Artist in Residence Project in Greenwich Park
Between January and June 2026, The Royal Parks was delighted to welcome Leah Clements as our first ever Artist in Residence at Greenwich Park.
Over the course of her 6-month residency, Leah worked with The Royal Parks charity and leading public art organisation, UP Projects, to engage creatively with local communities.
Through a series of workshops and monthly events, Leah expanded on her extensive work exploring access and inclusion and engaged creatively with the park’s underserved communities, focusing on other disabled, chronically ill, deaf, neurodivergent people, and those with mental health or other access needs.
Leah’s residency culminated in new creative works, which were shared with park visitors at a special ‘Summer Celebration’ in summer 2026. Read on to find out more.
What was achieved?
Leah Clements designed and led a series of workshops with disabled, chronically ill, D/deaf, neurodivergent people, and those with mental health or other access needs, to engage with the park through the different senses of taste, smell, vision, hearing and touch.
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Greenwich Park at Home Workshop Recording
For some participants who cannot currently visit the park in person due to their disability or chronic illness, Leah created a virtual workshop and materials to help people engage with the park online.
The workshop ‘Greenwich Park at Home’ aimed to bring the park to people’s homes, and help create connections between people, place and nature. As part of this workshop, Leah created packs of natural materials collected from the park and sent them by post to people who requested them.
Request a pack
Would you like to request a recording of the workshop, Leah’s short film of the park and a pack of materials to experience the park from home – or do you know someone who would enjoy this experience?
Please email the Royal Parks Access & Engagement team to request these resources.
Final Artworks
As a result of their residency, Leah Clements created a new artwork that explored her interest in ‘access adjustment as artwork’. A central strand of Leah’s practice is the use of audio description as an artistic medium. While audio description is essential for making visual work accessible to blind and visually impaired audiences, Clements treats it as a creative form in its own right. Through careful attention to language, tone, and atmosphere, audio description becomes an integral part of the artwork - capable of shaping the audience’s experience and standing independently as a form of expression.
This artwork, The Very Alive Part, 2026 (27 mins 16 secs, looped) features oral recordings of participants who took part in her series of workshops. In these sessions participants have slowed down, focusing on describing the tastes, smells, sights, sounds, and feel of the park, and sharing these moments together.
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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
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Three small Portals from the 'Portal' series (2026) -
St Winefride's Well (large Portal) (2026) -
Temple of Sulis Minerva (large Portal) (2026) -
Apophenia, film still (2026) -
'The Mist Burnt Away', dibond print from analogue photo, Bethlem & Maudsley Hospital Commission (2022-26) -
Leah with 'The Embers Drew Together' Bethlem & Maudsley Hospital Commission (2022-26)
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Three small Portals from the 'Portal' series (2026) Leah Clements, photographed by Andy Keate -
St Winefride's Well (large Portal) (2026) Leah Clements, photographed by Andy Keate -
Temple of Sulis Minerva (large Portal) (2026) Leah Clements, hotographed by Andy Keate -
Apophenia, film still (2026) Leah Clements, photographed by Andy Keate -
'The Mist Burnt Away', dibond print from analogue photo, Bethlem & Maudsley Hospital Commission (2022-26) Leah Clements -
Leah with 'The Embers Drew Together' Bethlem & Maudsley Hospital Commission (2022-26) Leah Clements
Want to know more?
his project was developed to build on the community engagement work already undertaken as part of the park’s recent restoration project, Greenwich Park Revealed and was delivered as part of UP Projects’ Constellations learning and development programme.
This Constellations ° Residency was 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.
