Emily Cropton by Huia Takau

Photo: Huia Takau

About

I am an artist, landscape architect and creative producer based in Scotland. My work aims to create and support meaningful interaction between people, the environment and the more-the-human world. I am interested in the relationship between landscape cycles, life cycles and making processes, and how the act of making can help us access different forms of knowledge and understanding. My practice is often site specific and is necessarily multi-disciplinary, using drawing, making and movement to create objects, landscapes, workshops and performances.

I am currently artist in residence with The Maltings and Newcastle University (Centre for the Rural Economy, Institute for Creative Arts Practice, Population Health Sciences Institute) where I am undertaking research into wellbeing in rural communities by exploring the relationship between the human and landscape body. In 2020 I developed Connecting Threads with artist and heritage consultant Rachel Hunter, a five-year cultural programme exploring the habitats, ecology and communities of the River Tweed at the catchment scale. You can find out more about this project and the current team here.

I teach Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art and am a collaborator on the design studio, Within the Folds, situated in Berwick-upon-Tweed and led by Anaïs Chanon. This year I am training to become a qualified Mountain Leader, to enable me lead and facilitate artist-led research and practice in mountain environments. 

 Proud to be a member of Neuk Collective.

Selected Projects
Rural Wellbeing Research Residency | The Matings and Newcastle University, 2024 - 2025
Ecologies of Time | Newcastle University Fine Art Student Residency, Berwick-upon-Tweed, 2024
Connecting Threads | River Tweed Catchment, Scottish Borders, 2020-2024
The Gathering Field | Maple Cross Primary School, Hertfordshire, 2019-2021
We Will Eat Your Bones | Fieldwork Summer School, Hospitalfield, 2021
Contributing artist for A Fair Land | Grizedale Arts at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2016
Contributing artist for The Village Table | Grizedale Arts, Coniston, 2015

Talks and Workshops
Panel Discussion: Climate Justice | Films for Change, Scottish Borders, 2025
Nature Table | The Maltings, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Newcastle University, 2025
Alumni Lecture | Edinburgh College of Art Landscape Lecture Series, 2024 and 2025​
​Botanical Stories of the Tweed | Edinburgh College of Art, 2023
Connecting Threads: An Introduction | Edinburgh College of Art, 2023
​Theatres of Nature | Talla Hartfell Wild Land Network, 2022
​Alumni Lecture | Leeds College of Art, 2015

Teaching
Academic Portfolio | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023, 2024​ & 2025
Within the Folds: Berwick-upon-Tweed | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023 & 2024
Quiet Places: Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023
​Terrain & Ecologies: River Esk Catchment | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2022
Visiting Tutor | Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Leeds College of Art, 2015

Selected Roles
Landscape Designer | erz, Glasgow, 2018 - 2020
Landscape Assistant | Roundfield, Frome, 2017
Artist Assistant | Linda Brothwell Studio, Bristol, 2017
​Art Programme Assistant | Lower Hewood Farm, Dorset, 2015 - 2016
​Project Assistant | Claire Cumberlidge & Co., London, 2014 - 2016

Awards
Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award | Creative Scotland, 2022
Work in Progress Mentoring | V&A Dundee, 2022
School's Prize | Rosa Barba International Landscape Biennial, 2018
​Portfolio Prize | Landscape Institute Scotland, 2018
​Andrew Grant Postgraduate Scholarship | Edinburgh College of Art, 2017
​Porthleven Prize | Bath School of Art and Design, 2013 
​Artist Book Collection acquisition | Leeds College of Art, 2010

Professional Development
Delegate, Edinburgh International Children’s Festival | Imaginate, Edinburgh, May 2025
Here We Flow workshop with Xan Dye | Magnetic North at Dance Base, March 2025
Mountain Leader training | Glenmore Lodge, Cairngorms, June 2022
End of Life Celebrant training | A Quiet Revolution, Glasgow, September 2022
What Now: A Living Newspaper | Fieldwork Summer School, Hospitalfield, August 2021
Wild Orchards Will Overgrow Us | Fieldwork Summer School, Hospitalfield, August 2019

Education
Master of Landscape Architecture | Edinburgh College of Art, 2016 - 2018
BA(Hons) Idea, Material, Object | Bath School of Art and Design, 2010 - 2014
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design | Leeds College of Art, 2009 - 2010