Bio

Elinor Rowlands – Artist and Arts Researcher CV  

Memberships (Ongoing)

  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), since 2018

  • Member, British Art Network

  • Member, Hate Crime Research Group, Nottingham Trent University

  • Member, Poetics Research Group, Nottingham Trent University

Education: 

PhD Fine Art (Sep 2022 – July 2026) – How can an examination of stimming contribute to new insight into artistic methodologies?, Nottingham Trent University, Full Bursary 

MA Art Psychotherapy (2010–2012), Roehampton University

PGCE Primary and SEND Education (2009–2010)

PGDip Fine Art (2007–2008), Byam Shaw, Central St Martins, University of the Arts, London.

BA (Hons) Performance and Film and Television Studies, Aberystwyth University, 2:1 (67), 2002–2005

Diploma in 16mm Film, New York Film Academy, with a film screening at Harvard University, 2000

Publications

  • Rowlands, E. (2024) ‘Biodivergent Sites & Sounds’, Journal of Arts & Communities, 15, pp. 173–189. doi:10.1386/jaac_00066_7.

  • Rowlands, E. (2024) ‘Writing the experience of the Grand Union Canal in Harlesden as an intersensorial spatial practice’, Journal of Arts & Communities, 15, pp. 161–172. doi:10.1386/jaac_00065_3.

  • Rowlands, E. (2024) ‘Beauty in the Gothic: Forms of Autistic Aesthetics’, Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture, 5(2), Article 6. doi:10.9707/2833-1508.1177. Review of Rowlands’ work: https://unstrangemind.com/autistic-poetics-drown-my-eyes/

  • Rowlands, E. (2023) Scatterings of Light https://www.elinorrowlands.com/scatterings-of-light-publication

  • Rowlands, E. (ed.) (2024) Biodivergent Sites and Sounds. Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University, UK. 

  • Rowlands, E. (ed.) (2020) Magical Women, Vol. 1. Tags: Disability and Neurodiversity; Feminism, Gender and Sexuality. https://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/shop/magical-women-volume-1/

  • Rowlands, E. (2023) ‘Making Environments Accessible: Permission to Exist’, in Marnau, (ed.) On Being an Autistic Therapist, PCCS Books

Accepted / currently under peer review:

Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-dance-somatic-practices

Performance Research https://www.performance-research.org/

Awaiting decision: Journal on Drawing https://www.intellectbooks.com/drawing-research-theory-practice

Recognition:

Red2Green charity named their arts room after me (The “Rowlands” room) based on the work I've done with autistic and neurodivergent communities:

https://red2green.org/

Recognised as a “Local Hero” at Tate Modern

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/our-local-heroes

2025

Invited Speaker / Podcasts & Talks / Conferences 

Resonance in Biodivergent Sites and Sounds – 40-minute practice-based research presentation, University of Porto, Resonance, Society of Artistic Research, https://sar2025.i2ads.up.pt/

Working to Work Podcast – Guest speaker, Making Art Without a Mask
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s2-ep5-making-art-without-a-mask-elinor-rowlands/id1706140446?i=1000720237234

Grants, Commissions & Residencies

  • Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP), Arts Council England

  • Immersive Arts UK funded by ACE and UKRI: Fragments of Perception: An Autistic Odyssey (Immersive Arts funded)

  • BEAF Arts Commission – Boscombe Flags, part of You’re Not Alone: Women in Art 2025 (commissioned by Bournemouth Coastal BID and BEAF Arts Co.)

  • Invited to write foreword/ extended review for No You’re Not, Yes I Am - a portrait of autistic women (Rosie Barnes, 2025) https://rosiebarnes.com/Shop

Exhibitions & Selections

  • You’re Not Alone: Women in Art 2025
    Boscombe Arts Depot (UK) & Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice (Poland), 28 June – 17 August 2025, Part of the UK/Poland Season 2025 (British Council). Conceived and researched by Carol Maund. Catalogue with foreword by Sonia Boué. Cover Image by Elinor Rowlands. 

