Charlotte Kidger (UK)
Charlotte Kidger is a London based UK Maker (b 1992). Kidger graduated from Leeds College of Art BA (2014) and Central Saint Martins MA (2018) and has a background in Mould-making, Casting and Sculpture with industrial by-products at its core. Her practice is led with a hands-on approach to investigating how these undervalued resources can be re-used to re-connect people with our material world. Marrying often unconventional resources and processes she aims to reframe material values through carefully crafted artefacts and installations. Ongoing research into material extraction, by-products and craft processes means new ideas and concepts are continuously evolving. Charlotte hopes to bring alternative perspectives to new audiences through sensory experiences and story telling.
Laine Cunningham (USA)
Residency period: March-April 2025
Laine Cunningham’s writing confronts war, genocide, and abuse of power through contemporary lenses. Her recent stories examine an elderly nun from Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, a woman complicit in rape camps during the Bosnian war, and the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia. Patricia Hampl likened one story to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s work, stating, “These characters are often thought of as beyond writing about, but they are the most important to write about.” Ana Menéndez, author of The Last War, praised another piece on the Rwandan genocide as “a rich drama about human cruelty, love, and hope,” prompting its development into Cunningham’s current novel-in-progress, The Grace of the Weaverbird.
As publisher of Sunspot Literary Journal, Cunningham amplifies global voices, with published works exploring the Jim Crow South, indigenous land rights, and child soldiers. Through her company, Writer’s Resource, she supports authors and thought leaders as a ghostwriter and editor. She has taught internationally and been featured in outlets like CNN Money, NBCNews.com, and The Sydney Morning Herald. Her awards include the James Jones Novel Fellowship and The Hackney Award. She previously worked with literary agent Jack Scovil and her fiction appears in journals such as Provincetown Arts and Fiction Southeast.
Marijke Van de Poel (Belgium)
Marijke Van de Poel (b. 2000, Antwerp, Belgium) is a printmaker and illustrator whose work has been featured in multiple group exhibitions across Europe. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, with prior studies in Illustration at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent. In 2022–2023, she spent a semester abroad at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, deepening her engagement with international printmaking practices.
Her work has been exhibited in several group shows, including Unseen World (2022), Printed Image (2023), Bound by Print (2023), and Everything Flows (2023), all organized by Splinter in Antwerp. She also participated in We Were Here (2023), a group exhibition in Tallinn, Estonia. Her practice is grounded in experimental approaches to print, with a focus on narrative, repetition, and layered visual language.
Marijke has taken part in international residencies and summer programs, including Ponte d’Arte in Portugal (2021) and the University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia (2023). These experiences have helped shape her cross-cultural perspective and technical skill set. She continues to develop her artistic voice through collaborative projects and academic exploration.
Surovi Akter (Bangladesh)
Open Studio: 26th March 2025 at Space A, Kathmandu, Nepal
