Joanne Coates

Joanne Coates is a working class visual artist using photography, sound, and installation. Her work tells stories around socio-economic injustice, rurality, and hidden histories. She questions stories around power, identity, wealth, and poverty. She was first educated in working-class communities, and then at London College of Communication (BA Hons Photography). Participation and working with communities are an important aspect of her work. In 2022 Coates was the winner of the Jerwood / Photoworks award. Over the past five years she has achieved worldwide recognition from Magenta Flash Forward, British Journal of Photography, The British Council, Arts Council England, Women Photograph, Firecracker and more. In 2021 Joanne was a recipient of Shutterstock Females in Focus Award.  2020 saw her as artist in residence at The Maltings and Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy (CRE) and Institute for Creative Arts Practice, where she developed Daughters of the Soil, exploring the role of women in agriculture in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. In 2021 she was commissioned as an artist working on the Tees-Swale project working with young people across Teesdale to explore social justice and the rural. She works with various arts organisations to look at themes of class, inequalities, rurality and community cohesion. This can be seen in commissions working with Middlesbrough Mela, The Dorman Museum, and Hull City of culture. Coates’ early work focused on the fishing industry in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Over five years she followed the lives of the community in her work North Swells. The work was published by another place press in 2020.