Emily Hesse

Emily Hesse
Name	Emily Hesse
Birth date	1980
Birth place	Middlesbrough, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Artist, curator, lecturer
Known for	Sculpture, installation, ceramics, public commissions

Emily Hesse is a British artist, curator and educator known for multidisciplinary work that engages sculpture, ceramics, installation and public commissions. Her practice intersects community-led projects, heritage narratives and feminist inquiry, producing artworks and programmes across galleries, museums and public spaces. Hesse's approach often weaves together local histories, craft traditions and social activism, collaborating with institutions, municipal bodies and grassroots organisations.

Early life and education

Hesse was born in Middlesbrough and raised in North Yorkshire, where regional identities and industrial legacies influenced her outlook alongside cultural institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern, British Museum, National Gallery and Imperial War Museum. She studied art at regional colleges and later pursued postgraduate study at the Royal College of Art, aligning her training with peers and tutors connected to Glasgow School of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, Central Saint Martins and the University of the Arts London. During formative years she engaged with local councils including Middlesbrough Borough Council and initiatives connected to Arts Council England and National Lottery Heritage Fund, while drawing on archives from institutions like the Teesside Archives and collections at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Artistic career and practice

Hesse's career spans exhibitions, residencies and public commissions delivered through collaborations with galleries and cultural organisations such as SculptureCenter, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery and regional venues across the North East of England. She has worked within frameworks established by bodies including Arts Council England, the British Council and local academic departments linked to University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Newcastle University and University of Leeds. Her practice navigates material processes found in ceramics studios associated with the British Ceramic Biennial and fabrication workshops that echo traditions present at the Victoria and Albert Museum collection stores. Hesse has also taken roles as curator and educator in partnerships with institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery, RIBA, Royal Society of Arts and community-focused charities like Creative United.

Major works and exhibitions

Hesse's major projects include site-specific commissions and touring exhibitions presented at venues like the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Street Level Photoworks, MIMA (The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art), RCA Galleries and festival contexts such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Hay Festival. Her installations have been featured in group shows alongside artists represented by galleries connected to the Saatchi Gallery, Tate Britain and Whitechapel Gallery, and in curated programmes supported by organisations like Jerwood Arts, Hayward Gallery Project Space, mima and the British Council. Public commissions include interventions for municipal regeneration schemes, collaborations with urban planners and heritage bodies including Historic England and local regeneration trusts. Hesse's work has been documented in exhibition catalogues produced by publishers associated with Thames & Hudson, Phaidon Press, Sternberg Press and specialist ceramic journals.

Style and themes

Hesse's visual language synthesises hand-made craft practices with conceptual frameworks found in feminist art histories and social documentary traditions exemplified by artists in the canon of Grayson Perry, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor and Eva Hesse. Her vocabulary incorporates ceramics, plaster, textiles and found materials, referencing industrial histories linked to sites such as Teesside Steelworks, Port of Middlesbrough and infrastructural narratives comparable to those documented in exhibitions at the Science Museum and National Railway Museum. Themes include memory, labour, maternal histories and regional identity, resonating with discourses promoted by curators from institutions like the Tate Modern, The Hepworth Wakefield, Walker Art Gallery and Museums Association. Hesse stages objects and environments that interrogate archival practices, material culture and the politics of remembrance, often invoking methodologies familiar to researchers at Wellcome Collection and historians affiliated with the Institute of Historical Research.

Collaborations and community projects

Collaboration is central to Hesse's output: she has partnered with community groups, municipal heritage projects and arts organisations including Creative People and Places, Theatres Trust, Arts Council England funded networks and local trusts such as Tees Valley Combined Authority. Projects have linked artists, activists, archivists and volunteers in co-produced programmes delivered in conjunction with libraries, museums and colleges like Middlesbrough College and Teesside University. Her community practice echoes participatory models advanced by collectives connected to Common Practice, Artlyst and the National Lottery Heritage Fund community strands, producing workshops, oral-history initiatives and public-facing commissions that foreground lived experience and place-based narratives.

Awards and recognition

Hesse has received awards, residencies and recognition from cultural bodies such as Arts Council England, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, the Royal Society of Sculptors and trusts affiliated with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. Her work has been shortlisted for prizes and supported by development programmes offered by institutions like the British Council, TATE Exchange and regional funding streams administered by local authorities and heritage organisations. Critical reception in national and regional media has positioned her within contemporary dialogues fostered by magazines and platforms such as ArtReview, Frieze, The Guardian, The Independent and specialist ceramic networks.

Category:British artists Category:People from Middlesbrough