Eleanor Shipman

Eleanor is a participatory artist and illustrator living in Bristol, UK, and working around the world, recently spending a year in Vietnam.

Debate around sustainability, urban change, what it means to be a woman and notions of community underpin her creative practice. Eleanor’s work responds to and challenges public, urban and socio-political tensions through encouraging and engaging the general public and a diverse range of community groups: from people with dementia to school children or refugee women amongst others.

Eleanor's creative process often begins by facilitating a series of participatory workshops in drawing, making and talking with the communities involved, which develop into co-designed final outcomes. Projects have resulted in everything from patterned fabric being made into two sofas; an intergenerational podcast and timecapsule; and curating a touring exhibition on sustainable fashion as artistic outcomes.

Eleanor studied BA Fine Art (First Class Hons) at Chelsea College of Art from 2008 - 11 writing her thesis on the role of temporary public art in urban regeneration. Eleanor completed a research year for her art practice in 2016 through studying MSc Sustainable Development in Practice (Distinction) at the University of the West of England where she wrote her thesis ‘Swell, breach, absorb: How can participatory art use Asset-Based Community Development methodologies to catalyse more climate-resilient communities?’. Eleanor aims to embed what she has learnt throughout her creative practice.

Eleanor is also an illustrator, map-maker and pattern designer, see her work here.