William Titley

William is the Senior Lecturer & Course Leader for MA Fine Art, and a Co-founder and Director of 'In-Situ', an artist led organisation (Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation), based in Pendle, East Lancashire, UK. His transdisciplinary research practice crosses a variety of fields including Art, Anthropology, Architecture, Sociology, Psychoanalysis, Health & Wellbeing, and Geography. His projects and artworks interrogate and reveal aspects of community, and the collective interpretation of landscape through a creative process of engagement with People, Place and Environment.

Besides being the Course Leader for the Masters Programme in Fine Art, William has exhibited extensively around the world including The USA, Pakistan, India and Europe. He has produced books about his social art projects and writes as a participant, as an artist and as a member of the local community. His paper 'Creative Relations' was published by Taylor & Francis (Routledge) in The Journal of Social Work in 2017 and reveals the impact of social art processes on all participants, including the artist. By adopting artistic research methods, and specifically, by making work in the place where he lives, his research analyses social artistic processes from the perspective of the artist, adding to debates around what social arts practice is, and what its limits are in its original social context and within the gallery and documentary systems of dissemination. For examples from his archive spanning 20 years of Social Art Practice, please visit his website at William Titley.

With a wide range of Awards, William’s creative research practice aims to make art a part of everyday life through the embedding of exhibitions, performances, installations, conferences and public interventions into everyday situations with local and international communities. Working with and supporting international artists and communities from the UK, Europe, Pakistan, Mexico, USA, and India, and disseminating his outputs internationally his work continues to reach world-wide audiences: appearing on BBC Radio 6Music with Mary Anne Hobbs (over 2.5 million listeners), and The Muslim TV channel, which is transmitted to over 136 countries).

2017 ongoing: ‘The Time Machine’ - Exploring the soundtrack of time and space, the interactive sculpture is a work in progress; constructed from a 1976 Jukebox.

The space created by the time machine explores how individual and cultural memory resonates in the shaping of social space, and the soundscape’s deep connection to place; exploring identity and place through the use of popular music and personal responses to time and place. https://youtu.be/-bYQjuolcDA 2004 - 2018. ‘Demolition Street’. An Archive of a Lancashire Street. http://www.williamtitley.org/demost.html The artist-researcher William Titley worked with residents on a street in Colne, faced with enforced displacement as part of a national strategy of regeneration called ‘The Housing Market Renewal Programme’. 2011 ‘Something in the Pipeline’ Active Research Performance and Exhibition at The Centre for the Urban Built Environment (Cube), Manchester. In collaboration with artist Jason Minsky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM11VEZmf_Y A residency involving a gallery exhibition and a challenging live outdoor performance, tracing Manchester’s water supply from Haweswater in Cumbria to Heaton Park in Manchester. Running, kayaking and cycling from Cumbria to Manchester. 2002 – 2006 Tidal Properties - Resident artist for Allerdale Borough Council in Workington and Maryport, Cumbria. The Creation and delivery of a new City & Guilds approved New Media Skills programme with Adobe Photoshop with disenfranchised communities on the Northside Estate. 2016 ongoing. ‘The Gentleman’s Wardrobe’ https://malecarers.wordpress.com The interactive audio-visual sculpture called ‘The Gentleman’s Wardrobe’ emerged from a social process involving a small group of men in East Lancashire who cared for a loved one at home. 2012 – 2014 ‘Recorded Soul’, http://www.in-situ.org.uk/recorded-soul/ A community engagement project engaging with a group of young street dancers and the established community of Northern Soul in the UK. 2012 ongoing. ‘Lahore – Chandigarh’ A Touring Community Engagement Exhibition made from 100 photographs from Lahore, Pakistan and 100 photographs from Chandigarh, India. Each community helped to install the photos in their place and discuss the issue of Partition. The accompanying publication by Café Royal Books ‘Lahore Chandigarh’ can viewed online here https://issuu.com/williamtitley/docs/web_lahore_chandigarh3 2011 ‘Light, Passion & Darkness’ – a touring exhibition at Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale, Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery, and Gallery Oldham. An exhibition of non-western art with aims to raise the profile of artists referencing the traditions, and focusing on works by artists with South Asian heritage. 2011 ‘The Other’ a large pencil drawing of 100 images of Pakistan. (100 x 100cms) My work was purchased by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and placed in The Blackburn Museum Collection. 2010 ‘Flower of Lahore’: a collection of work inspired by Lahore Pakistan (paintings, sculpture, video) shown at Rogue Project Space Gallery, Manchester. 2010 ‘Place Beyond Place’, a public performance exploring time, space and imagination through mapping and the merging of experiences of Lahore, Pakistan with real-time experiences of Preston, Lancashire. An Urban Tour, commissioned by In-Certain Places. 2010 ongoing. ‘This is England – This is Pakistan’ over 200 hand-made postcard sized artworks exchanged and exhibited in Brierfield Lancashire 2011, Beaconhouse National University, Pakistan 2012, Center for Contemporary Arts in Preston 2014, and Mexico 2015. Artists, students, academics and communities involved were from Lancashire, Poland, London, USA, Mexico and Pakistan including work by Turner Prize Winner Lubaina Himid. 2008 ‘Big Art Project’: a public art commission by Channel 4. Lead Artist in Burnley exploring people and place.

