Alumnae winners of North East Emerging Artist Award prepare for showcase of National Trust exhibition
Two of the three winners of the North East Emerging Artist Award 2024 hailed from Newcastle University’s School of Fine Art. Ahead of their winners’ showcase at Seaton Delaval Hall this September, we caught up with Lucy Waters and Phoebe Scott to dive into their art practice and how it was shaped on campus.
12 May 2025
Meet the Fine Art alumnae winners of the 2024 North East Emerging Artist Award
The North East Emerging Artist Award was established in 2021 and is open to artists from all artforms including music, sound, theatre, film, fashion, literature and design as well as fine art. The award celebrates artists in the final year of their undergraduate degree, studying for a masters’ degree, or who have graduated in the last three years or equivalent.
In summer 2024, Newcastle alumnae Lucy Waters (BA Fine Art, 2021; MFA, 2023) and Phoebe Scott (BA Fine Art, 2024) were named as winners of the North East Emerging Artist Award, based on their proposals for a commission to honour the history of local National Trust site Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland.
Since then, the pair have been working to create the commissioned artwork, which will be exhibited to the public at Seaton Delaval Hall from 6 September – 19 October 2025. Each winner received a £4,000 prize to bring their proposals to life.
Ahead of the exhibition opening, we caught up with Lucy and Phoebe to find out more about the inspiration behind their art, their memories of university life and what is next for these promising creatives.
Centring sidelined histories
Lucy Waters studied at our School of Fine Art from 2017 to 2023, gaining both her BA and MFA. “I could have been a doctor by now!” she jokes. While researching Seaton Delaval Hall for the awards, Lucy quickly became frustrated on behalf of the female members of the Delaval family, as their significance and stories were diminished amongst a bloodline entwined in male succession and inherited wealth. This frustration turned into the inspiration for her art. She told us:
“I imagined myself to have been commissioned by Rhoda Delaval, an accomplished artist, and the eldest daughter of the family, to create an ever-growing dining ware set. Designed exclusively for Rhoda, her siblings and for all Delaval and Astley females to come, ‘Delaval Ware’ is a way of representing the importance of the women in the family and their achievements, often overlooked. For example, a handful of portraits that reside at the Hall are believed to have been painted by eldest daughter Rhoda but were attributed to more well-known male artists of that time.”
Creating art authentic to myself
Lucy’s distinctive ceramic artworks have recently been displayed at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and are currently featured in The Northumberland Open at Woodhorn Museum in Ashington. Through her hand-painted, charity shop-bought pieces, a playful but out of kilter nod to traditional blue tableware, Lucy explores the socioeconomic landscape of the North East and the wider sociopolitical climate we find ourselves living in. Her pieces often include impressions of her family home in Newcastle, and Lucy employs quotes to “scoff at the ludicrousness of socio-politically derived language”.
Having dreamt of being an artist since she was a child, there was no other option when it came to choosing a degree to study at university. Lucy said:
“My work has developed and changed its form a lot over the years. However, the work I am doing at the moment feels the most authentic to me. I don’t think I’d have been able to delve into and establish my unique style so thoroughly without the MFA course here at Newcastle.
“The most crucial years of my undergraduate studies were impacted by the pandemic, so the Master’s gave me the time and direction to develop my artistic practice. Looking back, I’m so glad I decided to stay on for another two years!”
A whirlwind since graduating
During the final week of her Master’s degree show, Lucy learnt that two of her pieces had been selected to feature in The Graduate Art Show in London. She said:
“This was such a great moment, as it really was the start of my journey, but also gave me such a boost in confidence as it was the first time showing my work outside of the North East. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a series of solo exhibitions and have also been involved in various group shows, in the North East but also throughout galleries in Manchester, Sheffield and London.”
One such North East exhibition was the BALTIC Open Submission in association with Fenwick, where three pieces of Lucy’s artwork were displayed. She told us:
“My first ever visit to BALTIC was when I was 10 on a school trip to visit the Yoshitomo Nara Exhibition/Installation, which I can still remember being so amazed by. Having had work exhibited there now myself feels huge!”
As well as the exhibition at Seaton Delaval Hall in September, Lucy is also featuring in an exciting exhibition at Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle this year, with her artwork featuring alongside art from Picasso, Grayson Perry and Gillian Wearing to name a few. 'From Joséphine Bowes: Trendsetters and Trailblazers' celebrates the museum’s co-founder and is open until 29 June 2025.
