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The Sheffield culture guide written by in-the-know locals

Meet the Locals

Our interviews with some of the creative folk who happily call Sheffield home. Get to know local artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, poets, and more.

Our Guides

Meet the Locals: Yorkshire Artspace

Get to know some of the community of artists and makers who are based at Yorkshire Artspace's two sites, and who are continuing Sheffield’s proud tradition of making.

Lisa O'Hara

Doodles and designs inspired by all things curious and creepy, funny and folklore. Here the illustrator and graphic designer chats goggle eyes and gargoyles, as her characters are hidden across the city as part of the Urban Dwellers trail.

Arts Catalyst

A visual arts organisation reimagining how we relate to the the world around us. Sparking conversation and creative responses to climate change, and building a communal sense of place through collaboration.

Chim'Di

A Nigerian artist based in Sheffield, who creates abstract Afro-centric and Afro-futuristic paintings. Here she talks about the importance of authenticity, family and community to her creativity.

Kedisha Coakley

Inspired by African and Caribbean cultures, artist Kedisha Coakley invites people on a mesmerising journey of childhood memories, cultural symbols and spiritual iconography.

Theresa Bruno

Mixing ready-made objects with new media, artist Theresa Bruno plays with power structures and consumer trends.

Zoyander Street

An artist repurposing old technology and “toxic garbage” to create playful and playable forms of documentary – using art and gaming to process ideas around emotion, trans experiences and the self.

ArtWorks

A collective of artists with learning disabilities.

Yuen Fong Ling

An artist whose work uncovers hidden histories and connect past figures with autobiography – currently exploring the Sheffield legacy of writer, poet, activist and socialist Edward Carpenter (1844-1929).

Kisha Bradley

At social enterprise Bright Box Makerspace, Kisha creates playful spaces to explore tech, engineering and arts. Getting kids curious and confident to try new things.

Tyler Mellins

An artist inspired by all things paranormal, magical and occult, whose work is "equal parts serious and camp."

Paul Evans

A background in philosophy and archeology and a love of climbing inform Paul's art practice.

Eelyn Lee

An artist and filmmaker, exploring race, identity and ‘othering’, and challenging commonly accepted narratives of past, present and future.

Siân Williams

An artist based at Bloc, whose practice references the feminine and sees seeming irreverence jostle with political poignance.

Andy Cropper

Bus stops, tram tracks, alleyways. Andy Cropper takes these ordinary, unremarkable, utilitarian places – the sorts of places we pass every day – and turns them into quietly, almost eerily beautiful oil paintings.

Toni Buckby

Working with textiles, electronics and computer art, Toni is an artist who brings the traditional and the progressive into dialogue to create something entirely new.

David Fennell-Roberts

A painter and printmaker capturing the essence of the area around Long Island, an overlooked part of Sheffield at the core of this city's rich history.

Clee Claire Lee

A sculptor working with wire, welding and weaving it into ethereal forms and bringing in light and sound to create immersive installations.

Chloë Brown

An artist-filmmaker investigating the histories of post-industrial cities and amplifying voices that have traditionally been silenced.

Society of Explorers

A curious, enthusiastic and creative collective of 14-to-19-year-olds, chatting, making and curating art from their Site Gallery base.

Ashley Holmes

An artist with a multitude of interests – music, film, visual arts, archiving – investigating social and political histories, and exploring the ways that stories of Black people in Britain are told.

Kid Acne

If you've spent a decent amount of time in Sheffield, chances are you'll have come across, and come to love, the work of graffiti artist-musician-printmaker Kid Acne in one form or another.

Geo Law

A master doodler, Geo creates work with "plenty of colour, character and narrative to sink your eyes into".

Seiko Kinoshita

Working at her huge dobby loom, Seiko creates yarn sculptures inspired by nature that are full of calm and beauty.

Rae de Soleil

A firm fixture on Sheffield's poetry scene, weaving the ills of society and its oppression within each word and unravelling the personal-political.

Lucy Vann

Lucy Vann is an artist preoccupied with small-scale weirdness and the surreally mundane. From her studio she works with video, sculpture, performance and installation.

John Hoyland

Introducing John Hoyland (1934-2011), the Sheffield-born abstract painter who took on the international art world.

Rob Lee

A graphic artist whose large-scale geometric murals invite interaction and inject a shot of vibrancy into the city.

Peter Martin

Peter Martin is an artist and GLOAM studio holder. As well as his own video-based art practice, he is involved in a number of projects in Sheffield – each connected by the desire to do good through creativity.

Neil Woodall

A loveable and inky t-shirted aquatint pro, working in the most incredible studio we've ever stepped foot in.

Sarah Villeneau

An artist working with clay to capture organic textures and movements in abstract sculptures and vessels.

Natalie Burton

An illustrator with a clear love for nature, whose pen-and-pencil world is full of trees, houses and landscapes all captured with charm and warmth.

Tom J Newell

One of the most distinctive illustrators in town, with a back catalogue of creepy creatures and writhing skulls.

Alison J Carr

A creator of photography, film and performance art exploring glamour and gilded architecture, and asking audiences to reflect on entertainment and the ways in which women display themselves.

Jo Peel

Capturing stories of cities in paint.

Donna Brewins

Donna finds inspiration in "big winter skies" for her giant canvases of dark landscapes.

Peter Griffiths

For his recent screen printing project, The Plant Room, Peter spent the summer gathering inspiration in community gardens.

Roanna Wells

In her monochrome embroideries, Roanna substitutes people with stitches to create stunning, often dramatic, new perspectives on human gatherings. Crowds never looked so pleasing.

Eddy Dreadnought

An artist working across performance, writing, drawing, video, and photography, aiming to ask questions about the world in a sensory, open and poetic way.

James Green

A linocut printmaker with a love of donkeys, dinosaurs and views of Sheffield.

Boneloaf

An indie games studio founded by brothers Jon, Michael and James Brown, responsible for creating the hilariously silly Gang Beasts.

Andrew Hunt

An artist painting people caught in moments of tenderness and silence.