THERESA CARUANA
Theresa has worked for over 25 years as an artist, educator and curator.
Her practice has drawn upon a wide range of media, from analogue photography, large scale video projection and interactive multi media installations to drawing, painting and sculpture. This broad experience has remained focused on a fascination with nature and our place within it as creative and emotional beings.
She is a 'Professional Media Graduate of Cheltenham College of Art, with an MFA from Chelsea College of Art and Design and has exhibited internationally including the 2017 and 2019 Venice Biennale 'Collateral Events' curated by Vanya Balogh.
As an educator Caruana has worked with a broad range of ages and abilities including SEN; often creating innovative art projects that foster a playful and inquisitive approach to haptic learning, creativity and personal expression.
One interesting highlight was in 2007 when Theresa was awarded funding from software company Adobe to deliver
'Urban Outsiders', a multi media art project she created for year 6 and 7's at Top Valley School, as part of Adobe's 'Global Youth Voices' initiative. Using a mixture of new and traditional media to document wild flora and fauna hidden within their local urban environment.
The resulting artwork created by the students was projected onto the Museum of Technology San Jose California, as part of the Zer01 Digital Arts Festival 2008.
During her tenure as research fellow at the University of Nottingham's Digital Transformations and Mixed Reality Lab, Theresa has raised over £100,000 of funding from the public and private sector, working collaboratively with professionals from a range of disciplines including Arts and Heritage, Human Computer Interaction, Geography and the Classics.
Here she co developed interactive software 'Wonder Anywhere' used by Tate Britain's 'Art Maps' and the National Trust's 'Caistor Roman Town', developing mapping and digital signage within cultural-historical settings.
Caruana has presented research papers at Urban Screens Conference 'Its About Content' in Manchester 2007 and 'Pervasive Displays' Porto 2012.
This decade of practice based research produced a number of innovative public art exhibitions such as 'Rivers Baghdad'
at Benjamin Franklyn House Museum and 'Art in Your Park': Commissioning eight artists to produce large scale sculpture/interventions in Nottingham's 'Highfields Park' and Lake; an interactive exhibition inspired by Nottingham Museum's ancient Roman artefacts from the temple of Diana; exploring human creativity, spirituality and the natural world.