Greenwich Park appoints first Artist in Residence

The Royal Parks charity, working in partnership with leading public art organisation, UP Projects, has today announced that London artist Leah Clements will be Greenwich Park's first Artist in Residence.

This inaugural role has been created to build on the community engagement work already undertaken as part of the park’s recent restoration project, Greenwich Park Revealed. 

The residency aims to help The Royal Parks develop a better understanding of communities’ experiences, needs, and connections to the park, to help make Greenwich Park welcoming and accessible to everyone.

London-based artist Leah Clements was selected in December, following a public open call in which over 200 applicants submitted proposals. 

Through the residency, Clements will expand on her extensive work exploring access and inclusion, to engage creatively with currently underserved communities, focusing on people with visible or hidden disabilities. 

Clements’ work across film, photography, performance, writing, installation, and other media to investigate moments of transcendence, focusing on the interplay between psychological, emotional, and physical states, is often grounded in personal narratives of unusual or difficult-to-express experiences.

The residency will begin this month and run for six months, culminating in a creative output, or outputs, that will be shared with park visitors in summer 2026. 

Leah Clements says:

"I’m very excited to begin my residency at Greenwich Park, particularly about thinking collectively with other disabled people about how we might encounter, explore, and enjoy this special place.”

Daniella Briscoe-Peaple, Community Engagement Officer, The Royal Parks, says:

"We are delighted to announce Leah Clements as our first Artist in Residence. Leah’s interdisciplinary practice, combined with her understanding of the social and cultural value of urban green spaces will compliment and amplify the free cultural events and learning opportunities regularly held in the park for local communities. This residency reflects our ambition to deepen connections between the park’s history, its incredible natural environment and the local community, and we can’t wait to see what comes from the collaboration.”

This Constellations ° Residency aims to foster meaningful connections between Greenwich Park and its visitors through artistic exploration and collaboration as well as supporting an artist to have the time and space to develop their creative practice. Clements will be in residence within St Mary’s Lodge and will be supported through a grant and mentoring. The Constellations ° Residency forms part of UP Projects’ wider Constellations learning and development programme for artists, curators and practitioners interested in the expanded field of public art and social practice.

UP Projects' Co-Directors, Emma Underhill, and Moira Lascelles say: 

“UP Projects are delighted to be partnering with the Royal Parks charity to introduce an artist in residence within this historic park setting. As socially engaged curators who believe in the power of art and artists to effect social change, we are excited about the potential of Clements’ residency, to not only enable her to develop her artistic practice, but to also explore how accessibility is approached in Greenwich Park.”

The Artist in Residency project forms part of the legacy of Greenwich Park Revealed, a flagship, award-winning project spanning several years, that has restored the park's unique 17th-century landscape. 

It has created new learning and volunteering spaces, generated new public green space incorporating a new café and hosted a large programme of free community cultural and learning activities. The project has also delivered new wayfinding signage and interpretation and has enhanced the park's biodiversity.