Joanne Coates

Joanne Coates - Artist in Residence I, 2026

Joanne was the first Artist in Residence of 2026.

During her stay, she was able to open The Little Barn and welcomed a small, yet appreciative audience for an artist's talk - which was no mean feat as Vayres at the time was in the middle of a heatwave!

Joanne and I had talked for years about her coming to The Little Barn and although the insanely high temperatures rather scuppered a lot of her residency plans, I was delighted that she finally made it.

For those of you unfamiliar with her work:

Joanne Coates is a working class visual artist based in the north east  England. Through photography, installation, and audio, she explores rural life, hidden histories, and class inequality. Her work asks questions about power, identity, wealth, and poverty, with work rooted in lived experience across class, gender, and disability.

Since graduating from LCC with a B.A. (Hons) in Photography, Joanne has produced work grounded in rural communities and the lived experience. She has been published and celebrated in publications ranging from the BJP, Magenta Flash Forward and online with Firecracker. In 2021 she received the Jerwood/Photoworks Award, bringing her photography to a national audience. In 2024 she was chosen to be the UK House of Commons Official Election Artist and was the recipient of the Baltic Vasseur Arts Award for The Middle of Somewhere.

She is a powerful and outspoken advocate for working class artists and artists who are neurodiverse.  Her work is wonderful - you really need to check it out.  Link to her website.