Susan Milne
Biography
"My work is land-based and derives from a close observation of, and the experience of living and being in the landscape."
Susan Milne was born in Sussex in 1939. She attended St Martin's School of Art from 1955 -1959 where she graduated in illustration. Early work included textile designs for Liberty's and illustration for leading book and magazine publishers including Conde Nast and Civil Service publications. From 1960-62 she worked on sculptural objects for retail window display at the Raoh Schorr Studio in London.
She lived and worked in London until moving with her family to the Welsh borders in 1981, setting up her studio in a rural location in the Black Mountains. Here she began to develop her landscape work.
From 1985-1991 Susan Milne was Senior Lecturer in Visual Studies in the Schools of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Greenwich; from 1991-2001 she was Visiting Lecturer at the Landscape Design School, Larenstein IAP in the Netherlands. She received a Arts Council of Wales Travel Award in , which enabled her to work in the Netherlands researching the Friesland landscape. This was followed by a bursary in to continue the work. In 1997, she co-founded the multi-disciplinary arts organisation The Space Project. She now lives in Hereford.
Exhibitions
- Three Choirs Festival, Hereford. Open Studio
- Bishops Palace, Hereford
- h-Art, Hereford
- Mount Street Gallery
- h.Art (Herefordshire) Art Week
- About Face Theatre Co. Herefordshire six installations
- Hay Makers Gallery Hay on Wye Festival Exhibition
- 2000 London Millennium Festival. installation, SENSES of PLACE
- 2000 Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery
- 1999 The University of Greenwich
- Rye Art Gallery Sussex. England RETROSPECTIVE
- Touring exhibition Black Mountains Drawings
- Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery
- Ceri Richards Gallery,Swansea University
- Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre
- Walsworth Hall, Gloucester
- 1990 Kilvert Gallery, Wales
- 1989 University of Greenwich
- 1988 The Somerset Rural Life Museum
selected group exhibitions
- Oriel Washington, Cardiff Wales. Re-Worked
- Brecon Cathedral Small Picture Show
- Brecknock Museum
- 2003 Brecknock Museum
- 2002 Brecknock Museum
- 2005 The Art Shop Gallery Wales
- 2000 Bleddfa Gallery, Wales Women of Imagination
- 1999 Cowcross Gallery, London. Public Art, Private Dreams
- 1993 Jonathan Poole Gallery, Oxfordshire
- 1992 Welsh National Eisteddfod selected drawing collection
- 1992 Richard Bere Gallery, Cardiff, Wales
- 1992 The Gallery Upstairs, Henley in Arden
- 1992 S4C Cardiff
- 1991 Hay on Wye Festival. Development Board of Wales commission
- 1990 Mall Galleries, London Federation of British Artists Pastel Society
- 1989 Mall Galleries,London Federation of British Artists Pastel Society
- 1988 Oriel 31, Welshpool The Welsh Landscape
- 1983 Llandrindod Wells Museum, Wales The exhibition of the Book
- 1981 Bridport Gallery,London Small Pictures
- 1980 Bridport Gallery, London Natural Forms
- 1979 Design Centre, London The Best of Britain
- 1978 Arts Council Touring exhibition
In 1997 she was elected to be a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
THE SPACE PROJECT was co-founded in 1997 by Susan Milne and her son, theatre director and actor, Dan Milne. It was set up initially as an exploratory project and worked with visual artists, theatre practitioners, and architects to research how interior and exterior spaces were used and perceived. The basic premise being that working together on common projects and through the exchange of ideas and working methods a greater awareness of spatial possibilities could be achieved.
Commissions, Projects, Workshops include
2001-02
The Architecture Foundation, Creative Spaces
2001 The Sainsbury Trust/Glass House Urban Regeneration Project
2001 Central School of Speech and Drama, Site specific project The Oval Cricket Ground
2000 SENSES OF PLACE, Commissioned by the London Millennium Festival committee. Project devised and managed by the Space Project in collaboration with The Young Vic Theatre. A community arts event and installation
2000 Institutt Romkunst, Oslo Seminar and workshops
1998 The University of Greenwich, London. CORRIDOR, Installation for Urban Design Symposium
1999 Centre for Visual Arts, Wales. Interactive gallery tour
1998 Young Vic Theatre, London. British Festival of Visual Theatre workshops for colleges and schools and a performance piece, Watch This Space
1997 Young Vic Theatre, Space and the Actor
Illustration commissions include:
How To Books, Blandford Press 1980/81;
Close Up Books, Ginn and co 1983;
Save the Greenwood Tree, Woodland Trust 1985;
Public Collections
The Contemporary Arts Society for Wales;
The Welsh Development Board;
The Woodland Trust; The Brecknock Museum Trust;
Bibliography
Rural Wales Artists Portfolio, DBRW Newtown 1991;
Scintilla No.3,1999, The Usk Valley Vaughan Association;
Building a Significant Regional Art Collection, by David Moore, Brecknock Society & Friends, Brycheiniog XXXV111;
8 Stones, 8 Artists by David Moore, Little Fish Press, ;
Contemporary Art Society for Wales, Annual Report ;
Susan Milne: Marking Time, Robert Newell, Galleries Oct. 2000;