Curator

Hannah established a new public gallery at Arts University Plymouth (previously Plymouth College of Art) in 2006, building the gallery from a small-scale, informal, internally-facing project space to relaunching as MIRROR in 2021, to create a platform dedicated to supporting the practices of artists in the South West.

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Mohini Chandra, Paradise Lost (2021). Image: Dom Moore

Example projects

The Belief in Things Disappearing, Jo Lathwood (2024)
Hannah commissioned Jo and mentored her over a two year period to create a new body of work and solo exhibition in response to Arts University Plymouth’s recurring biennial conference Making Futures and the work the gallery was doing to operate in more sustainable ways. 

The starting point for this exhibition came as a self directed challenge, set by the artist to make a show that disappears. Disappearance underpins every aspect of the work presented, explored through two key interconnecting, perhaps seemingly incongruous themes: waste and magic. Already deeply concerned with the environmental impact of her practice, the challenge shaped every aspect of how the work has been made, shown and what happened once the exhibition closed.

Jo Lathwood, ‘The Belief in Things Disappearing’, Opening Event. Credit: Luke Frost.

Bridge the Tamar (2023)

The exhibition showcased the work of twelve artists working in Plymouth and Cornwall. Inspired by an image from the city archive of activists demanding a bridge over the River Tamar, the exhibition explored local and global challenges of connectivity between peoples and societies. With works in the show responding to themes including displacement; longing and belonging; togetherness; community; repair; borders and edges; and place making. Curated with Elaine Sinclair.

Image courtesy of The Box © Mirrorpix

Give & Takeover commission series (2022)
As part of the re-launch of The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art as MIRROR in 2021, I developed the ‘Give & Takeover’ platform to encourage staff and students to make events happen in the gallery space alongside exhibitions. To demonstrate what might be possible and to create essential opportunities for emerging artists, I secured ACE funding to commission three Give & Takeover projects to run alongside the 2022 exhibitions programme.

Molly Erin McCarthy, Before The Linyow Came. Photo: Dom Moore, 2022.

Molly Erin McCarth

Molly created Before The Linyow Came, a series of Augmented Reality sculptures of landmarks from a speculative fiction world based on the ‘Forgotten Corner of Cornwall’. Presented as Instagram filters, exploring co-opting online platforms to widen accessibility to digital art, while critiquing their capitalist structures.

Production image (2022) Dan Guthrie.

Dan Guthrie

Dan presented IC3 GL5 a collection of new works which investigate historical and contemporary Black presences and mis-presences in his hometown of Stroud. These works draw from Dan’s experiences of being a part of a council-led panel set up to review local streets, buildings, statues and monuments in Stroud.

Rhys Morgan, Seaweed in the Fruit Locker Performance, Minerva Inn. Credit: Dom Moore.

Rhys Morgan

Rhys formed a new LGBTQIA+ sea shanty choir Seaweed in the fruit locker who presented a series of performances exploring collective performance in marginalized communities through the tradition of shanty singing. The choir used their lived experience to rework existing shanties and inspire new ones, continuing the tradition of these folk songs being adapted time and again through generations.

A Working Building, Katie Schwab (2019)
Evolving through an 18- month Design Residency, research for this show centred around recreational, educational and civic designs in Plymouth, alongside fabrics produced by the early twentieth- century Cryséde textile factory in St Ives. Works for the show have evolved from visits to the Council House, Drake Circus, Barbican Leisure Park, St Ives Archives and Penlee House to explore, amongst others, the woven murals of emigré designer Hans Tisdall and Cryséde’s block-printed silks.

Katie Schwab, ‘A Working Building’ (2019) Photo credit: Andy Ford

More than a Pony Show, Matt Stokes (2017)
Hannah worked closely with Matt through an immersive research process exploring the social structures of Plymouth and punk’s legacy of protest and resistance, whilst charting the decline of live music venues in the city. For More Than A Pony Show Stokes worked with five bands spanning generations of the punk/DIY music scene in Plymouth. In the film we see the bands stage a reoccupation of important music venues lost, or in a period of change.

Matt Stokes, More that a Pony Show (as part of ‘We the People are the Work’), 2017. Photo: Jamie Woodley