Bringing artists and businesses together to create visions of a sustainable future. Through a series of residencies with utility companies, artists creatively communicate the challenges and solutions to tackling climate change and social justice.

Artists are provided with a space to work, stipend and materials. They have the opportunity to learn from leaders in sustainability and experience first-hand the transition to low carbon solutions. Businesses gain new insights and imagery, different ways of engaging staff and local communities, communicating visually and exchanging skills and knowledge.

Sustainability First and National Grid launched an artist in residence scheme focused on the UK’s North Sea, a world-leading centre for sustainable energy, in July 2022. The three artists chosen were Joanne Coates, Alison Cooke and Isabella Martin. The project aimed to celebrate the cultural heritage of coastal communities and to explore the opportunities provided by sustainable energy. Each artist received £4,000, plus a £1,000 stipend, a space to work and the chance to showcase work produced online to a wider audience. To read more about each artist, see the links below

Joanne Coates focuses on rural life, class inequality and social justice.

Alison Cooke is a ceramic artist who works with clay that has been dug from interventions such as mining, engineering or scientific research.

Isabella Martin is a visual artist, who grew up on the Norfolk coast and looks at the role of people and places, exploring how we fit in the world and relate to our surroundings.

Hugo used waste pipes and wires to show the ways in which technology mimics nature and how the two are co-dependent. He was artist in residence hosted by Sustainability First and UK Power Network in 2019-20, developing sculptures and photographs inspired by the materials and processes at operational electricity distribution sites in London and East Anglia.

Geraint spent 4-weeks during September 2021 as artist in residence at Pitlochry Hydroelectric Dam hosted by Sustainability First and SSE. During that time he showcased the role of renewable energy in Scotland through his drawings and paintings. He documented the journey of water through the landscape, showing how it can be harnessed to create power.