BADA Projects – Hilbre & DRA|W Island

BADA Projects – Hilbre is a long-term arts-and-science project exploring Hilbre Island as a living ecology shaped by care, migration, tide, weather, and work. Through drawing, performance, sound and site-based research, BADA builds public engagement with the island’s intertidal zones, birdlife, and the layered traces of labour that mark Hilbre as a maritime edgeland.

In 2025, BADA member Joanna co-curated Drawing Out Hilbre for the Independents Biennial, Liverpool, extending her long-term residency on the island. Summer 2025 brought together over 20 artists (individuals and collectives) to begin building the first shared Hilbre archive—a growing record of fieldwork, stories, drawings, and collaborations.

Drawing has become central to the development of BADA Projects – Hilbre, informed by practitioners such as Franchon Fröhlich, whose collaborative drawing archive now resides in the Buoymaster’s House on Hilbre. From this grounding, DRA|W Island emerges as a “satellite” strand of activity—linked to the Buoymaster’s House and focused on drawing as research. DRA|W Island develops drawing studies in relation to small, easily overlooked islands, especially under conditions of changing tides, climates, and ecosystems. The partnership with BADA supports an approach to drawing that is reflective, collaborative and site-responsive—treating drawing not only as representation, but as a method for sensing, thinking, and working with ecological interdependence.

What the partnership makes possible

Through workshops, talks, and audio-visual explorations, BADA frames drawing as an act of connection—between artist and environment, science and art, and individual and collective experience. This directly aligns with DRA|W’s commitment to expanding the language of drawing as both process and research, and fosters a critical, ecological, and performative practice rooted in real sites and living systems.

Collaborative outcomes & public engagement

Together, BADA Projects – Hilbre and DRA|W Island will generate shared research, learning, and public-facing outputs, including:

  • Joint online and site-based residencies on Hilbre Island and at Leeds Beckett University

  • Field drawing sessions and collective methods for working outdoors with tidal ecologies

  • Interactive drawing, listening, and sound workshops using multi-sensory approaches

  • Performance and audio-visual presentations translating ecological processes into artistic form

  • Public exhibitions, digital archives, and interdisciplinary symposia sharing the work with wider audiences