Artist Of The Year Explains How Creations Inspired From Deep in Ukraine

A visual artist and Tees Valley Artist of the Year has revealed how the brutality and emotion of grief has inspired her creations.

Claire A Baker is one of Five Tees Valley Artists of the Year and specialises in textiles, print and embroidery.

The Stockton-based creator has seen her work exhibited in the UK, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Belgium, Germany and Portugal.

And now she has explained more about how her time in Ukraine since 2015 has shaped her work.

Claire said: “I first went to Ukraine in 2015 when I was studying for my Masters a on research into dark tourism and why people visit sites of death and destruction.

“Through embroidery, which was our common interest, that was my tool to make relationships with them.”

Claire’s PhD at Northumbria University saw her research focus on communicating through embroidery with a tiny community of Babushkas (aged women) who still live in the isolated Chernobyl zone, digitising, contemporising and extending the life of some of their traditional embroidery.

She explained how emotions from loss go into her creations.

Claire added: “My work became not so much about the embroidery, but it became about the relationships that I made and the connections, the communication and the love.”

Two of Claire’s major pieces have been acquired by MIMA for The Middlesbrough Collection and the Baltic Archive Permanent Collection holds work by the 26:86 Collective – a group of artists and designers who travelled to Chernobyl and Pripyat in the Ukraine to investigate the issues at the site on the 30th anniversary of the disaster.

The wider Tees Valley Artists of the Year 2024 is a scheme run by the Combined Authority supporting five leading local artists who receive a career-changing £30,000 investment over the course of a year.

The project is a new approach to develop the next generation of musicians, film-makers and writers, which aims to provide a groundbreaking model for other areas.

The financial support includes a real-living wage bursary and a professional development budget.

And all five also receive industry mentoring and tailored business support to take their careers to the next level.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “We have a rich bedrock of artists and creators across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool – and giving them the support and expertise they need is crucial to building what we have in our region and ensuring talent is kept here.”