Joya: BERILO / Lucy Steggals
We are delighted to announce Lucy Steggals (@lucysteggals) as the recipient of the Joya: Berilo Award #1 2027.
Lucy is a London-based artist and Integrative Arts Psychotherapist whose practice explores the relationship between art, therapeutic processes and community engagement.
For over twenty years, she has developed collaborative projects across galleries, NHS hospitals, universities and community spaces, working with diverse groups to explore co-creating spaces to hold dialogues rooted in curiosity, play and exploring unknowns.
Since 2022 Lucy has worked as an Art Psychotherapist supporting vulnerable young adults in Hackney, London. Alongside this work, she facilitates reflective spaces for artists and creative practitioners and is a course director and tutor at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE).
Central to her practice is the belief that through a process of making, playing and experimenting with materials people can connect in a space that sits between the real and the imagined. Working with clay, collage textiles, textiles, found objects and through collaborative processes, she explores how art can support people to navigate uncertainty, share experiences and rearrange and re-tell personal and collective narratives.
Her work has involved collaborations with organisations including Tate, Camden Art Centre, Turner Contemporary, UCL, the NHS and Wellcome Sanger Institute.
During her residency at Joya: AiR, Lucy will have the opportunity to reflect upon and extend this interdisciplinary practice, exploring the relationship between creative expression, material culture and therapeutic engagement within the landscape of the Sierra María–Los Vélez.
Congratulations, Lucy. We look forward to welcoming you to Joya: AiR.
Lucy holds an MA in Art Psychotherapy (IATE) an MA in Fine Art Textiles (Goldsmiths) and a BA in Sculpture (Northumbria University).
Her practice is process led. Co creating with diverse groups invisible containers that allow space to sit with unknowns and play. She is currently developing her own interdisciplinary methodology. Shifting to working in a more embodied way with materials (clay, collage, text and textiles). Creating a living collection of images/objects, that support dialogue and connection with others.
She says her practice holds close these values-
Flow and iteration–holding the process.
Play and curiosity– linking play and experimentation opening spaces where everything is valuable learning.
Co-creation and generosity–encouraging ownership, shared creativity, and reciprocal kindness.
Human space– creating spaces for authentic conversations and intimate dialogues.
She has worked as an art therapist with young people (16-25) in Hackney, for The Artist Wellbeing Company facilitating reflective spaces for artists and creative practitioners and she is a course director and tutor at IATE.
She has taken part in projects, commissions and exhibitions for partners including UCL, NHS, URRA (Argentina), Cubitt Gallery, Gasworks, Camden Arts Centre, Kettles Yard, Welcome Sanger, Turner Contemporary, Whitechapel Gallery, Kettles Yard, NPG, Tate, Wysing and Hal Atelier Haus (Leipzig), Insaka Arts (Zambia).
Current Roles
IATE-https://artspsychotherapy.org/
AWC-https://www.artistwellbeing.co.uk/the-team
Cubitt Gallery- https://www.cubittartists.org.uk/saturday-socials
Examples of Projects
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/ion/public-engagement/trellis-arbor/ebb-flow
Wellcome Sanger- https://genome.gallery/exhibition/flowcellular/
Recent Interview
https://www.cardsonthetable.org/post/not-knowing-is-a-shared-human-experience-ebb-flow-with-lucy-steggals
