Announcing our new Co-Investigator, Julia Heslop
We are pleased to announce that we are working with Julia Heslop as a Co-Investigator for Storytelling and Partnership Development.
Julia will be working with Dwellbeing Shieldfield, The NewBridge Project and Shieldfield Art Works to help build a plan for the future of our partnership, and the work we are co-producing with residents and organisations in Shieldfield.
As organisations we draw together expertise and skills to help Shieldfield flourish through creative activity, co-producing and working closely with local people. Through this co-investigation we are looking to nurture longer-term collaborative work in our neighbourhood around cooking, growing and food sovereignty, place making, and youth voice.
After working together for five years, this project will help us to understand how we can make our collaborative work more sustainable, and it will create capacity to bring more voices into our planning processes.
As part of this work Julia will be working with the three organisations, hosting visioning sessions with local residents, friends and strategic partners. She will be working with us to tell the story of our work so far, to think collectively about our work in the future, and to build a case for support for our longer-term work.
In 2024, we hosted an initial visioning session with organisations and residents, where we imagined Shieldfield in 2044: green and abundant, with communal public spaces; as a community of care, where historically marginalised people are celebrated, where residents have agency over decisions, people are listened to, where education is free and accessible, and our young people are leading our organisations. This work with Julia will help us to take steps toward this vision, together with people who live and care about this neighbourhood.
About Julia
Julia is an artist who often works with groups and communities over long periods of time. She trained as a painter but also works in large scale installation, video and printmaking.
She has expertise in planning and urban development issues and her work often focuses on supporting communities to gain access to the knowledge, tools and resources to help shape where they live so that places better reflect the histories, cultures and experiences of those that live there.
Julia was a co-initiator of Dwellbeing Shieldfield and has continued as a volunteer. She is an enthusiastic advocate for all the community-led activities happening across the neighbourhood and is really excited to start this new role and contribute to co-creating a long-term vision for the partnership.
Julia is also a Trustee at The NewBridge Project*, and previous studio member.
* Julia currently serves as a Trustee of The NewBridge Project. She has been appointed to this freelance role following an open, fair, and competitive recruitment process conducted in partnership with Shieldfield Art Works and Dwellbeing Shieldfield. Julia was selected on merit, with her application judged as the strongest against the published criteria. The NewBridge Project Board has confirmed that this appointment is in the charity’s best interests and fully compliant with the Charities Act 2011 and our Articles of Association. All potential conflicts of interest were appropriately managed, and the process has been transparently recorded in accordance with charity governance requirements.