From North Kensington 1976 to the 21st Century
SARAH BISSETT SCOTT artist and regeneration academic
Art and architecture are a passion for Sarah. RISE Gallery was set up in 2001 as a consultancy (RISE Associates) for supporting community empowerment through regeneration programmes.
The journey : From experimenting at the Architectural Association's Urban and Regional Planning course, Sarah developed a professional foundation that led to policy appointments at the GLC and SEEDS and then setting up RISE Associates where she continued to engage with people and institutions in neighbourhood growth plans. Later the lessons learned from her experience led to exploring theory about 'spatial justice', blending philosophy, urban design and strategic planning into her thesis.
'People and places' was the topic for exhibitions of 2012 and 2014 when Sarah returned to her home of 16 years - North Kensington and Notting Hill - to interpret her photographic record of the changes regeneration brings to a community over four decades, and whether these interventions over the longer term can be defined as 'spatially just'.
As a post-doc Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, Sarah's academic work has a focus on planners' agency to deliver sustainability in post-Covid futures; her art is predominantly about portraiture and abstraction - that's the personal adventure into 'Half seen, half understood'.