We are pleased to announce that artists Tom Hobden and Phoebe Stapleton have been selected for a creative commission that celebrates the 250th anniversary of John Constable’s birth, a partnership between the National Trust in Flatford and Essex Cultural Diversity Project.

For Constable 250, we invited creatives to propose a project that explored routes to ‘Becoming Constable’, which would celebrate the painter’s life and work through his inspirations and experiences, and encourage people to find belonging in Flatford and in their own landscapes. We asked artists to draw out how our interaction with a place can help define us and forge our identity, especially in our early years.

Tom and Phoebe’s project, The Rivers and Skies will invite diverse audiences from across the generations to tell or imagine their life stories through the metaphors of rivers and sky, drawing a parallel with John Constable’s way of seeing landscape as an emotional record.

The Rivers and Skies is a bespoke participatory project: through a series of community creative workshops, the project will metaphorically connect the morphology of rivers to the journeys of our lives and explore how John Constable’s skies can create the capacity to hold our emotions and future dreams.

Participants will explore their stories through drawing, film, movement, writing, and sound, guided by prompts such as: Where does your river begin? What bends or floods have shaped your life? What does your sky hold – joy, memory, hope? Each participant will choose how to translate their story into a creative form, giving voice to their perspective and lived experience.

The artists will transform these stories into an immersive, multi-sensory installation at Flatford; a patchwork of projections, soundscape, and immersive visual design which will become a bridge between two worlds, and a connecting message of the significance of who we are, where we live and how we create. The project will invite us to see ourselves and our communities as part of an ongoing artistic terrain where personal histories are held, remembered, and elevated.

“We are over the moon to have received this commission. As local artists who have walked, watched, and dreamed alongside the River Stour it feels profoundly meaningful to be invited to make work in the heart of Flatford, a place where Constable himself learned to see the world through rivers and skies. This project is a love letter to that same way of seeing. It will be a pocket of digital magic in the heart of John Constable’s home.”  Tom Hobden and Phoebe Stapleton

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Essex Cultural Diversity Project for our seventh year, this time on a project celebrating 250 years since the birth of the renowned English landscape painter, John Constable. We are thrilled to have Tom Hobden and Phoebe Stapleton as the creative team for this participatory project, and are excited to see how their approach will help mark this significant moment in the history of Flatford. Through this project, we hope to explore how people connect with this beautiful Suffolk landscape, reflecting on how a local Suffolk boy with a love of nature and a talent for drawing grew to become one of Britain’s most celebrated artists.”  Sarah Barfoot, Visitor Experience Manager for the Essex Portfolio, National Trust

Above Image: BEEE creative, dance film (c) Tom Hobden
Images below: Tom Hobden (c) Tom Hobden; Phoebe Stapleton, Photographer @stillsbyconnor

About the Artists

Access, diversity, and inclusion are at the core of the artists’ practice. Tom Hobden and Phoebe Stapleton are both neurodivergent creators with extensive experience in inclusive arts and disability-led projects.

Tom is a multi-hypenate artist and his career has taken on diverse roles, including community dance artist, choreographer, filmmaker, digital artist (projection mapping) and educator. In 2014, he co-founded the highly successful We Are Unit C.I.C with filmmaker Kate Flurrie. In 2024, he started Tom Hobden Studio to encompass his new creative strands of film and interactive digital projection pieces. Tom has been continuously commissioned and has worked with leading organisations, including New Adventures, the Royal Opera House, Alexandra Palace, Sadler’s Wells, Gainsborough’s House, Dance East, and Studio Wayne McGregor.

Phoebe is a Movement Director and filmmaker for stage, screen and digitally immersive worlds. She merges physical expression with storytelling to craft visually striking performances. Phoebe’s inclusive practice celebrates the uniqueness of every individual. Growing up neurodivergent, she discovered movement as her first language, believing it transcends words and offers a universal form of expression. Phoebe’s film HER FIGHT received critical acclaim and was nominated at several festivals, including the BFI Film Future Awards. Recent collaborations include projects with English National Ballet, Chisenhale Dance, The V&A Performance Festival and UAL BIG Innovation.

www.tomhobden.co.uk | www.phoebestapleton.com

The Rivers and Skies is made possible through a co-commission from the National Trust, and Essex Cultural Diversity Project supported by Arts Council England.