Whilst the Digital Test Commissions strand is about the process of testing new digital tools, methodologies and thinking that encourages discovery within artistic practice, we also encourage and support new experimental artistic works that engage with communities. This informs artist’s continued professional development (CPD), alongside receiving creative support and mentorship.

Experiences of artists have ranged from overcoming technical hurdles, learning and experimenting with new software, media, tools and AI, This tests new ways of working and facilitates community-engagement and community-generated input - all with a focus on unlocking practice through digital means.

This is a summary of Meg’s experience.

• Meg’s final work is an animated collage video, with a draft piece titled “Champagne Lifestyle on a Lambrini Budget”, which is due to be finalised by early December.

  “It is a love letter to growing up Northern, where big dreams bloom between bus stops and bingo halls. It captures that bittersweet urge to escape your small town for something glitzier, while still knowing every corner shop and club night shaped you.

  “Rooted in working-class femininity, it challenges the way northern women are overlooked in cultural narratives. While our male counterparts are celebrated as working class heroes, we’re the ones holding it all together, raising kids, caring for communities, and doing it all in a full face and leopard print. Champagne Lifestyle on a Lambrini “Budget honours those women. It’s about beauty on a budget, and the unshakable pride of knowing exactly where you come from, even when you dream of more.”  — Meg McWilliam, artist.

Experience/Process: 

• The artist received a whopping 202 online survey responses to inform for her Test Commission work. This social media campaign with the CTA to share participant submission had almost 40,000 Instagram views, reaching nearly 21,000 accounts, with 887 likes, 32 comments and 77 saves. Post link is here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKbwwIfIFmw/?igsh=MTVncDNraXZhbXBkNg=

• This produced a large trove of public stories which are now part of Meg's ongoing research for a body of work that celebrates and explores ‘northern girlhood’, working-class dreams, and the realities of wanting more whilst loving where you’re from. The artist has selected some of these authentic stories to construct the scenes she has chose to illustrate in her own style, with artistic licence, but working to stay close to the truths shared with her.

• She aims to open up bigger conversations around these experiences through her work more broadly going forward.

• Meg has also exhibited the work-in-progress artwork at Vane Gallery, and as part of a recent panel discussion for the Print Is Not Dead event supported by design paper merchants G.F Smith in Newcastle.