Artist in Residence Project in Greenwich Park
We are delighted to welcome Leah Clements as our first ever Artist in Residence at Greenwich Park!
Over the next 6 months, Leah will be working with The Royal Parks charity and leading public art organisation, UP Projects, to engage creatively with local communities.
Through the residency, Leah 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.
The residency will culminate in new creative work shared with park visitors in summer 2026. Monthly events and activities will be held for park visitors and local communities as part of the project. Read on for a list of upcoming events and activities.
More about Leah
Leah Clements is an artist from and based in London whose practice spans film, photography, performance, writing, installation, and other media to explore moments of transcendence.
Her work is concerned with the relationship between psychological, emotional, and physical states, often through personal accounts of unusual or hard-to-articulate experiences. Her practice also focuses on sickness/cripness*/disability in art, and how real and imaginary realms can operate as radical spaces to address collective experiences.
*The term “crip” is a political reclaiming by some disability activists of the derogatory label “cripple” - Taraneh Fazeli.
She is the 1st prize recipient of the 2023 Mosaic Art Award, Hauser & Wirth London, and was the first artist-in-residence at Serpentine Galleries (2020-21). Recent projects include her solo shows ‘INSOMNIA’ at South Kiosk (2022-23) and ‘The Siren of the Deep’ at Eastside Projects (2021). Upcoming projects include a solo show at Peer, London, and new permanent artwork commissioned by Bethlem for a new London hospital.
Find out more about Leah by visiting her website or following @leah_r_clements on Instagram.
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.
A collection of Leah's work
Open Studio Mornings
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Open Studio Morning: 'Meet the Artist'
Tuesday 24 February, 10.30am to 12.30pm, located at St Mary's Lodge in Greenwich Park.
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Open Studio Morning: As part of National Lottery Open Week
Exploring the theme of 'hidden stories' and 'hidden gems'. Tuesday 10 March, 10.30am to 1pm, located at St Mary's Lodge in Greenwich Park.
About the studio
The Artist Studio for this residency is being housed in St Mary’s Lodge, within Greenwich Park.
St Mary’s Lodge is located close to the St Mary's Gate entrance the park (a short distance from Greenwich Town Centre and the National Maritime Museum), beside the Herb Garden.
Studio accessibility information
The garden is wheelchair accessible, with a path around the building. The building itself has level-floor access, with the following door widths:
- The doorway to enter the building is 103cm wide
- The next doorway, to enter the central space is 91cm wide
- The next doorway, to enter the final room is 91cm wide.
There is a wheelchair accessible toilet on site, which is located around the back of the building. A radar key is required for access; if you do not have one yourself, please ask the staff on site. There are also changing places toilets with hoists, located on the other side of the park beside the Ignatius Sancho Café.
The nearest changing places toilet is by the Vanbrugh Park Gate located here.
The nearest disabled parking bays are just outside the park, on King William Walk or Nevada Street. Use our interactive map of Greenwich Park and filter by accessibility for more information.
The nearest train station is Greenwich train station, which has step-free access and is on the DLR, Thameslink and Southeastern lines. St Mary’s Lodge is a 10 minute walk for a typical walker, or a seven minute bus journey from Greenwich train station. Buses that serve this route are 129, 177, 188, 199, 286, 386 and N1.
Support animals including guide dogs are welcome, and water will be available for them. Non-support animals are not allowed.
There will be an audio description of the space available on headphones with a large armchair.
The garden outside the building is generally a quiet area. There will be ear defenders available.
There will be some sprigs of rosemary and lavender in the building which have a scent when close-up, but no synthetic smells.
The following seating is located at the studio in St Mary’s Lodge:
- Plastic chairs with backs, the seats measuring 38 x 38cm
- There will also be two large sofas and a large armchair
- There are benches in the garden outdoors, and in the wider park.
Greenwich Park staff will be at the event to answer further questions around access. They will be wearing green lanyards and fleeces with ‘Royal Parks’ written on them.
If you’d like to get in touch ahead of the event about anything access-related please email us at community@royalparks.org.uk.
Want to know more?
This project has been developed to build on the community engagement work already undertaken as part of the park’s recent restoration project, Greenwich Park Revealed and is being delivered as part of UP Projects’ Constellations learning and development programme.
This Constellations ° Residency has been designed to support an artist to develop their socially engaged practice through creative community engagement. Following a public open call in which over 200 applicants submitted proposals, London-based artist Leah Clements was selected in December 2025.
You can read the full press release here.
