We are delighted to announce the V&A Adobe Creative Residents for 2025. Jessica Starns will be the Inclusive Design Resident, Michael Akuagwu will be the Photography Resident and Ciara Neufeldt will be the Mosaics and Ceramic Tilework Resident.
The artists will spend a year in residence in the dedicated studios onsite at the V&A South Kensington to develop their practice by taking inspiration from the V&A’s world-class collections. Each Resident will collaborate with the V&A Learning team to create a wide range of public events.
- Jessica will work with schools and is looking at the ‘1900 to Now’ Gallery, the ‘Design and Disability’ exhibition at the V&A South Kensington, and the Rapid Response collection.
- Michael will be designing programming to engage young people aged 13 – 24 and focus on works in the V&A Photography Centre.
- Ciara will be creating fun, interactive and engaging events for families whilst exploring the mosaics and ceramics collections, including mosaics in the fabric of the historic buildings at V&A South Kensington and Young V&A at Bethnal Green.
Beyond these programmes, residents regularly run open studios, pop-up displays, performances, interactive workshops and more for all audiences.
For the V&A, the residencies are an opportunity to highlight the work of contemporary makers and a way to connect them with wide ranges of V&A audiences. The V&A was founded on connecting makers with audiences through the collections, and programmes like this allow the museum to not only engage with creatives, but allow the audience to come on the journey to think about the V&A collections in new ways. A free display of their work based on their year at the V&A will open at the end of 2025.
Please keep an eye on the V&A what’s on or the V&A residencies webpage to see how you can get involved with our new cohort of residents.
Work from Cohort 1 of the Adobe Creative Residents is now part of a free display at the V&A South Kensington until November 2025. More information can be found here.
The Adobe Creative Residency at the V&A is supported by the Adobe Foundation.
