A year on: Nick Murray’s residency at Barham Park

A year of community and creativity

Last year, ACAVA welcomed Nick Murray as artist-in-residence at Barham Park Studios in Brent. Over six months, Nick developed interactive artworks blending games, sound, and storytelling. Their solo exhibition, Return to Dreamphone, the We All Go Together unconference, and Maps for Unpredicting – a day of play and manifesto-making – encouraged visitors to engage with collective memory, shared experiences, and playful community-building.

Through collaborative workshops and experimental installations, Nick invited audiences to rethink how we archive, share, and imagine together. The residency left a vibrant legacy on Barham Park’s artistic community, inspiring ongoing conversations about collective care, creative collaboration, and the role of playful arts in everyday life.

Nick Murray, ACAVA Hosts: Barham Park Studios artist-in-residence. Photo by Abiola Renee
Image courtesy of Nick Murray

“This residency has absolutely changed my practice. I’ve been able to make work at scale so that there is a kind of landscape for some of the work that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. I’ve had the space to experiment, play with materials, make mistakes and play with failure – it’s been a real joy.”

Nick Murray, Return to Dreamphone, Exhibition view, ACAVA Hosts Barham Park Studios Residency, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist and ACAVA. Photo by ACAVA Shoots (Andreia Leitão)
Nick Murray, Return to Dreamphone, Exhibition view, ACAVA Hosts Barham Park Studios Residency, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist and ACAVA. Photo by ACAVA Shoots (Andreia Leitão)
Nick Murray, Unconference: We All Go Together, ACAVA Hosts Barham Park Studios Residency, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist and ACAVA. Photo by ACAVA Shoots (Andreia Leitão)
Nick Murray, Unconference: We All Go Together, ACAVA Hosts Barham Park Studios Residency, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist and ACAVA. Photo by ACAVA Shoots (Andreia Leitão)

About the residency

ACAVA’s Barham Park Studios Residency supports socially engaged artists, providing studio space, resources, and community engagement opportunities. Nick’s work focuses on digital cultures, loss, and interactive storytelling. Their practice emphasises playful participation, place-making, and shared imaginative spaces, ensuring everyone can contribute meaningfully.

Through this residency, Nick developed artworks that questioned how knowledge, memory, and care can be collectively maintained, both online and offline, encouraging visitors to become active participants in creating living archives.

Image via Barham Park Studios artist-in-residence, Nick Murray
Image via Barham Park Studios artist-in-residence, Nick Murray

Looking back

Nick’s residency was a moment of experimentation and collaboration, highlighting the value of communal creativity. From the Cut & Stick Neighbourhoods game to the Returning Tide collages, the projects remain as a playful record of the conversations and connections formed during the residency.

Explore Nick Murray’s work and ongoing projects on their website:
Visit Nick Murray

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