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About Us
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Animating public spaces with exceptional cultural experiences and artistic interventions
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Founded by Elena Jackson and Lauren Zawadzki in 2014, Deco Publique is an art and culture company based in Morecambe and working across the North.
We are curators, producers and organisers.
Deco Publique creates cultural festivals, visual and performance spectacles, and new artistic commissions. Our work is often centered around the power of mass gatherings - holding people in a celebratory and meaningful moment in unexpected locations.
The work we create, often through co-design, stakeholder engagement and partnership working - transforms coastlines, rural landscapes and urban spaces with enriching and accessible experiences.
Over long periods of time, we create the place specific cultural infrastructure required to support ambitious outcomes to be realised - working with artists, communities and industry to curate meaningful new work.
We aim to effect positive change - the ripple effects of the company's creative work include the development of local cultural ecologies; enhanced levels of participation; increased economic impact; public realm improvement; enhanced perception of place; more educational opportunities.
Since 2014, Elena and Lauren have built Deco Publique into an established art, culture and commissioning company - working across the North of England with artists, communities, organisations and industry to create exceptional and award winning experiences, rooted in people & place.
In a six year period, our independent and collaborative work has reached over 500,000 people. We’ve created an economic impact for Lancashire alone of £12m and worked with approximately 450 businesses, artists and individuals. In 2019 we were awarded Cultural Organisation of the Year.
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Team
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Working with a small studio team, larger freelance team and crew, Deco Publique is a micro organisation at heart, creating large scale cultural impact through collaboration.
Lauren Zawadzki
Co-Director
Lauren Zawadzki co-founded Deco Publique with Elena Jackson in 2014, after graduating as a mature student from Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts with a First Class Honours Degree.
Previously Lauren had a proven career in large-scale commercial construction, directing an organisation working on some of the UK’s largest construction projects, and allowing her to bring unique transferable skills to the cultural industries.
Lauren works with the team comprehensively across the business, securing funding, developing new programmes of artistic work and engaging stakeholder groups as well as on the ground delivery, whether its supporting artists to work in residence in a factory setting, delivering co-design with young people in rural locations or bringing world-class musicians and DJ’s to the shores of Morecambe Bay - and everything in between.
Lauren is also the Festival Director of the National Festival of Making, a Community Interest Company delivering work of national significance in Blackburn, Lancashire, and winners of the UK Festival Awards Best Non-Music Festival.
No matter what the project, the absolute best outcome for Lauren is the human-centred result - seeing people come together, take part, interact with one another, the sense of togetherness.
Lauren is married with 3 children and lives in the coastal village of Heysham. Lauren regularly returns to LIPA to give guest lectures and is a Trustee of music education charity More Music.
Elena Jackson
Co-Director
Elena is a Curator and Producer. Together with Lauren she co-founded art and culture company Deco Publique in 2013; Morecambe’s Vintage by the Sea Festival and the National Festival of Making Community Interest Company. Elena initiates place specific projects - working with artists, industry and communities to create mass and intimate art and cultural experiences that feel rooted in place. Through the work of Deco Publique, Elena is passionate about creating new platforms for artists and creative practitioners to make original work, and for communities and individuals to access and engage in high quality artistic experiences presented within unique landscapes and urban spaces.
Elena is Artistic Director of the National Festival of Making and Curator of the Festival’s commissioning programme, Art in Manufacturing, placing 26 artists in residence with industry in Lancashire to date. Recently she led Deco Publique’s co-curation of five heritage landscape artworks around the Morecambe Bay coastline including two permanent sculptures, SHIP and Horizon Line Chamber.
Working across all aspects of the Deco Publique practice, Elena develops the festival and artistic vision and works to ensure the curated programme upholds the aims of the CIC; strategically develops creative projects within the context of the regional and national arts ecology and secures project investment.
Elena is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Board Director of embedded art practice In-Situ.
