An Imperial College London alumnus has won an Arts Foundation Futures Award Fellowships 2023 for her innovations that tackle climate change.
The Dyson School of Design Engineering's Louise Skajem, who graduated from Imperial and Royal College of Art's MA/MSc Global Innovation Design in 2022, won the £10,000 Fellowship Award for Bio Design. Her work uses material exploration and biomimicry to design innovations that tackle climate change.
The winners were revealed at an award ceremony on 23 February 2023, presented in partnership with Leeds 2023: Year of Culture, featuring a special welcome address from British visual artist, Claudette Johnson MBE.
This award will also allow me to move my experiments out of my kitchen and find a suitable studio space, which I am very excited about. Louise Skajem MA/MSc Global Innovation Design alum
Louise said: "There are so many talented people working in this field, so I was very honoured to be shortlisted in the first place. I am still processing the fact that I won the Award and how this changes a lot for me going forward."
Her most recent project, Resting Reef - launched with fellow Imperial alum Aura Murillo - is an eco-burial service that uses crushed oyster shells and bone ash to build reef structures that enhance marine growth.
She added: "I will now be able to dedicate my full time to Resting Reef, a project Aura Murillo and I started during our masters at Imperial and the Royal College of Art. This award will also allow me to move my experiments out of my kitchen and find a suitable studio space, which I am very excited about."
The awards
The annual Futures Award for Bio Design champions designers working with biomaterials to accelerate the transition from extractive and carbon-centric design and materials. The award supports ambitious practices and design innovations that work towards symbiosis with nature.
The ingenuity and breadth of the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2023 Fellows and Shortlisted Artists is hugely energising. Mary Jane Edwards Director, Arts Foundation
The annual Arts Foundation Futures Awards support the UK's most promising artists and creatives at a pivotal moment in their career, providing £65,000 in unconditional grant funding, awarding five transformative £10,000 Fellowships, with all shortlisted artists receiving £1,000 towards the development of their practice.?
Mary Jane Edwards, Director of The Arts Foundation said: "The ingenuity and breadth of the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2023 Fellows and Shortlisted Artists is hugely energising. Unfortunately, we are still navigating a difficult period for our cultural sector, most keenly felt by our independent artists and freelancers.
"Now, more than ever the opportunity afforded by the Arts Foundation Futures Awards in recognising and financially supporting the livelihoods of artists and creatives feels so vital and urgent. We have no doubt all the artists' respective work will have a significant impact in their respective cultural fields, and it is a privilege to support their artistic practice and career trajectories."
This story was adapted from a press release by the Arts Foundation.
