About
Jane Watt is a visual artist originally from the east coast of Scotland, now based in Suffolk, UK. She has over 30 years’ experience making work that is site-responsive, seeking to prompt new interactions with, and perceptions of, rural and urban spaces. Her work is increasingly rooted within landscape: being in it, observing it, recording it, making in it and of it.
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Jane has exhibited nationally and internationally in artist-led spaces such as The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, The Cut, Halesworth and Crown Letter, France, as well as in established organisations and galleries including The Economist, Contemporary Art Society and Crafts Council in London, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth and Millais Gallery, Southampton. She has curated and co-curated a number of artist-led exhibitions including shows for Essex County Council, The Art Station, Saxmundham and the National Trust, Orford Ness. Her public works span a range of sites including city rooftops and buildings, neighbourhood parks and shingle beaches. She has been commissioned by organisations such as University College London, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, the Supreme Court, London, and Westonbirt Arboretum.
Art practice
Often project-based, Jane's art practice is wide-ranging incorporating a variety of materials and processes depending on the site, locale, community or project. She has made a number of still and moving image projections both largescale on buildings and small scale to fit in the palm of your hand. She has installed an artificial flock of birds on a roof in Brussels; turned the world’s longest loom band bracelet into a three-storey high interactive installation; made botanical ink drawings from mulberry leaves; developed an oral history walking sound app; and created participatory dance events under a magenta spotlight in a forgotten corner of north London to name but a few.
Collaboration
Collaboration and dialogue play a central role in Jane's practice as artist and researcher. She enjoys working with others, engaging in an open exchange of ideas and knowledge towards realising new work and approaches. She has worked on largescale and ambitious works involving over 500 residents in north west Cambridge to make an archive of curious objects; and interviewing over two hundred past and present residents on the Alton Estate about their memories of home. She has worked closely with architects such as Reiach & Hall and Panter Hudsmith on design and implementation of largescale site-specific public commissions. And she has collaborated with artists including several largescale engaged projects with Sara Heywood in Roehampton and Bethnal Green, London.
Research
In 2021 she founded Blast Radius with artist researcher SE Barnet, a collaborative and interdisciplinary research practice that brings together specialists in art, heritage and environmental science on landscape-centred projects. They are currently leading a long-term research project Power House on Orford Ness, in partnership with The National Trust. and University of Suffolk.
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Jane is currently co-investigator and part of the Leadership Team for ARISE (2024-28), a ground-breaking research project funded by UKRI which seeks to develop resilience within the UK’s coastal seas and communities.
Teaching and Mentoring
Jane has a well-established academic career rooted in practice-based pedagogy. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at University of Suffolk. She has led undergraduate and postgraduate courses and currently leads doctoral supervision focused on practice-based site-specific art research. She teaches across a range of undergraduate levels, leading Drawing, Professional Practice and Degree Project modules. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). ​
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​Jane is a passionate advocate for supporting artists at all stages of their careers and has worked with a-n as commissioned writer, online editor and adviser. She was a founding Trustee and the first Creative Director of The Art Station, helping to establish an innovative programme of contemporary art exhibitions, studio hub and peer critique. She has mentored emerging and established artists on Making Art Work, Suffolk, and 1st Out Orwell Bursary programme in Salford.