Ruth Philo
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Ruth works on placemaking projects with communities as part of her practice; this often involves film and photography.  She completed The River Runs Through Us in 2018, a collaborative project with sound artist Stuart Bowditch, working with the people and communities along the River Stour, which flows through Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk.  This included a film that toured along the river during summer 2018, installation, exhibition, walks, wild swims and a book Stour and was supported by Arts Council England and Dedham Vale AONB & Stour Valley Project. You can currently watch the film on YouTube here

This project led to the new River Stour Festival,  an annual year-long festival along the River Stour that runs through Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk. Ruth manages the programme, working with a steering group of local organisations and individuals. The festival is supported by Dedham Vale AONB & Stour Valley Project and organises an annual day on PLACE with the Essex Book Festival. Follow the River Stour Festival on instagram @riverstourfestival, Twitter @riverstourfest and Facebook River Stour Festival

Ruth and Stuart are currently working on Fabric: Silk Road a cultural, ethnographic and textile project exploring silk on the Silk Road. They were awarded a British Council Artists' International Development Fund grant to undertake a research trip to China in 2018, taking silk from the Gainsborough Silk Weaving company in Sudbury to Artall Cultural Industries, Nanjing;  they visited sericulture plants, silk mills and museums. In 2019 Ruth helped set up the Sudbury Silk Festival  and Ruth & Stuart showed a short film about silk production from their trip to China, this can be see on Vimeo here Sudbury Silk Festival is now run by collected organisations in the town and aims to run biennially, the next festival is due to take place in September 2021. The next phase of  Fabric: Silk Road will involve a journey along the Silk Road from Xi'an, China to the UK visiting silk mills, museums and communities along the route, collecting silk and making a film that the artists plan to show in silk museums and to communities connected with weaving on the little known Silk Road in the UK.

Ruth is also working on We Are The Weather, a research participatory art/science project with Stuart that explores internal and external weather, and their connections with mental health and wellbeing. In 2017 they undertook a residency at the Aldeburgh Beach Lookout looking into mood, colour and weather using the Manchester Colour Wheel devised by Professor Peter Whorwell and Doctor Helen Carruthers. Follow this on instagram @wearetheweather, Twitter @internalweather and on Facebook We Are The Weather

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