Eleanor Shipman is a participatory artist and illustrator living and working in Bristol, based at In Bristol Studios, and spent a year living in Vietnam in 2019. Eleanor’s work is concerned with concurrent states of being and the process of drawing out shared commonality between those dichotomies: hope and fear; isolation and togetherness; the domestic and the public; grief and joy. The liminal space where these states rebuff, align and overlap is explored, shared and reflected on through multimedia artworks using found objects, textiles, drawing, audio and installation. Eleanor is also interested in what it is to be a woman; the experience of birth and new motherhood as well as notions of community; sustainability and anticipatory mourning for climate collapse.

Works are often site specific, participatory or interactive - including people in research, process and product. Eleanor regularly collaborates with researchers, scientists and fellow creatives as well as the general public and a diverse range of community groups. Projects have resulted in everything from co-designing fabric for two sofas with refugee women and researchers (HERE / THERE: To be a woman); to co-curating Vietnam’s first large scale exhibition on sustainable fashion (Who Made My Clothes?); or installing a permanent exhibit of 24 spin-able hourglasses exploring the sustainability of sand at Bristol’s science centre We the Curious (24 Hours of Sand).

Eleanor studied BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art (2008 - 11) and deepened her research into climate resilience and participatory art through undertaking a MSc Sustainable Development in Practice at UWE (2015 - 16). Eleanor’s background includes working in public engagement and community development roles alongside her art practice, and Eleanor has been a full time freelance artist, illustrator and pattern designer since 2018. Eleanor was awarded Arts Council ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ (DYCP) funding to pursue new avenues in her creative practice in 2023 and is currently working on a year-long programme of residencies and new projects. Commissioners, funders and partners have included: Arts Council England; We the Curious; The Vietnamese Women’s Museum; Pump House Gallery; The University of Bristol; Historic England; The Royal Shakespeare Company; Wellcome Trust.