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EMILY LAURENS

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ONGOING/CURRENT WORK

Play Officer July 2023 - present, National Trust at Dinefwr, Llandeilo. A part-time two-year research focused role to explore and promote play in Newton House and Dinefwr Park.

Freelance artist, 1998 - present. I am a multi-disciplinary, socially engaged, participatory artist. My work centers around the relationship between ecological crisis and social justice using visual metaphor to understand the world and envision new futures.

I work at the intersections between mediums: as a performer/writer/director using visual theatre, live art, comedy and clown; as a designer/maker/film-maker working with puppetry, my body and costume; as a community artist working with a range of artistic disciplines. My work is rooted in intuitive and creative research methods and a non-extractive ethos. I have facilitated participatory and community art projects for National Theatre Wales, National Museum Wales, London's Southbank Centre, and many more. 

Co-founder and Co-director, October 2007 - present, Feral Theatre. Feral Theatre creates films, theatre and performance art. We aim to bridge the gaps between inner and outer worlds, audience and place, the contemporary and historical. We work as an ensemble combining comedy, tragedy and ritual. Performance venues include Jacksons Lane, Battersea Art Centre, and the Royal Festival Hall. Funding includes ACE, ACW and TippingPoint. We have recently performed The Last Dance at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music.

Co-founder, 2013 - present, Remembrance Day for Lost Species. An ongoing artist and activist led participatory project honouring extinct species with an anti-racist ethos, held annually on the 30th of November. 

Core group member for Local Motion, 2020 - present, a 10-year project in Carmarthen funded by a consortium including the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation addressing social, economic and environmental inequalities through systems change. 

 

 

PAST WORK 

Project Lead January – July 2023, for i fyny – Nurturing Welsh Artists, Oriel Myrddin Gallery. A five-month associates programme for early career artists. My role included selecting a steering panel and devising and delivering the programme of workshops, talks and trips. 

ADHD Job Aide May 2022 – March 2023 for Rabab Ghazoul, Director of gentle/radical.

Community Art Coordinator, 2016 – 2022, Oriel Myrddin Gallery. Included: developing and nurturing partnerships and collaborations with other organisations and community groups; facilitating a Young Artists Club for 8–15-year-olds and an art club for older people; delivering intergenerational art workshops for families; and one-off projects. In 2021 I delivered National Lottery Heritage Fund project Hoelion Wyth Cwmdeithas // Pillars of Society exploring Carmarthen's statues and monuments, its colonial past and Welsh identity with students from Carmarthen School of Art.

Lead Artist March - June 2022, with The Wallich, on a co-created writing project with homeless people in Llanelli.

All the rage (The princess and the pea), 2021/22, Funded by ACW, Amgueddfa Cymru and the Welsh Government Making New Work: Artists Respond to the Now part of Celf ar y Cyd. The project explored: women who worked in the garment factories of Wales 1960s – 2000s; the contemporary ready-made garment industry and fast fashion; and overconsumption. Outcomes included an essay and film.

Datod/Unravel 2019/2020, project begun during National Theatre Wales' Egin residency on climate change and continuing with a NTW Located Residency. The research centred on the intersecting stories of Welsh wool and trans-Atlantic slavery, the contemporary exploitative and extractive textile and garment industry and Welsh identity.

Lead Artist, September – December 2020, Shared Worlds, community project commissioned by Span Arts. An intergenerational participatory project inviting vulnerable people to share stories which were brought to life using puppetry via digital platforms.

Lead Artist, May 2020 National Theatre Wales Dream a little dream for me a digital production part of NTW's Network season. A live streamed participatory performance gathering lockdown dreams from the general public and turning them into puppet theatre. 

Lead Artist, September – December 2019, Felin Tan lantern project with the National Wool Museum. Included lantern making workshops at local schools and with the public and a parade and performance with poet Rhys Trimble.

Lead Artist, July 2018 – March 2019, Adders are Amazing with the Amphibian and Reptile Group (ARG UK) on the St Davids Peninsular. Included working with over 350 children in four schools; organising two public events and an exhibition and creating a giant adder lantern which featured on BBC Wales Today and S4C's Heno.

Creative Agent, September 2017 – April 2019, Lead Creative Schools, a two-year project with Model School, Carmarthen for the Arts Council of Wales.

Community Engagement Officer, July 2014 – 2016, Span Arts, included: Art Appetisers, a series of intergenerational workshops in rural Pembrokeshire; Caring Choirs, a singing project in care homes; and facilitating adult clown group Act Your Shoe Size.

1998 – 2007 Touring performer, workshop leader and stage manager with theatre companies including New Perspectives, theatre-rites, and the Little Angel Puppet Theatre.

 

 

EDUCATION/ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

MA in Art Psychotherapy at the University of South Wales, graduating in 2025.

Ongoing professional development including training in dance, clown, printmaking, circular economies, doughnut economics and co-production.

BA Hons Development Studies 2:1, SOAS, University of London.

I speak some Welsh although I am not fluent.

I have a full driving licence and current DBS.

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