Introduction
Zoe Forster is a working class, multi-disciplinary artist and arts educator from Silloth in West Cumbria. Zoe studied an undergraduate Fine Art degree at The Chelsea College of Art & Design followed by a Masters Degree in Fine Art Media at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, both of which she completed with First Class Honours before returning to her native Cumbria.
Zoe’s work
Zoe returned to West Cumbria with intention; to share, support and elevate working class communities through quality engagement, upholding community arts within the same ether as traditional fine art.
Her socially engaged practice celebrates and gives genuine voice to working class communities; works such as ‘Mirehouse Kids’, ‘Coastal Youth’ and ‘West Cumbria Kids’ all seek to explore, uplift, skill share and work to elevate communities such as hers.
Zoe uses a multitude of ‘tools’ to support engagement within communities. Most recently using film and photography in the creation of ‘Coastal Youth’, an evolution of ‘Against The Tide’, a photography project alongside Photojournalist Polly Braden, The Guardian Seascape team, Rosehill and University of Lancashire.
As well as this, she is the Director of The Creative Space Cumbria, a CIC within her hometown, with intention of creating and sharing creative opportunity with her community.
What makes Zoe a SITBI champion
Zoe’s work is being used to inform policy and decision making for Coastal Communities, most recently being shown as part of the Coastal Navigators Network as evidence of disparities between living coastal and inland. She has also been long listed for The Artist Prize for her film ‘Mirehouse Kids’, made within the community of Mirehouse, Whitehaven and with arts organisation Everyone Here.
Relentless in her mission to make art accessible for the working classes, Zoe’s work ethic and determination combined with bringing her skills and education back to Cumbria make her a SITBI Champion.
