Artists: Anouska Samms, april forrest lin 林森, Alexander Stubbs, Emma Bentley-Fox, Emma Brennan, Hannah Leighton-Boyce, Josie KO, Kaiya Waerea, Sym Stellium, and Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin.

Partners:
Eastside Projects, New Art Exchange, PS2, Spike Island, Site Gallery and Studio Voltaire Syllabus is funded by Freelands Foundation and Arts Council England.

Syllabus is a nationally recognised alternative learning programme supporting artists across the UK. Led by a consortium of arts organisations and coordinated by Wysing Arts Centre, the programme brings together artists to collectively shape a year-long curriculum through gatherings, workshops, conversations, and self-directed learning.

Between 2025 and 2026, I served as Artist Advisor for Syllabus VIII, supporting a cohort of artists through retreats, online sessions, one-to-one conversations, and collaborative curriculum design. My role centred on creating conditions for reflection, experimentation, and exchange, drawing on my interests in artist development, collective learning, folklore, ritual, and world-building.

Working alongside artists from across the UK, I contributed to the programme's exploration of how knowledge is shared, how communities of practice are formed, and how artists might sustain themselves and one another amidst changing cultural, social, and ecological conditions. Through facilitated workshops, moon circles, speculative exercises, and group discussions, we explored questions of worlding, collectivity, systems, care, and the stories we inherit and create together.

The programme culminated in a series of gatherings and artist-led interventions that reflected the cohort's collective interests and emerging practices. Rather than offering a fixed curriculum, Syllabus functions as a living ecology of learning, shaped by the experiences, questions, and contributions of those involved.

My involvement in Syllabus VIII builds on an ongoing commitment to artist-led learning, peer support, and the creation of spaces where imagination, criticality, and mutual care can thrive.

Photos by Emma Bentley-Fox