Rebecca Howard is a British artist and academic working at the University of Derby as a Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries. Her photographic practice-research explores the materiality of the photograph in relation to place and space, to consider how our experiences, perceptions, and memories of buildings and materials are shaped by the photographic image.
Her doctoral research titled Manifold (completed in 2023 at Manchester School of Art) combines creative practice and theory to determine the generative and transformative capabilities of the photographic paper print and its potential to transform and reconfigure 'banal' 'everyday' or 'unremarkable' architectural spaces. Through a series of creative experiments with the print, she explores the form-making effects of cutting, folding, installing and rephotographing it. Drawing from theories of folding, in both architecture and philosophy, she consider how a 'standard' sized paper print can be transformed into something 'non-standard' and become an 'extension' or 'modification' of an interior space.
She belongs to two research groups: the New Materialist Research Group with Dr. Victoria Sharples and Proximity Collective with five other artists/researchers based across the North of England.
Education
PhD, Manchester School of Art (UK), completed 2023 (funded by AHRC)
Associate Fellow, HEA, 2021
MA Photography, Manchester School of Art (UK) 2011-13 (with Distinction)
BA Graphic Arts and Design, Leeds Beckett University, 2008-11 (1st Class Honours)
Group Exhibitions & Installations
Necrology, Haarlam Artspace, Wirksworth, UK (2025)
An Elastic Continuum, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK (2023)
We are Nothing Without Stories, Format Festival, Derby, UK (2023)
There-Then-Here-Now, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, UK (November 2022)
All the Small Things, Artcore, Derby, UK (2021)
Proximity at Abingdon Street Market, Blackpool, UK (window exhibition) (2021)
Proximity at Paradise Works, Salford, UK (2019)
The Image, Manchester School of Art, UK (2019)
Nothing Abandoned, Paradise Works, Salford, UK (2017)
Visualising the Home, Carlisle photo festival, Vallum Gallery, Carlisle, UK (2017)
What? Now! Manchester School of Art, Manchester, UK (2013)
The World According to Mass, Bench Gallery, Manchester, UK (2012)
Leeds Beckett Degree Show, Leeds, UK (2011)
Solo Exhibitions & Installations
Mirror-Like-Marble, Derby Cathedral, Derby, UK (2022)
Unit 28-30, Stretford Mall, Manchester, UK (2021)
When we build, let us think that we build forever, Holden Gallery foyer, Manchester School of Art, UK (2019)
Meta, Holden Gallery (film projection room), Manchester School of Art, UK
Repeat Pattern, Manchester School of Art, Manchester (2016)
Residencies
Proximity writing retreat, Lymm, UK, 2023
Proximity at Bloc projects, Sheffield, UK, 2023
Proximity at Rogue Studios, Manchester, UK, 2022
Researcher-in-residence, Instagram Takeover, PAHC (Post-graduate Arts and Humanities Research Centre) Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK (2021)
Paradise Works, Salford, UK (2019)
Islington Mill, Salford, UK (2019)
Venture Arts, Manchester, UK (2019)
British School at Rome, Italy (2019)
Conference Papers, Symposia & Artist Talks
NMRG: Bodies: Art, Architecture & Archaeology, University of Derby (2024)
GLAD symposium 2023: Gathering Ourselves (2023)
An Elastic Continuum, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK (2023)
On Not Knowing: How Artists Teach, Glasgow School of Art, UK (2023)
What Photography Can Be, FORMAT 23, QUAD, Derby UK (2023)
Arts in Society History/Histories: From the Limits of Representation to the Boundaries of Narrative, July (2022)
BA (Hons) Photography artist talk series, Manchester Metropolitan University (2021)
iJade, Hybrid Spaces: Re-imagining pedagogy, practice and research (2021)
The Image, Techno-storytelling: Past, Present, Future, Manchester Metropolitan University (2019)
NWCDTP, Digital Humanities, Human Technologies, Salford University (2018)
Teaching & Workshops
Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Derby (2022-)
NMRG: Bodies: Art, Architecture & Archaeology: How to Make Clay Bodies (2024)
Derby Scholar, University of Derby (2021-22)
MA photography/sculpture workshop, Manchester Metropolitan University (2021)
Awards/Funding
Arts, Humanities & Education (AHE) Research Fund (2024)
Early Career Researcher Development Fund, Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (URKEO) (2023)
NWCDTP Targeted Funding (2022)
Early Career Researcher Development Fund, Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (URKEO) (2021)
NWCDTP Placement Fund (2021)
Plaque Prize, Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK (2019)
NWCDTP Collaborative Skills Development Call (2018-19)
AHRC doctoral funding
Writing by
Metamorphic/Photographic: A Material Investigation into Photographs of Marble (upcoming)
Howard, R. (2021) 'Thinking and Making through Folds' in Comparative Media Arts Journal, Issue 9, 2021
Writing on
https://corridor8.co.uk/article/there-then-here-now/