Nature Table is the final event in artist Emily Cropton’s research residency with The Maltings and Newcastle University.

Over eight months, Emily responded to three different communities and places in rural Northumberland with the aim of exploring ideas about wellbeing. In doing so she participated in sheep auctions, dug for clay, constructed dead hedges and walked circles round the Cheviots. The results of these encounters, journeys and experiments will be presented by Emily in Nature Table.

Emily Cropton is multidisciplinary artist based in the Scottish Borders whose socially engaged practice encompasses visual art, landscape architecture, teaching and creative producing. She works primarily in rural contexts and explores the interaction between dynamic social and environmental systems, cycles and processes.

The Maltings and Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy and Institute for Creative Arts Practice research residency programme supports the exchange and sharing of knowledge between artists and researchers to inform critical responses to contemporary rural issues.

Emily’s residency, also in partnership with the University’s Population Health Sciences Institute was informed by research that has demonstrated how living in a rural area can have a significant impact on individuals’ wellbeing, both positively and negatively.