Julieann has been awarded many public, corporate and private commissions, from tapestries for the V&A, Luton Town Council, Staffordshire County Council, and The Brewhouse Arts Centre Burton on Trent, sculptures for The Museum of Childhood in Denver USA, Persimmon Homes in Salisbury, The Cotswold Wildlife Park and The National Forest, to designing and creating sculptural and textile installations for The Watermill Theatre, Kneehigh Theatre Company, Conran, Chanel and Coldplay. She has been awarded residencies, run workshops and given talks in the UK, Portugal, Germany and India: in museums, theatres, art galleries, schools, communities, parks, arts centres, across whole counties, in a brewery and on a playbus! Here are just a few examples.
The Salisbury Hares
Public sculpture commission for Persimmon Homes at St Peter’s Place, Salisbury. 2018
For the Persimmon Homes sculpture commission that was installed at St Peter’s Place in Salisbury in 2018, Julieann began by researching in the local history archives and museum. She found field names that indicated a local area called the Hare Warren in nearby woodlands (hare’s don’t actually have warrens but this was an historical name for an old hunting ground) and a shepherd’s report in the parish records of a local parish church dating back to the seventeenth century of seeing hares dancing by moonlight on adjacent Salisbury Plain, stating that it brought him good luck. Salisbury Museum has a tiny bronze leaping hare in it’s collection that dates back to Roman times and local churches feature the iconic three hares roundel carved into the fabric of the building.
Hares have always held a special fascination forJulieann. She saw her first boxing hares on moving to Wiltshire over thirty years ago. Salisbury Plain provides habitat for our indigenous wild brown hare and it is indeed a magical sight catching glimpses of them running and boxing in the fields near St Peter’s Place. Julieann sketched the hares in the wild and made sculpture maquettes using pliable armature wire that developed the sketches into three dimensional drawings. The maquettes were scaled up in collaboration with specialist engineers Art Fabrications.
The large hare sculptures (a leaping hare, running hare and boxing pair) are installed in the green open space that runs the length of the development, along pathways and in wild flower areas leading towards the city and with a view of the famous cathedral spire. The sculptures created landmarks, were connected to and told stories of the place, of people and wildlife, historically and now. The sculptures are open so the big Wiltshire skies are seen through them. They are made out of stainless steel rod, artfully flowing just like the lines of a drawing. The material reflects the light, the trees, the changing hours and seasons.
Following the period of Lockdowns, in 2022 Julieann devised and led Kaleidoscopic, a community engagement project exploring the nature of perception and place, as part of this public art commission. She brought together community members from the new St Peter’s Place housing development where the sculptures are sited and the neighbouring existing community in Bemerton Heath. Working with pupils and the communities of St Peter’s Primary School and Bemerton Woodlands Primary School, Julieann led sculpture workshops, local walk and talks and visits to nearby Roche Court Sculpture Park. The sculptures and film by Create Studios made during the project went on to be exhibited at Salisbury Arts Centre with a an opening celebratory event and film screening for all participants and the wider communities.
In 2022, Julieann Worrall Hood received the Marsh Award for Excellence in Visual Arts Engagement for her work with the Multi-Sensory Art Project, co-creating interactive objects and environments with and for children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD) and their families, across Wiltshire.
Julieann also made this film about the project which was shared by the International PMLD Conference and at Oily Cart’s Big Share at Battersea Arts Centre, London.
The Multi-Sensory Art Project (MSAP) is an initiative founded by artist Becky Churchill, working with fellow sculptors Julieann Worrall Hood, Emma Kerr and Pauline Cain, in partnership with The Roche Court Educational Trust. From 2012-2022 the team created immersive art installations within special schools in Wiltshire. Designed primarily for children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), Special Educational Needs (SEN), and Early Years groups, it brings world-class sculpture out of traditional galleries and directly into accessible spaces.
The project centers around handling objects, tactile materials, and site-specific immersive environments, that stimulate all senses beyond sight.
Since PMLD children typically require assistance to access digital and physical exhibits, MSAP relies on artist-educators collaborating with teachers and the children’s families to act as creative mediators.
Shaping Sound
Since 2017 an ongoing creative project with The Piano Shop in Bath has offered Julieann the opportunity to explore shaping sound through the language of sculpture, using scrap piano parts as her raw material. Her sculpture installation Joyful Sound is made out of over 1000 piano keys. It flows through the ground floor display windows of the three Georgian buildings that make up The Piano Shop in central Bath.
In 2019, 2021 and 2022/23 Julieann also collaborated with the Piano Shop team to create pieces for Coldplay for international performances, bringing together traditional piano making with sculpture, textiles and multi-media arts.
The Piano Shop Bath, in consultation with Julieann, continues to invite artists to make temporary interventions with this contemporary, sustainable artwork.
Chanel Christmas Installations 2016
Sculptural installations of eccentrically woven rattan forms for exterior, windows and interior displays at the Chanel Boutique, New Bond Street London (shown in picture) also Chanel at Selfridges Oxford Street, Harrods, Heathrow Terminal 5, London and Chanel at Selfridges in Manchester and Dublin.
Leaping Hares Commission (above left)
Marlborough College, Wiltshire. 2012
A pair of woven willow leaping hares, each 2.25m long on 3m poles.
In addition to public, corporate and private commissions, Julieann has devised and led mixed media, tapestry, mosaic and sculpture residencies and projects in over 200 primary, secondary and special schools and community groups in Wiltshire, Berkshire, Yorkshire, Dorset, Derbyshire, Basingstoke, Birmingham, London, Somerset and Santarem (Portugal). In these projects the participants are each key members of Julieann’s creative team. They learn designing and making skills, such as how to translate from sketch to final piece, be it from 2d to 3d, go on to teach new recruits the team as the project progresses and contribute to the design and creation of large scale collective artworks. Photos on the right from a residency at Threeways Special School, Bath.
