ABOUT ME
My name is Tom and I am a designer and curator. I am available for full time or freelance work, please get in touch via email for any inquiries.
My practice is rooted in care, community and accessibility with the goal to translate powerful messages through tool making, play and alternative solutions in order to empower individuals and organisations to make genuine change.
Amplifying the voices of activist ideas and individuals, my current research pursues the freeing of culture from debilitating systems and the creation of new ones that empower all, human and non-human.
My name is Tom and I am a designer and curator. I am available for full time or freelance work, please get in touch via email for any inquiries.
My practice is rooted in care, community and accessibility with the goal to translate powerful messages through tool making, play and alternative solutions in order to empower individuals and organisations to make genuine change.
Amplifying the voices of activist ideas and individuals, my current research pursues the freeing of culture from debilitating systems and the creation of new ones that empower all, human and non-human.
HOSPITAL ROOMS
2021-23
The largest chunk of my recent work has been through my 3 years working with the Arts and Mental Health Charity, Hospital Rooms. The charity runs creative programming and commissions artists to co-create site specific installations within NHS Mental Health Units. Developing with the organisation as it grew quickly my role took many shapes; from social media creative, to graphic designer, to curator, to artist.
CURATION - THE ROSEBUD PROJECT
Over the course of a year, myself and Molly Bonnell developed and delivered a foundational project with the UK based Arts and Mental Health charity, Hospital Rooms. As project leads and curators, we commissioned five artists to create co-produced site specific artworks devoted to creative accessibility and local ecological and care systems, in an NHS Mental Health Unit.
2022-23
Over the course of a year, myself and Molly Bonnell developed and delivered a foundational project with the UK based Arts and Mental Health charity, Hospital Rooms. As project leads and curators, we commissioned five artists to create co-produced site specific artworks devoted to creative accessibility and local ecological and care systems, in an NHS Mental Health Unit.
In total, we ran 14 environmentally activated workshops and produced 6 installations with the artists, service users and staff that encouraged a new understanding of the natural world and how we might best take care of it. The project finalised with a reopening of the transformed Mental Health Unit, a tour of the climate emergency exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and the creation of a new internal framework for low-carbon co-produced installations.
Acknowledging the intersectionality of the global ecological crisis and to reflect the diversity of the target community; we prioritised collaborating with artists, curators, and facilitators who identify as disabled, neurodivergent, queer and people of colour.
This project was proven to support vulnerable and isolated individuals who have been systematically excluded by the cultural sector. By engaging with the most pressing challenge of our time, the climate crisis, this project invited the Mental Health Units´ service users and staff to become powerful creative agents for social change. Using non-hierarchical and practical methods of learning, we encouraged a culture shift and empowered a community to have a deeper relationship with their immediate ecosystems and its impact on their care structures.
DESIGN
2021-23
For nearly 3 years, I was the designer for Hospital Rooms. Working across all projects, communications and fundraising; my job was to make information accessible for service users and staff in mental health units as well as spread the mission of mental health and art as far as possible.
WORKSHOPS
2021-23
Throughout my time working with Hospital Rooms, I designed and ran over 30 workshops and facilitated countless more with many high-calibre artists. The purpose of our workshops was to bring materials, joy and creativity to systematically excluded individuals in NHS Mental Health Units. These sessions prioritised playful co-creation that would lead to the design of large scale installation works for the hospitals, ensuring that the voices of the service users were central to the outcomes.
INSTALLATION
As part of Hospital Rooms largest project to date, I was invited to collaborate on an installation, as an artist alongside Valerie Asiimwe Amani, Siphiwe Mnguni, Louis Caseley and Molly Bonnell. We ran 10 workshops with service users in a Forensic Ward in the London hospital used the participators artworks at the center of our installation; building special frames and scaling their motifs to surround a newly built cafe for the hospital.
2022
As part of Hospital Rooms largest project to date, I was invited to collaborate on an installation, as an artist alongside Valerie Asiimwe Amani, Siphiwe Mnguni, Louis Caseley and Molly Bonnell. We ran 10 workshops with service users in a Forensic Ward in the London hospital used the participators artworks at the center of our installation; building special frames and scaling their motifs to surround a newly built cafe for the hospital.
Find out more about the project in the New York Times article here: www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/arts/design/hospital-rooms-murals.html
Or see the project publication here on It’s Nice That: www.itsnicethat.com/articles/polytechnic-springfield-hospital-rooms-publication-graphic-design-project-250324
SOCIAL MEDIA
2021-23
For nearly 3 years, I also acted as the social media creative for Hospital Rooms. Working as filmmaker, photographer and designer, my job was to share the message and work of the mental health charity with a wider audience and gain traction through social media.