Becci Wilson
Business and Accounts Administrator
Becci is a qualified Accounting Technician and is currently in her final year, studying for a Business with Accounting Degree at the University of Cumbria.
Becci has a wealth of experience in both charitable and commercial sectors and supports the team on a wide range of accounting and administrative tasks, also providing a continued office presence in Morecambe when the rest of the team are often out on site.
She has a passion for music and crafts and regularly attends local events and workshops with her family in order to engage with the local community and share her creative interests with her son in particular. As a local resident she is an advocate for our projects and provides a different perspective as an attendee at our events, as opposed to being involved in the production.
Ellie Rutherford
Project Assistant
Ellie has recently graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts with a First-Class Honours Degree in Management of Music, Entertainment, Theatre & Events. Ellie’s 3rd year research paper studied Socioeconomic Status and Engagement in the arts, discussing why gaps in art consumption occur and how it links with an individual's socioeconomic status.
In her third year at LIPA, Ellie completed her placement hours at Deco Publique working on different aspects of programming, projects and administration duties. She was also tasked with developing the Volunteer Programme for the National Festival of Making which led to further academic studies on how the events industry use volunteers and the reciprocal value for both parties.
Ellie’s passion is working towards the delivery of the Deco Publique portfolio of festivals. Before working with Deco Publique Ellie gained experience working at events such as Highest Point and Skiddle.
When she isn’t with us here at Deco Publique, Ellie also still works with Highest Point Festival and at Lancaster’s newest event space Kanteena. Outside of work and events, Ellie has a love of Paddleboarding and Photography in the nearby Lake District.
Daisy Williamson
Project Assistant
Daisy is an artist from the rural North West and a graduate of Lancaster University. She started working with Deco Publique on a placement through the FASS Internship programme and after 2 months intensive placement officially joined the team as a Project Assistant.
Daisy’s day-to-day involves working on The FOLD, a project commissioned by Great Place Lakes and Dales and co-designed with young people from the area. The project, focused primarily in Bentham, Settle and Kendal, seeks to involve young people in the process of idea generation and programming, and builds on the creative offer already present in these places.
Daisy generates content for our social media platforms as well as assisting across our project portfolio. She recently worked on production for the 300 activity boxes developed and delivered to children in Blackburn as part of the National Festival of Making.
In Daisy’s own practice she concentrates on opening up the dialogue around everyday sexism and has had her work exhibited in Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster and can often be found buried in her sketchbook.
Núria Rovira
Social Media Intern
Originally from Catalonia, Núria is a visual artist based in the North West who graduated from Lancaster University with a First-Class Honours in Fine Art. Through the university’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Internship Program, Núria has joined the Deco Publique team as the new Social Media Intern. For this role, she works curating Deco Publique’s content across all its online platforms. Using the borderless reach of social media, Núria builds connections with Deco Publique’s audience and tells the story behind its creative projects.
When Núria isn’t at Deco Publique’s office, she is at The GAP Studio working as a visual artist. The GAP Studio was co-founded by Núria and two other emerging artists, the arts collective aims to platform and create contemporary art projects from its workspace at the Arndale Centre, Morecambe. From there, Núria works on her art practice, which emerges from the intersection between art and biological sciences. Núria is also working to develop her career in curation, like her recent work organising the ACE funded ‘PILOT’ exhibition, February this year.
Núria’s upcoming projects include: a residency with the ATM Maths Journal and “Look Again”, a public workshop project created with The GAP Studio, and commissioned by Creative West End.
Collective & Festival Crew
Across festivals and commissions for eight years, we’ve worked with artists and creative practitioners, producers, curators, production experts, designers, PRs, film makers and photographers - a collective of creatives who bring each vision to life. And for each activity we work with a brilliant crew who help us make amazing things possible - building, shifting, making, getting in, getting out, and celebrating at the end.
Photographs - Vintage by the Sea 2019
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Deco Publique has been supported with funding kindly provided by
