I'm really happy to have been selected for the 2019-20 edition of the Newbridge Project's Programme Committee. On the committee, I will be particularly interested in develping events that explore collaborative working and cross-disciplinary practice.

Last night I co-hosted 'Odd Combo', my first event under this role, with fellow artists and collaborators Jill Tate and Theresa Poulton. Over the evening we heard from Lesley Guy, from the collective Totaller, and Helen Shaddock and David Foggo, from the collaborative Marginendeavour, to practically unpick some of the nuts and bolts of collaborative and collective work.

I'm pleased to have been awarded a 2019 a-n Mentoring Bursary to work with visual artist Emilia Telese over the next year to take stock of my practice and point it in the right direction.

Before starting this journey, I cast my mind back to August when I submitted my application. In many ways, it had been a good year. I had just finished de-installing my first solo show outside the North East in Wigan, which after 18 months of development felt like it had really paid off. I'd spent the summer working with an artist as an editor, which has been a new way to consider making work, while earlier in the year I was approached to work on a heritage project with the Discovery Museum, and alongside all this, a new collaboration with two like-minded artists in my studio group was slowly developing.

But it had also been a year with a series of (albeit positive) rejections and having reached a turning point where I would like to pursue a new direction for my practice, positioning my new ideas against previous work has been challenging. Understanding rejection is part and parcel of the artist experience, it is difficult to see nothing new in sight and by August I was feeling burnt out and a bit deflated. And so as I wrote my application - full of hope and panic - I wanted to understand where I was falling short.

Cut to November, and the future is brighter and after a bit of time out new work and new projects have started to develop. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next year brings, and to having someone to share the journey with...