︎︎︎Residency at R-Urban!
Since Spring 2025, we have been hosting a residency programme at R-Urban.
We offer a free workspace for three months to artists, designers or makers working with urban ecologies, food, community activism and/or circular material practices of innovation, repair or reuse.
What we provide
Dedicated workspace (5.5m x 2.4m). Access to site amenities including kitchen, compost toilet, workshop space and classroom. You’ll have use of the space as and when you need, 7 days a week from 8am - 6pm.
We share our site with five partners so use of workshop and classroom needs to agreed in advance.
We are offering space but are not currently in a position to offer a stipend.
When will we advertise the residency?
We normally have two rounds of recruitment per year, in the Spring and in the Autumn. Keep an eye out for announcements by joining our mailing list.
We normally have two rounds of recruitment per year, in the Spring and in the Autumn. Keep an eye out for announcements by joining our mailing list.
︎︎︎ Previous Residents
Summer 2026 - Mol Benge
Mol Benge is a visual artist, illustrator and outdoors educator. Their practice explores the intersections of ecology, queerness and environmental education.
While in residence at R-Urban, Mol is working with the garden through drawing, painting and writing to create teaching resources, workshop materials and printed activities that encourage playful exploration of urban community gardens and the environmental activism embedded within them.
@molbenge
mollybenge.com
Mol Benge is a visual artist, illustrator and outdoors educator. Their practice explores the intersections of ecology, queerness and environmental education.
While in residence at R-Urban, Mol is working with the garden through drawing, painting and writing to create teaching resources, workshop materials and printed activities that encourage playful exploration of urban community gardens and the environmental activism embedded within them.
@molbenge
mollybenge.com
Summer 2026 - Lewis Greener
Lewis is a youth worker and artist, his practice started with photography and has expanded to use sound, moving image and text. As a member of the gate darkroom and Print Collective community risograph press, He makes work about our environment, how we understand it and how it shapes us.
While in-residence at R-Urban, Lewis is exploring more eco-friendly, plant based and DIY photographic processes and putting them into practice through regular photo sessions.
@deep_northumbria
deepnorthumbria.com
Lewis is a youth worker and artist, his practice started with photography and has expanded to use sound, moving image and text. As a member of the gate darkroom and Print Collective community risograph press, He makes work about our environment, how we understand it and how it shapes us.
While in-residence at R-Urban, Lewis is exploring more eco-friendly, plant based and DIY photographic processes and putting them into practice through regular photo sessions.
@deep_northumbria
deepnorthumbria.com
Spring 2026 - Faye Matloub
“Following a degree in sculpture, my artistic practice gradually transitioned toward the medium of food. As my work moved beyond the confines of the studio and onto the plate, I began to define this evolving body of work as Edible Mediums. Edible Mediums encompasses a diverse range of formats, including workshops, community engagement projects, supper clubs, and written work. As a second generation Iraqi, I use food to engage with different communities, learn from them, and conduct research on the preservation of migrant identity – emphasising the importance of creating accessible language for first and second generation immigrants like myself in a creative context.
Whilst in residency, I'll be researching generational recipes, sharing these with R-Urban through workshops..”
@edible.mediums
“Following a degree in sculpture, my artistic practice gradually transitioned toward the medium of food. As my work moved beyond the confines of the studio and onto the plate, I began to define this evolving body of work as Edible Mediums. Edible Mediums encompasses a diverse range of formats, including workshops, community engagement projects, supper clubs, and written work. As a second generation Iraqi, I use food to engage with different communities, learn from them, and conduct research on the preservation of migrant identity – emphasising the importance of creating accessible language for first and second generation immigrants like myself in a creative context.
Whilst in residency, I'll be researching generational recipes, sharing these with R-Urban through workshops..”
@edible.mediums
Spring 2026 - George Ridgway
“My practice works across sound, research and ecological surveying, and my ongoing interests include sonic ways of understanding spaces and thresholds of (in)audibility. I am using the next few months at R-Urban to respond to its stewardship system, experimenting with urban ecology habitat creation and monitoring through practices of commoning.”
