Grace Currie: DASH's first HBSP Artist-in Residence

We were thrilled to welcome Grace Currie as our inaugural artist on DASH's new and pioneering Home-Based Situated Practice programme. In the residency spanning one month (February 2026), we welcomed Grace from her home-studio in North Shropshire.

The residency gave Grace the opportunty to develop a new piece of work which is included in the upcoming exhibition Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists to take place at Compton Verney from 28 March - 30 August 2026.

HBSP Residency January - February 2026

During the residency, Senior Curator Oli McCall and Folk Art Curator Ila Colley from Compton Verney joined members of the DASH team and artist (previous DASH trustee) Tanya Raabe-Webber at Grace's studio for an in-person visit whilst our Future Curators Programme partners enjoyed a virtual studio tour and Q&A with the artist.

Grace also participated in a 1-1 online mentorship session with artist Corinne, a disabled artist who makes work from their 2 by 1.5 metre artist studio space, their bed.
Digital Commission

Her film Grace Currie Magic Artist: Potions For My Animated Life was made in collaboration with filmmaker Aaron Child (Painted Life). It explores Currie's processes of making large-scale paintings from her home studio, and animating the stories, rituals and characters that influence and evolve from them. The title of the film references the alchemy of her paintings/potions that offer a portal to her autobiographical world.The film was commissioned by DASH and Compton Verney.You can hear an audio description of Grace's film with transcript via the Bloomberg Connects website and app.

Watch the film: Grace Currie Magic Artist: Potions For My Animated Life.

Exhibition at Compton Verney: Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists

DASH and Compton Verney have commissioned 5 new films exploring the relationship between the home-based creative practices of Elizabeth Allen (1883-1967) and contemporary visual artist Grace Currie whose new artwork, Potions For My Animated Life is being screened as part of a group show, Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists at Compton Verney, Warwickshire (28 March - 31 August).

DASH and Compton Verney collaborated on the pilot of Home Based Situated Practice (HBSP) - a residency and commissioning programme with mentorship support conceived and delivered by DASH to nurture, mentor and platform artists who work from home or at a studio space nearby to home.

DASH and Compton Verney have commissioned 5 short films by West Midlands based filmmaker Robert Alexander that provide an introductory overview of the collaboration between DASH and Compton Verney on the pilot HBSP programme; an exhibition walkthrough of Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists; two spotlight films on textile works by Elizabeth Allen and a spotlight film on Grace Currie’s new commission, Potions For My Animated Life.

Potions For my Animated Life is displayed in the second of three rooms of the exhibition which was thematically called 'The End of Nowhere.' The film is shown on a loop for the duration of the exhibition and visitors are offered comfortable bespoke seating designed for the show with headphones to hear Grace narrate her film in the first person.

Exhibition Content Warning

Some works touch on themes of sexism, hospitalisation, pain, and medical and psychological trauma. The exhibition includes references to pregnancy loss, sexual and domestic abuse and includes racist imagery.

Watch the Films:

Introduction film (5 mins 43)

Exhibition walkthrough film (5 mins 45)

Spotlight on Elizabeth Allen’s Alice in Jungle-Land (2 mins 25)

Spotlight on Elizabeth Allen’s Population Explosion (2 mins 51)

Spotlight on Grace Currie’s Potions For My Animated Life (2 mins 46)

The films have captions and integrated audio description. We are working on releasing a version of each film with BSL interpretation and these will be released late Summer 2026.

View Images taken of Potions For My Animated Life installed at Compton Verney as well as some images taken from the private view launch event held on 26 March 2026.

The interpretation films were commissioned by DASH and Compton Verney and generously supported using public funding by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Compton Verney.

Grace Currie Magic Artist: Potions For My Animated Life has been commissioned by DASH and Compton Verney and generously supported using public funding by Arts Council England, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Compton Verney.

Troublemakers and Prophets features work by Elizabeth Allen, Eleanor May Watson, Helen Chadwick, George Storm Fletcher, Lou Lou Sainsbury, Grace Currie Magic Artist, Uma Breakdown, Louise Odes Neaderland, Lily van Oost, Sian Newlove-Drew, Jesse Jones, Penny Slinger, Mireille Delice, Suzanne Treister, Saroj Patel, Rebecca Nassauer, Grace Ndiritu, Aradne and the Rita Keegan Archive Project (with patchwork contributions by Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Ajamu, Charlie and Kate Boxer, Pat Brown, Althea Greenan, Catherine Grant, Joy Gregory, Anna Harding, Hiroko Hagiwara, Zhi Holloway, Terry Humphrey, Bhajan Hunjan, Symrath Kaur Patti, Amoke Kubat, Samia Malik, Ruth E. Morgan, Virginia Nimarkoh, Georgina Obaya Evans, Elizabeth Oniri, Ingrid Pollard and Olive Pollard, Raju Sachi Singh, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Jacqueline Wright, Keegan Xavi, Rehana Zaman).

A dark room with a woman in dark clothing is wearing headphones. She is watching a screen showing Grace seated in her studio and drinking a cup of tea. An image to the right is lit up on the wall

Event

In Conversation: Creative Practice in the Home

As part of the Home Based Situated Practice programme, on Saturday 9 May, DASH held a hybrid event at Compton Verney exploring the connections between the home-based practices of textile artist Elizabeth Allen (1883-1967) and contemporary visual artist Grace Currie. Ila Colley, Folk Art Curator at Compton Verney joined DASH Creative Producer Dr. Lucy Mounfield and Currie to discuss their collaboration on the Home Based Situated Practice pilot programme where Currie was Artist-in-Residence.

Content Warning:
This event may include a discussion of a road traffic accident and include details of a brain injury and other related physical injuries. It may touch on themes such as hospitalisation, pain and medication.

Artist Update

16 April 2026

Grace has been working on a new large-scale painting in response to a photograph taken on a recent studio visit from Heather Peak and Tanya Raabe-Webber. Tanya has been visiting Grace on a weekly basis to provide one-to-one support. Take a look at the work in progress, and the process Grace uses to transfer the image to canvas using acetate and projector.