Lise Bennett

As an artist I work mainly in wire, paint, mixed media, collage and textiles. As a freelance Creative Practitioner with over 20 years of experience, I work with many organisations including Platform Thirty1, Junction Arts, Fleet Arts, Furthest From The Sea, AirArts, Museum of Making and many schools and community groups. One of my passions is how creativity can help our mental health, as well as bringing communities together. I am a Neighbourhood Creative Agent too, helping give agency in the area.

I am fascinated by the marks made by industry and inventions, and how this has shaped the world, but also impacted our lives at a community level. Living at the meeting point of the Amber and Derwent Valleys provides much inspiration for site specific creativity, especially as I live in a village where there was once a world renowned wireworks factory, Richard Johnson & Nephew.

In 2022, I was part of an Arts Council and National Lottery funded residency ‘Ambergate Wireworks – The Part They Played’ at the old wireworks site with fellow artist, Heidi Luker. We explored the personal stories of ex workers and their families, as well as the impact the wire made on the world at large, and responded by creating small scale wire sculptures in an interactive immersive installation. This was in co-production with the Museum Of Making in Derby.

In 2024 I was the lead artist working on ‘People Make Amber Valley’, a 2m wide map made from chicken wire. It was to celebrate 50 years of Amber Valley Borough Council and was supported by Make/Shift and Furthest From The Sea. Myself and 3 other artists also ran workshops within the community to create the figures using wire, textiles, paper, clay, paint and collage. It has permanent residence in Ripley Town Hall.