Jean McEwan – Visual Artist and Creative Facilitator

Jean worked with Kirklees Council via their Temporary Contemporary initiative in an ongoing public creative consultation project, ‘Growing Cultures’, engaging with people in Queensgate Market in Huddersfield to explore and test ideas for culture in the district. The project, designed and carried out by Jean, based in Huddersfield’s Kirkgate Market, invited people to imagine, dream and talk about what tomorrow’s culture in Kirklees could be and look like, via a wide range of creative activities, from seed planting to zine making, mapping, and conversations. Jean began a new phase of the project in May 2020.

Jean previously worked with Kirklees Council Creative Economy team in 2016 on the ‘Postcards From the Future’ project.

Circle of Friends Go Walking was a collaboration between Jean McEwan and Blackburn Circle of Friends group, commissioned by arts programme Super Slow Way as one of their first community residencies. Together Jean and the group explored playful, creative ways of walking, wandering and wondering, in Blackburn and beyond.

During the walks with Jean, the group had conversations, recorded sounds, took photographs and collected found objects as a means of collecting and curating emotions, memories and to develop a sense of place. The group created zines (DIY magazines) as a way of recording its explorations.

The group had been running for 18 years, with many of the current members having attended for years, some since the beginning. Jean said: “We spent a session with the group making personal maps of walks significant to them personally, and now we are in the process of going on these walks together, with each person leading on their own walk.

Kavita lead the first walk, to Corporation Park, where she has happy memories of walking in the summer with her boyfriend. People took photos, recorded sounds, took notes, followed paths and told local history and personal stories. Afterwards, some of the group collected research and did some writing about the experience. We decided that it would be interesting to make a ‘zine (a handmade magazine) containing everyone’s experiences and reflections of the walk – as a kind of alternative guide.“

Watch a video about the project here

Find out more about the project on the Super Slow Way website

Read more about Jean’s approach to the working with the group here

2018 was the centenary of only some privileged women being granted the right to vote – and our struggle is in no way over – but the 1918 Representation of the People Act was an important milestone in the history of equality.

In a series of open workshops, Jean, The Brickbox and a team of brilliant women from across the district co-created a unique banner with the message “Bradford Grows Powerful Women”. This banner was then be processed through the streets of London, carried aloft by it’s makers at a huge coming-together in June 2018.

This vast artwork was based on an original idea by creative director Darrell Vydelingum. PROCESSIONS was commissioned by 14–18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary and produced by Artichoke. With support from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Read a blog about the process of making the banner on the Brickbox website.