Staff Profile
Hannah Honeywill
Lecturer
I'm a practising artist, researcher and educator with a background in sculpture, furniture making, and fine art. My work explores queer methodologies and material approaches to memory, loss and monumentality. I often rework everyday objects, particularly furniture, to question how form and function relate to identity, history, and the body.
I studied sculpture at Camberwell College of Arts and completed an MA at Birmingham School of Art. I'm currently completing a practice-based PhD at Coventry University, where my research develops a queer methodology for artistic research. Alongside my practice, I've taught on both BA and MFA Fine Art programmes, and I’m passionate about supporting students to develop their individual voices through experimentation, critical thinking, and hands-on making.
- School – School of the Arts
- Email – h.honeywill@yorksj.ac.uk
Further information
Teaching
I've taught across BA and MFA Fine Art courses and have delivered workshops in both academic and community settings. I enjoy creating inclusive learning spaces where students can take creative risks and reflect on their practice within wider cultural and historical contexts. I’m especially interested in how we can use contemporary art to question dominant narratives and imagine new possibilities.
Research
I have an active and ongoing exhibition practice, with my work shown nationally and internationally. These exhibitions form a key part of my research output and are often developed through partnerships, residencies, and public commissions. The project Life Futures (2021), for example, brought together artists and theorists to explore care, futures, and embodied knowledge through exhibition-making.
Alongside this, I have a growing portfolio of peer-reviewed publications that connect queer theory with contemporary art practice. These include chapters in Sculptorvox: A God Complex and Zetesis: The Cruelty of the Classical Canon, where I reflect on themes of queerness, anatomy, and the body.
I’m currently completing a practice-based PhD at Coventry University titled Queer Monumentality, which develops a queer methodology for artistic research — one that embraces uncertainty, fluidity, and disruption as ways of generating new understanding through art.
Professional activities
Alongside my studio and research practice, I’ve developed a strong track record of securing competitive funding and generating income through public art commissions, research-led residencies, and community partnerships. These experiences have allowed me to grow a sustainable and outward-facing practice that connects with diverse audiences and collaborators.
I’ve been awarded funding from the Wellcome Trust, East Anglia Art Fund, The Royal Society of Sculptors, and a 3.5-year fully funded PhD studentship. My public commissions include permanent works for local authorities, such as the Crossley Carpet bench in Halifax, which reimagines local textile heritage through contemporary sculpture.
I’ve undertaken residencies and partnership projects with institutions including Chisenhale Arts Space (London), the Barber Institute of Fine Art (Birmingham), Britten Pears Arts, and the Royal Society of Sculptors. I also co-founded Creative Careers, a programme that delivered funded outreach workshops across London schools, supporting young people to engage with creative futures.
My professional activity also includes enterprise through self-initiated projects, community-based workshops, and the sale of artworks. Across all of these roles, I’ve developed skills in writing successful funding bids, managing complex budgets, delivering projects on time, and building meaningful partnerships across the cultural and education sectors.
Publications, awards and exhibitions
Awards and Residencies
2022 British Council Venice Fellowship Award.
2021 PhD Studentship (3.5 years) from Centre of Arts, Memory and Community at Coventry University
2020 The Red House Residency Prize, Awarded by Britten and Pears Arts and The Royal Society of Sculptors
2018 Shortlisted for the Broomhill National Sculpture Prize 2018
2017 The Barber Institute of Fine Art Residency, Selected by The Barber Institute curators from the New Art West Midlands 2016 exhibitors to undertake a residency to produce new work in response to the collection.
2016 Wellcome Trust Arts Award (12 months); Final 12 shortlist for the Broomhill National Sculpture Prize 2016
2015 Pete Lloyd Lewis Studio Award; A one year residency in studio 3 at the Chisenhale Art Place Studios, London; Aesthetica Art Prize. Longlisted Artis.
2014 Next Wave Prize. Winner, RBSA. Birmingham
2013 BIAD Arts based Masters Peer Prize
2012 The Art Laguna Prize, Finalist for the Sculpture Prize. Venice
2011 The Threadneedle Prize, The Mall Galleries. London
Selected exhibitions
2025 In Their Space, Royal Society of Sculptors, London (April–May 2025); (un)nested, Safehouses, Peckham, London (July 2025)
2024 In Their Space, The Dovecote Studio, Snape Maltings, Britten Pears Arts, Suffolk; Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making, Vessel Gallery, York St John’s University, York
2023 Punch Me, I am a Unicorn, Lab155, Bologna, Italy
2022 Convergence, Institute of Creative Cultures, Coventry University; Center for Arts, Memory and Community (CAMC) Annual Conference, Coventry University;
2021Vera, Beverley Art Gallery, East Yorkshire; Resilience, 1631 holes, Commissioned by Life Futures - a cultural collaboration between; The University of Warwick, Coventry University and the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery part of Coventry City of Culture 2021
2020 10gram Challenge, Royal Society of Sculptors and Milwyn Casting; Postcard Project Artists Responding to, Book
2019 Millions of Moments of Pride, Pride Art London 2019, Clifford Chance Gallery, London; The Golden Aerialist, National Trust at Hardcastle Crags commissioned the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival; Dwell Time, Penistone Line Railway; Saltaire Open Houses, Saltaire Arts Festival
2018 Broomhill National Sculpture Prize, Broomhill Sculpture Park, Devon UK
2017 NASTY WOMEN: ARCHITECTURE, Anise Gallery, London; Tumbleweed, The Barber Institute of Fine Art, Birmingham; Something Borrowed ARTHOUSE1, London
2016 New Art West Midlands 2016 (February - May) - Selectors: Sonia Boyce, John Stezaker and Katharine Stout (ICA). Works exhibited at both the Midland Art Centre (mac) and Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery; embassyHACK, The Government Art Collection, London; Funambulism an outdoor sculpture installation for Holmfirth Arts Festival - Art in the Wood.
2015 Panacea, 43 Inverness St Gallery, London; Gothic, Library of Birmingham; Aesthetica Art Prize. York
2014 Pulpa. RK Burt Gallery, London; Monster Club. The works gallery, Birmingham; United States of Art. Custard Factory, Birmingham; GenderBlender, MU, Eindhoven. The Netherlands; Next Wave, RBSA, Birmingham
2013 Who Punched the Unicorn? School of Art. Birmingham; En_counters, Stan’s Café. Birmingham; On the Verge of Photography, CFAR, School of Art, Birmingham; Downtime. Ort Gallery Birmingham.
Publications
2019
SculptureVox, Volume 3, God Complex
Dwell time Volume 1
2017
Journal of my Barber Institute Residency, pending publication by 3rd Dimension the online Magazine and Newsletter from the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association
015 Future Now, Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology
2015
Future Now, Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology
2013
Queertexturealities: queer methodologies in art based practice, Edited publication, Article Press. Publication date: January
Zetesis; The Cruelty of the Classical Canon
