During her year at Highgreen, Imi Maufe fully immersed herself in both the life of the Tarset community and the surrounding landscape. Her work reflects the experience from the inside rather than through straightforward representation, capturing the rhythms, and overlooked details of rural life. Over the course of the residency, Imi produced a diverse body of work, including drawings, maps, photographs, prints, and objects. Each series highlights aspects of Tarset life and landscape in ways that are affectionate, inspiring, or gently humorous, revealing dimensions of the place that might otherwise go unnoticed. Her observations and interactions with the community helped shape the final body of work, alongside her attempts to interpret the geography and character of the area.
Imi’s end of residency exhibition, Raffle Tickets and Midges, was shown at Highgreen before being toured by bicycle in a specially constructed cabinet to Bellingham, Hexham, and Newcastle. She also created a case for her collection of artist’s books, which was loaned to Northumberland County Council’s Library Service and has toured the mobile library route from Troughend to Redesmouth, making her work widely accessible to the public.
Community engagement was central to Imi’s year. She contributed to local social events such as the Great Pie Challenge, Falstone Show, and the Parish Picnic, and hosted open studio days and talks at Newcastle University, Byrness Art and Craft Group, and Northern Print’s Masterclass sessions. At Greenhaugh First School, she led a printmaking workshop where children illustrated Norse folk tales told by her Norwegian partner, Frode Roynesdal, which were then compiled into a book. At Bellingham Middle School, she ran a book-making workshop, encouraging creativity and storytelling.
Together with Frode and members of Tarset 2050, Imi developed Norway Day at Tarset Village Hall, a community event featuring Norwegian knitting and curiosities, a waffle café, storytelling, music, willow pipe workshops, and an evening Norwegian meal. Funding came from Tarset 2050, VARC, Queens Hall, Northumberland National Park’s Sustainable Development Fund, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy. Imi also translated drawings by children from North Tynies’ Day Care Centre in Bellingham into a series of 20 colourful Perspex panels, now displayed in the Centre’s outdoor play area.
Further workshops included print and book-making for adults and over-12s at Tarset Village Hall, which were enthusiastically received, and a two-day visit from twelve Fine Art students from Newcastle University. Through ‘silent walks’ and landscape-based book-making activities, Imi guided students to engage with both the environment and their own creative responses.
Imi Maufe’s residency combined attentive observation, imaginative interpretation, and deep community involvement, producing work that celebrates the character, stories, and landscape of Tarset while leaving a lasting creative legacy.
