CREATIVE CULTURES FELLOWSHIP – Exeter University, January-July 2023
Maritime Environmental History: Oral Histories and Creative Conversations
A Creative fellowship at Exeter University exploring poetry’s place in discussions around environmental history. Oil spills, mine shafts, pedestrianisation, marine life, animal rehabilitation, oral histories…
More info here: https://www.artsandcultureexeter.co.uk/creative-fellowship/maritime-environmental-history-oral-histories-and-creative-conversations
DARTINGTON, 2022-23
Poet In Residence
Selected by Alice Oswald & Dr Martin Shaw to be the first ever Poet in Residence for Dartington’s grade II listed gardens.
More info here: https://www.dartington.org/ella-frears-becomes-the-first-poet-in-residence-for-dartingtons-gardens/
JOHN HANSARD GALLERY, 2021-22
A residency responding poetically to the works on show at John Hansard Gallery. Residency pamphlet I AM THE MOTHER CAT out with Rough Trade Books. Also includes publication NO PAINTINGS, SORRY – poems by the Gallery Assistants at John Hansard Gallery written during a series of poetry workshops lead by Ella.
Pamphlet here: https://roughtradebooks.com/products/i-am-the-mother-cat-ella-frears
MOTORWAY SERVICES, 2019-20
photo by Cat Goryn
Supported by Arts Council England, Ella Frears visited 16 motorway service stations between Cornwall (where she grew up) and London (where she lives now). The project culminated in an event at Bold Tendencies, Peckham launching a limited edition pamphlet Somebody Loves Us All .
Project producer – Tom MacAndrew.
Project photographer/videographer – Alban Roinard
The footage from the road trip was made into a short film by Naomi Frears.
See also Ella’s film Who is Driving the Poem?
TATE ST IVES, 2018-22
Shine, Darling (Offord Road Books)
A series of newly commissioned poems, drawing on archival material and Ella’s own girlhood in St Ives – each with its own form (wall text/tear-sheet/audio etc) in response to the Modern Art and St Ives exhibition. On display/available in the gallery spaces.
BACK FROM THE BRINK, 2018-20
(mosses and field trips), 2014 which we screened at our moss themed event.
A residency with Conservation organisation Back from the Brink. Making work about the UK’s most at-risk species. Ella Frears and artist Ben Sanderson threw each species a themed event at spaces including The Eden Project, Exeter Phoenix, CAST Cafe, Lanhydrock.
K6 GALLERY – THE NUMBER 17 BUS, 2018
A residency commissioned by K6 gallery marking 25 years since the original Citybus Project by Carol Ann Duffy and Nancy Honey. Poems By Ella Frears and photos by Toby Glanville about/in response to time spent on board buses on the Bluestar 17 route in Southampton.
Poems and photos on display on the top decks of Number 17 buses 2018-23.
Also available in the publication available from K6. http://k6gallery.com/shop/
THE CASSINI SPACECRAFT – ROYAL HOLLOWAY PHYSICS DEPARTMENT, 2017-18
Writing poems about the Cassini Space Mission (the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn). In conversation with scientists at Imperial and Royal Holloway universities. Working towards its scheduled destruction after nearly 20 years in space. The project culminated in a ‘funeral’ event curated by Ella, on the night Cassini tumbled out of orbit with poetry, collaborations with composers, architects, filmmakers & designers including a space funeral march performed live, designs for a tomb & memorial temporary tattoos.
THE OBSERVATORY – BUCKLER’S HARD, 2016
Artist/Writer in Residence in the Observatory spaces in Buckler’s Hard with SPUD.
NATIONAL TRUST – KNOLE HOUSE, 2015
Ella Frears 