Following in mum’s footsteps
Phoebe Scott (BA Fine Art, 2024) graduated from Newcastle University last summer, and is an interdisciplinary artist focusing on theatrical femininity through sculpture. Growing up in North Yorkshire, her arrival on campus was almost predetermined. She told us:
“There’s a tradition of the women in my family studying Fine Art at Newcastle – both my mum and my aunt studied here. When I was younger, I was adamant I wouldn’t be doing that, but I’m so glad I followed in their footsteps now!”
Phoebe’s first year of study was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that although she moved up to Newcastle to live at student accommodation The View (next to St. James’ Park), the majority of her learning was done online. “It was the one good thing to come out of the pandemic,” she jokes, “as it helped me transition from living in the middle of nowhere to city life!”
Now living in Heaton with her partner who she met on the Fine Art course, Phoebe is busy working on her commission for the North East Emerging Artist Award exhibition, entitled ‘Glamour of the Big Wigs’.
Full circle
Phoebe’s art practice centres on the intersections between fashion and sculpture. As a first year on campus, she designed wearable sculptures including shoes and nails, and after delving into other aspects of Fine Art throughout her degree, Phoebe has returned to wearable art. She said:
“While I’ve come full circle and come back to sculpture, my practice now is definitely informed by everything I learnt when exploring other areas of art at university. The biggest thing for me was doing my dissertation and having a lot of research behind your work, which I continue to do now before diving in!
“My commission for the exhibition at Seaton Delaval Hall is a wig incorporating natural elements from the Hall’s grounds, like fibres from nettles foraged in the garden. It’s inspired by all the crazy parties, pranks and outrageous behaviour that the Delaval family got up to, using the Georgian and Baroque style of architecture and turning it into this absurd wearable sculpture.”
The call for submissions for the North East Emerging Artist Award came when Phoebe was in her final year of study, preparing for her degree show. While initially reluctant to apply, Phoebe’s tutor gave her the push she needed to submit a commission, “and here we are!” she laughs. “Sometimes I think I need a bit of pushing so I don’t overthink these kinds of opportunities. I have to thank my tutor for that.”
Ahead of the exhibition opening in September, Phoebe is working with a blacksmith to make the main structure of the wig, and throughout the summer will be working with the gardeners at Seaton Delaval Hall to collect nettles to weave into the piece. She told us:
“When you strip down nettles to the fibres in the middle, dry them out and brush them through, they resemble hair. In the final piece, there’ll be a mix of older nettle fibres and new green ones weaved together, so while it’s a completely natural material there’s going to be something quite otherworldly about it.”
A collaborative community
A year after graduating from Newcastle University, Phoebe continues to live in Heaton amongst many of her contemporaries from campus. She said:
“The artist community in Newcastle is small and tight-knit, but there are always lots of people willing to help you which is so lovely and welcoming. There’s no gate-keeping of ideas or knowledge, it’s a great space to grow as an artist.”
The North East Emerging Artist Award competition has also granted Phoebe with other opportunities to widen her artist network in the local area. She has started collaborating with fellow winner Kiik Amor, with the pair working on some outfits together. This is the direction Phoebe sees her art practice going in the future. She said:
“I’m really interested in exploring fashion and sculpture, and where those two areas collide like in styling people and making nails and wigs, so that’s what I’m focusing on at the moment alongside finishing the wig for the exhibition. Collaboration is also a thing I want to explore more, I think working with other artists really pushes me in my own practice.
The thing I enjoy the most about my art practice is seeing my artwork worn and interacted with, seeing it danced in and moving on a body.”
Visit the Winners’ Exhibition
Established in 2021, the North East Emerging Artist Award is inspired by Seaton Delaval Hall’s long-standing tradition of supporting the arts.
Alumni can visit Seaton Delaval Hall from 6 September – 19 October 2025 to see both Lucy and Phoebe’s artwork on display, with entry to the exhibition being included in the National Trust entry fee (or free for National Trust members).
Do you have news to share with our alumni community?
Get in touch and share your latest news and achievements so we can let your fellow Newcastle alumni know!
Images courtesy of the artists and Bec Hughes, House of Hues