Our story began with a text, Zoom, empty shops and a belief that art can change lives.
Wild Vision Collective was born in lockdown; four creatives sitting down to a weekly zoom to connect, share, encourage, and dream. What began as a small act of togetherness quickly gathered momentum. Ideas bubbles and possibilities explored, before long we were securing an empty shop and planning a lockdown exhibition in Wellington Square, Stockton. With an invitation to other artists who, like us, were feeling the weight of isolation.
We returned a few months later to Wellington Square, acquiring the used of nine more empty shops. With a modest pot of funding from Arc Stockton, we curated a COVID-safe art trail, an uplifting offering in dark times.
Driven by a deep commitment to social justice and wellbeing and a shared background of working with those on the margins of society, our focus turned toward a new project: collaborating with women facing multiple disadvantages. With funding from National Lottery Communities fund, In These Shoes, was imagined; a 12-week therapeutic art programme and 3-week exhibition, in an empty shop no less. Making space for the women to tell their stories of recovery, in a safe, trauma-informed environment.
Meet the Artists
Claire EF Harrison is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and co-founder of Wild Vision Collective, working across installation, sculpture, socially engaged practice, and creative health. Claire graduated from Northumbria University with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art specialising in Sculpture and began her artistic career in 1993. She later retrained in Psychology and spent 25 years working in addictions, prisons, and mental health before returning to artistic practice in 2017.
Combining her creative and therapeutic experience, Claire’s practice focuses on regeneration, wellbeing, and the transformative potential of the arts for people and places. She has a particular interest in collaborative and community-led projects, using creativity to build connection, amplify marginalised voices, and encourage social change.
In 2020, Claire founded Wild Vision Collective, a female-led artist collective delivering exhibitions, art trails, and socially engaged workshops across the North East. Alongside her participatory work, Claire continues to create immersive installation and sculptural works that explore thresholds between the physical and spiritual, often using light, reflection, mirrored surfaces, and geometric forms to create contemplative, sensory experiences. Her work has been featured in exhibitions and events including the 2022 Stockton International Riverside Festival.
Claire EF Harrison
Beth Johnson is a Scottish artist based in the North East of England and a co-founder of Wild Vision Collective. Working predominantly with embroidery and mixed media, Beth creates expressive artworks that explore storytelling, connection, and people’s relationship with place. Rooted in traditional embroidery techniques, her practice has evolved to incorporate contemporary materials and collaborative, socially engaged approaches.
With a background in Architectural Studies, Beth’s work is strongly influenced by structure, repetition, and geometric form. In recent years, her practice has included collaborative commissions and community-based projects, combining craft, installation, and participation to create meaningful shared experiences. Her work has been featured in exhibitions including Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Open Submission 2020 and the 2022 Stockton International Riverside Festival, where she collaborated on the transformation of a vacant shopping centre space through large-scale installation and participatory art. In her most recent commission for Middlesbrough’s Most Creative Station, Beth collected and stitched together over 3,000 train tickets, weaving people’s stories and shared experiences into her artwork, Journey.