the same train journey to return to a specific window, responding to stories told by his family of significant moments and looking at the remains of an empty bloody Mary – to provoke and recognise particular feelings of absence, obscured memory and synergism. These feelings in turn materialise in the process of producing his work.
His work has recently been shown at the Greatorex Street Gallery (Aldgate), M2 Gallery (Peckham) and shortlisted for the BADA art prize. He recently completed a residency in Naples in June 2025. George graduated with a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University in 2024.
About George's residency
George says: "I have recently returned from a residency in the village of Montero Val Cocchiara (Italy). There I investigated the excavation and procurement of peat and turned it into a new art material. I will be exploring this material in my residency. I will also be investigating the entropy of life within the metropolis and perceptions of familial narratives and facades specific to my ancestral heritage."
Isobel Mei
Where: Old Town Hall, Richmond
When: July 2025 to July 2026
Biography
Isobel Mei is a British-Malaysian Chinese artist who creates projects that respond to people and places. She is interested in the ways we make contact with ourselves, each other and the world around us.
Isobel’s practice takes form as public interventions, sculpture, video, writing and participation. Her work invites moments of cultural or relational connection; a shift in perspective or attention.
Alongside her practice, Isobel has worked as a support worker and facilitator. She has led activities which explore meaning making, sensory experience and wellbeing within communities.
Isobel has a BA in Illustration from Camberwell College of Arts and studied for an MFA in Sculpture from Slade School of Fine Art, where she received a scholarship provided by the Nancy Balfour Trust. She holds a Foundation in Integrative Counselling from the Minster Centre and was a Nurturing Talent artist with Create Arts charity.
About Isobel's residency
Isobel intends to explore how we experience connections and attachments to places. With a focus on the ways in which places might hold identities, memories and sensations, as well as feelings of belonging or alienation.
As part of this research Isobel plans to create works in sculpture, video and on paper. She will draw from a range of sources, including her mixed heritage and inherent relationship to multiple places. She will also take inspiration from the local area, particularly the Borough’s diasporic communities and the proximity to the River Thames. She explores the river as a site of activity and movement between different locations.
In addition to this project, Isobel aims to produce a publication reflecting on her time spent as a support worker between 2021-24. She plans to compile images and drawings made with her client and friend AK, using this process to generate new writing.
Find out more about Isobel:
- Website: https://isobelmei.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/isobelmei
JC Candanedo
Where: Orleans House Gallery
When: August to September 2025 and January to July 2026
Biography
JC Candanedo is a queer, Catalan-Panamanian multidisciplinary artist working with photography, mixed-media and performance. His work aims to start conversations around identity, migration and displacement. He explores the question: how can we use the arts to promote social transformation? JC hopes to encourage conversations about the impact of colonialism on contemporary society.
About JC's residency
Over the last three years, Candanedo has been experimenting with combining photography, textiles and pigments made with plants from the American continent. His work highlights the important role that these plants play in the construction of new cultural identities in the rest of the world, particularly through textile and culinary arts. His pieces serve as living archives of cultural memory. They become tools for imagining a more sustainable, interconnected future. For this residency, he plans to experiment with new plants, shapes, and scale to bring elements of installation work into his practice.
Find out more about JC:
- Website: https://www.jccandanedo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jccandanedo
Joe Stevens
Where: Orleans House Gallery
When: January 2026
Biography
Joe Stevens is a conceptual artist and writer who explores systems. He does this by generating, through a process of world-building, many different facets of a semi-fictional virtual space. His work consists of games, sculptures, photos, videos, fonts, installations and more. His artistic ‘ground zero’ occurred during his Goldsmiths MA in 2007. This was a sculptural assemblage of 300 Wine Gums, which became the starting point and basis for everything.
About Joe's residency
Joe says: "For Artists Make Space, my idea is to use books as the impetus for further works. Here, I will use three book series to make three new works. Two of these works will be paintings and one will be sculpture. I am an artist who does not currently have a studio space. For these three works I need an appropriate type of space for painting and sculpture making. I don’t often paint so the paintings will be an interesting departure for my work. When making sculptures at home, I lean more towards object making. In this case I’d like to make a sculpture in a more tactile way by experimenting with new techniques and materials."
Find out more about Joe:
- Website: https://wineworld82.wordpress.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joe.stevens.5855
- Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/thewineman
Lizzie Woodford
Where: Orleans House Gallery
When: July to December 2025
Biography
Lizzie Woodford is a young choreographer who focuses on expressive contemporary work. After training at BRIT School for two years, she went on to study at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, graduating in dance.
Lizzie created a video piece for the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival in the summer of 2025, entitled Harmony for the Ages. The film was shot in Twickenham and featured three up-and-coming dancers. It told a timeless folk tale that is relevant to the challenges young people face today amid the climate crisis.