Use the links below to view their profiles:

2019 – 2020 Artist in Residence: Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery: ‘Kicking Down The Barriers’, a commission to explore the future use of the North’s oldest South Asian Gallery. Collaborating with other local artists and producers, and working with communities in Blackburn. 2020 – Artist in Residence: Limehurst Arts Society Oldham – exploring, and developing DIY Cultures in times of austerity with communities in Oldham, Manchester. Since 2011 - In-Situ: William is a Founding Director of an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation in East Lancashire. With the aim of ‘Making Art a part of Everyday Life’. Exploring how art can be embedded into everyday situations with local and international communities, working creatively with People, Place and the Environment. 2015 - 2021 – ‘Vice Chancellors Scholarship’: William is a PhD candidate in Social Arts Practice at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research analyses social artistic processes from the perspective of the artist, adding to debates around what social arts practice is, and what its limits are in its original social context and other systems of dissemination.

• Arts Council England Status of National Portfolio Organisation £1.3m • ACE: Grants for the Arts since 2003 over £70K • British Council International Research since 2011 over £35K • Vice Chancellors Post-Graduate Scholarship at MMU over £12K • University of Central Lancashire Research Awards since 2011 over £10K • AHRC Bursary Award 2001 £8K • Juliet Gomperts Trust 2008 – the trustees decided to increase the cash prize by 50% on merit of my community engagement projects £2K. • Tom Buckroyd Prize for Art - £500

2019 Symposium Speaker - ‘Art & Class’ – Preston. Exploring the presence of class in the arts, and its impact on professional development/progression.
2018 ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ - The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester. International, Interdisciplinary Symposium on The Boundaries of Asian Identities. Exploring popular music, memory and identity.
2018 International Symposium Speaker - ‘Reverie: Knowing from the Inside’, University of Aberdeen. Exploring collective reverie as Social Art Practice focusing on a project with men who care for someone who is ill at home.
2018 International Conference Exhibition Screening preview of ‘[birdsong]’ Artist Talk at ‘The Social Art Summit’ in Sheffield. Revealing socially engaged processes through film.
2017 ‘Sound of Memory’, exhibition and discussion of ‘The Time Machine’ at Goldsmiths University and The Whitechapel Gallery London. Please see exhibitions for further details.
2016 International Conference Speaker - ‘Brief Encounters’; Canterbury University – The Art of Participation and Performative. Exploring the navigation of space through photography and social processes. https://www.partakejournal.org/copy-of-performative-schizoid-c-sva
2016 Conference Speaker - ‘Creative Relations’; AHRC NW PG. Exploring the impact on artists working within Socially Engaged Practices.
2015 Open Discussion with: Suzanne Lacy (Artist, Writer and Professor of Arts at USC Roski School of Fine Arts, California.) and a panel of artists and curators unpicking practice, process, product and people; discussing the aesthetics and ethics of socially engaged practice and the challenge of presenting it in the gallery. Chaired by Laurie Peake (Director of Super Slow Way) the discussion was joined by Alistair Hudson (Director of The Manchester City Art Gallery and The Whitworth Art Gallery), Ailbhe Murphy (Artist and Director of Create Ireland), Rauf Bashir (Director of the Free Spiritual Centre and Building Bridges Pendle) Paul Hartley (Director of In-Situ), Carolyn Hassan, (Director of Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol), and William Titley (Artist, Senior Lecturer at UCLan and Founding Director of In-Situ).
2015 ‘Practicing Place’ by In-Certain Places: In discussion with Social Geographer Dr. Steven Millington (MMU) about the project ‘Demolition Street’. A video of the discussion is available online at In-Certain Places website.
2014 ‘International Networks and Local Landscapes’
http://www.in-situ.org.uk/international-networks-local-landscapes/
William was the Principal Investigator organizing and curating a three day event in three different venues across Lancashire. Presenting exhibitions, workshops and seminars with delegates from the UK, Europe, Pakistan and the USA. Discussing key topics relating to socially engaged arts practice, sharing and exploring ideas about cross-disciplinary approaches, corporate influences, negotiating places, grassroots approaches, and ethical arts practice. International networks were nurtured and local communities were imagined, cities were hidden and monuments were sent from the future.

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