Current Projects

2024

Exhibitions, Conferences, Awards & Projects

  • Creative Health Camden Podcast – Guest speaker
    https://www.creativehealthcamden.com/chcpodcast/elinor-rowlands

  • Spoken word collaboration with Ben McElroy (PRS Foundation-funded project) https://laaps.bandcamp.com/album/elkwort

  • All Is Joy, Selected by Creative Health Camden, 75 Dean Street – Nurture, Creative Health Camden (showcase)

  • Every Breath We Take, Westway, North Kensington, London

  • First Prize – Presentation of research on autistic stimming as artistic methodology, NTU Art and Design Conference, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham

  • You Are Here – Survivor writers’ workshops and zine (Wellcome Trust / Spread the Word), facilitated by Jet Moon

2023

2022

  • Supporting Act Foundation Community Grant £17,000 – Magical Women (autistic/ADHD-led project)

  • a-n Bursary: Time Space Money – creation of an accessible home art studio

  • Fulham Library – Group exhibition, Society of Fulham Artists and Potters

  • The Deepenings – led by Gemma Oakley, in collaboration with Bethan Briggs-Miller

2021 

  • Disability Arts Online Commission – Painting Poetry: physicalising the art-making process (exploring the interiority of sensation). 

  • CornerHOUSE Arts Centre, Surbiton – Solo exhibition, The Magician

  • To Exist Beyond the Glass, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, UK 

2020

  • Arts Council England Project Grant – Magical Women: showcasing and creating art with neurodivergent (autistic/ADHD) women artists

  • Drake Music – Artist-in-Residence (March–December 2020)

  • Unlimited / Shape Arts Micro Grant

  • Fulham Library – Group exhibition

  • Squares Part 2, Shipton Street Gallery, Shoreditch, London

  • Magical Journeys – live soundscapes with Jo-anne Cox (cello)

  • Scheduled performances at Sweets Venues (Brighton) and Camden People’s Theatre cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic

2019

  • Pop-Up Gallery, Ad Lib, Fulham Road, London (Curated by Dylan Roberts)

  • Solo Exhibition, EU Communities, European Investment Bank, Luxembourg

  • Outside In, Gallery Piano Nobile, London (judged by Grayson Perry RA)

  • Like Breath Not Breathing (audio-video), Contested Spaces, A Place for Change, The Foundry, London (Curated by Aidan Moesby) 

  • In the Forest (audio-video installation) as part of LOST IN WONDERLAND//TALES FROM THE GREENWOOD, An exhibition featuring the work of 13 women artists, Minories Galleries, Colchester (Curated by Gemma Oakley)

  • Two Million More, Wandsworth Fringe (Curated/Directed by Kathryn Stamp)

  • Outside My Hands Are Clapping, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith (Produced by Turtle Key Arts) https://www.elinorrowlands.com/projects/outsidemyhandsareclapping

  • Live art performance as part of LOST IN WONDERLAND//TALES FROM THE GREENWOOD (Curated by Gemma Oakley) 

  • Painted Conversations, durational live art performance, Yard Theatre

2018

  • At the Window (video art), Shape Open, Hoxton Arches

  • Like Breath Not Breathing (film), Women SRSLY, The Yard Theatre, London

  • At the Window (film), Shape Open, Art Pavilion, Whitechapel Gallery

  • The Girl (poetry performance), Tate Modern

  • Shape Arts Showcase (retrospective), Hoxton Arches

  • Do We Seem Different When We Drown?, scratch performance, Battersea Arts Centre

  • Way to the Pretty (Writer/Director, Performance Poet), Calm Down Dear – Feminist Festival, Camden People’s Theatre

  • Heart of Glass Bursary (For women and marginalised identities)

2017

  • Tate Modern x Shape Arts – Performance writing and a reading to Tate Modern audiences and visitors

  • Shape Open, Mile End Pavilion, London

  • 1st Prize, ello x WeTransfer Art Competition – Flow

2008

Edge of the sea, Solo Exhibition, European Bank of Luxembourg

2007

Highgate House Group group exhibition

Kings Gate Gallery group exhibition

Byam Shaw school group exhibition