@georgeridgway
“My practice works across sound, research and ecological surveying, and my ongoing interests include sonic ways of understanding spaces and thresholds of (in)audibility. I am using the next few months at R-Urban to respond to its stewardship system, experimenting with urban ecology habitat creation and monitoring through practices of commoning.”
@georgeridgway
Autumn 2025 - Nihal J Singh
“My work spans woodworking, youth and community spaces, and arts activism, often centring collaboration and skill sharing. Many of these ideas emerge directly from children’s conversations, sketches, and play, and my aim is to translate them into thoughtful, collaborative builds.“
@nihal.j.singh
nihaljsingh.github.io
“My work spans woodworking, youth and community spaces, and arts activism, often centring collaboration and skill sharing. Many of these ideas emerge directly from children’s conversations, sketches, and play, and my aim is to translate them into thoughtful, collaborative builds.“
@nihal.j.singh
nihaljsingh.github.io
Autumn 2025 - Christine Chua
“As I navigate the changing environment of a city, I work amongst detritus and neglected sites, giving raw or discarded materials a new lease of life. Through a meditative process of excavation, I revisit our ancient relationship to the landscape, sparking a renewed sense of ownership to the earth and the communities we share.“
@xtine.art.earthquake
“As I navigate the changing environment of a city, I work amongst detritus and neglected sites, giving raw or discarded materials a new lease of life. Through a meditative process of excavation, I revisit our ancient relationship to the landscape, sparking a renewed sense of ownership to the earth and the communities we share.“
@xtine.art.earthquake
Summer 2025 - Gemma Lawrence
“I’m a visual artist working in drawing, printmaking and painting. I’m interested in using drawing as an experimental tool for engaging with my surrounding environment and visualising longer term environmental change. I work with found materials such as disused packaging - feeding my interest in transforming overlooked objects and introducing chance into the making process.“
@gemma.c.lawrence
“I’m a visual artist working in drawing, printmaking and painting. I’m interested in using drawing as an experimental tool for engaging with my surrounding environment and visualising longer term environmental change. I work with found materials such as disused packaging - feeding my interest in transforming overlooked objects and introducing chance into the making process.“
@gemma.c.lawrence
Spring 2025 - Ketchurah Ravindren
"My practice centres around being a community chef and facilitator. Providing nutritious, seasonal food to support groups in green spaces, health and wellbeing charities, and catering for artist-led retreats. My strong interest in food justice, addressing social inequalities and food education is evident in the use of surplus produce. With an interest in exploring and resurfacing lost and dying practices around food."
@ketchurahskitchen
breakingbread9.wordpress.com
"My practice centres around being a community chef and facilitator. Providing nutritious, seasonal food to support groups in green spaces, health and wellbeing charities, and catering for artist-led retreats. My strong interest in food justice, addressing social inequalities and food education is evident in the use of surplus produce. With an interest in exploring and resurfacing lost and dying practices around food."
@ketchurahskitchen
breakingbread9.wordpress.com
Spring 2025 - Stephanie Pau
Steph is a transdisciplinary artist, a human in a more-than-human world. She creates installations, collographs and durational performances with waste materials (food packaging, wood, dead/felled plants) and self-publishes zines. Guided by the seasons and local waste, she creates artworks that hold gentle and experimental spaces for questioning and practising ecological care and belonging in urban settings.
@whereisfuture
tomatoplants-et-al.net
Steph is a transdisciplinary artist, a human in a more-than-human world. She creates installations, collographs and durational performances with waste materials (food packaging, wood, dead/felled plants) and self-publishes zines. Guided by the seasons and local waste, she creates artworks that hold gentle and experimental spaces for questioning and practising ecological care and belonging in urban settings.
@whereisfuture
tomatoplants-et-al.net