As well as working on choreographic projects, Lizzie is well established in the local area as a dance teacher - working with both children and adults across different styles.
About Lizzie's residency
Lizzie will be using her residency to create a new dance film. It will be built cumulatively with a number of different artists in a series of workshops.
Her intention is to use the unique space available to focus on a contemporary dance piece. This will be partly born out of improvisation with talented professionals who will join her in the studio.
Lizzie believes strongly in removing barriers to dance and making the art form accessible to all. This focus on inclusivity allows for new perspectives and directions that explore different ideas that have been neglected. She will foster collaboration with a range of artists and produce a film that weaves together a range of choreographic themes.
Find out more about Lizzie:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizzie_woodford/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lizziewoodford8059
Mikaela Roe-Bowers
Where: Old Town Hall, Richmond
When: July to October 2025 and May to July 2026
Biography
Mikaela Roe-Bowers creates work navigating stories of childhood and nostalgia. With a passion for the weird and wonderful, her practice emphasises the importance of fun and play in both art and everyday life. She rejects the notion that art must be serious to be appreciated.
Mikaela specialises in creating interactive 3D pieces that invite engagement and exploration. She incorporates found objects discovered on scavenging walks. With a love for crafting surreal, mystical creatures and worlds, she seeks to share her imagination and creativity with others.
Mikaela has run workshops for children and young people at Brighton Youth Centre and Pitzhanger Manor Gallery. She encourages creativity through physical making. She is a recent sculpture graduate of Camberwell College of Arts.
About Mikaela's residency
Mikaela’s intention is to use this space as a playground for her imagination. She plans to create new creatures and will explore movement and sensory experiences. These creatures will form a miniature dreamlike landscape through sculpture, set design, props and video projections. She will use experimental stop-motion animation, both paper-cut and claymation.
This opportunity is providing Mikaela the time and space to investigate ideas and create without boundaries. It allows her to immerse and inspire herself through making, supported by a community of fellow artists.
Find out more about Mikaela:
Millie Shafiee
Where: Orleans House Gallery
When: December 2025 to June 2026
Biography
Millie Shafiee is a multi-disciplinary artist who works in drawing, film, sound and installation. Light and space are key elements in Millie’s practice. Her imagery is often created using drawings from film and drawings of observation from nature. Cinematic light highlights her experience of creating imagined stories from her family history. Her ink drawings combine glimpses of family memories with the cinematic, narrative-based compositions in TV dramas, sci fi films and video games.
Millie is half Persian, and her practice explores diaspora, inherited memory and the fragility of oral histories, which become diluted or lost in translation. She archives audio recordings of family conversations in Farsi and English. This represents the struggle of grasping at and preserving ancestral stories.
Millie was among the exhibiting artists in this year’s New Contemporaries cohort. She has exhibited artwork across the UK; as well abroad in places such as in Victoria, Canada. She was selected for the Newbridge Project’s Collective Studio Program 23/24, which was instrumental in shaping her practice. She graduated from Newcastle University in 2023.
About Millie's residency
Millie’s research explores the significance of natural borders like the River Thames. She will look at the transplanting of non-native plants, which she considers to be symbols of diaspora, migration and fragmentation of ancestral land. She will create largescale woodcarvings of nature and Farsi Calligraphy, largescale ink drawings and experiment with natural materials like henna, ash, soil and clay.
She aims to explore themes of fragmentation, memory and exile at the studio. This work will consider the connection and symbolism of the forced migration of her family to the physical uprooting of plants, exploring the parallels between plants in the UK with the same species found in Iran. She considers these plants as ‘memory portals’ between the two countries.
Find out more about Millie:
- Website: https://gertrude.com/artists/millie-shafiee
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millieshafiee.art/
- Blog post at New Contemporaries
Shaye Poulton Richards
Where: OSO Arts Centre
When: September to November 2025
Biography
Shaye Poulton Richards is a theatre composer and video game designer. Her work moves across the subconscious – the playful and the intimate.
As creative director of Stage Interactive, she is currently developing the company’s next show. The project combines virtual reality with story told through song in a whimsical setting.
Shaye’s one-act chamber musical Lies All The Way Down premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023. She is a co-writer on Precipice, a new musical commissioned by New Diorama Theatre and Timelapse Theatre Company. The show will be premiering for a 5-week run in November 2025.
Her work has featured in video games including Interior Night’s As Dusk Falls. She was selected to join BAFTA Connect, GDC’s Amplifying New Voices, and won Tomorrow’s Star at the Develop: Star Awards 2023.
About Shaye's residency
Shaye says: "I will be continuing development on my next show. OSO Arts Centre in Barnes is the perfect space for rehearsals and sharings, and the duck pond perfect for all forms of quiet introspection."
Find out more about Shaye:
- Website: https://www.shaye.co.uk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shayespr/
Up to: Arts development
Updated: 15 September 2025
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