Symposium’ Learning to Talk Painting: Exploring Residency Models and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Contemporary Painting

02/09/2025, 11 am to 5 pm

LJMU Fine Art Studios, Liverpool John Moores University 

John Lennon Arts and Design Building (2 Duckinfield, Liverpool L3 5RD)

The Learning to Talk Painting: Exploring Residency Models and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Contemporary Painting symposium aims to open this residency programme to a broader community of artists, educators, and researchers. Together, we will explore diverse residency models, examine best practices, and discuss the dissemination of artistic outcomes to local and broader publics.

A key focus will be the development of an expanded residency structure for 2027, envisioning collaborative opportunities for UK and Chinese artists to work side-by-side, share knowledge through the language of painting, and innovate new forms of practice-based research, artistic exchange and collaboration.

Further details

11.00 Welcome and Introduction to JMPPC and the LJMU Residency with Professor Juan Cruz (Principal Edinburgh College of Art) and Hana Leaper (LJMU)

11.20 Models of Residency Practice 1 – Dirty Practice (2015- 20)

with Maggie Aycliffe (Programme Leader in Fine Art, LJMU) and Dr Christian Mieves (Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Newcastle)

Dirty Practice was initiated in 2015 as a short residency and symposium for staff, students and invited artists in the Wolverhampton School of Art. The aim was to create a space in the academic year for reflection on our teaching and learning methodologies within Fine Art and to challenge the increasingly fragmented engagement with studio-based learning observed in our students. The project developed an international focus during lockdown through two Zoom-based studio conferences:

We continue to explore methodologies for teaching painting with current concerns around the need to experience painting materially rather than digitally, and the potential of working in a ‘ residence’ with artists in a vertical studio scenario and engagement with teaching and painting collections.

11.40 Models of Residency Practice 2 – The Summer Lodge

with Danica Maier (Associate Professor in Fine Art, Nottingham Trent University)

The Summer Lodge (2009–2019) was a ten-day artist residency held within the Fine Art studios of Nottingham Trent University. Focusing on process rather than outcome, it offered an opportunity to think through making by working for a while without many of the usual constraints and distractions. It was a collective space in which participants undertook experiments, pursued new ideas, and allowed unexpected leaps of imagination. The Lodge brought together NTU staff and PhD researchers, selected national and international artists, and studio assistants drawn from NTU’s UG and PG courses—around 40 individuals engaged in critical exchange and dialogue through this period of sustained studio practice.
In this talk, Dr Maier will reflect on the ethos and structure of the Summer Lodge.

11.40 Models of Residency Practice 3 – Residencies for Artists

with Nadia Hebson (Head of Graduate Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art)
Nadia will share from her first residency experience in 1996 in Senegallia, Italy as a recent graduate, to a year long teaching residency the University of Wales in Cardiff in 2002, to the British School at Rome as the Derek Hill Scholar in 2008, to the solitary Durham Cathedral Residency from 2009-10, to a communal experience as a member of curatorial collective Drop City at Air Antwerpen and M HKA in 2017 in Belgium, to her most recent residency as a mid-career artist at Dorich House Museum 2020-22. The residencies have uniquely shaped her identity as an artist and educator, and over nearly thirty years, provided a sustained critical platform through which to develop her work when significantly other avenues have been closed to her. In this talk, she will share insights into these experiences, how they have enabled involvement, and offer an anecdotal toolkit for residency providers.

12.00 Feedback and questions

12.30 – 1.30 lunch

1.30 Overview of models 

Round table – Developing the model

3.00 Introduction to the John Moores Painting Prize, China winning artists, and tour of the 2025 exhibition 

4.00 Drinks reception and networking