Megan Randall, a ceramic artist and educator, has exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad. She completed her PhD in Ceramics at the University of Sunderland, where she also gained her BA (Hons) in Glass and Ceramics. Alongside her artistic practice, she worked as an Artist Facilitator for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, the National Glass Centre and Thought Foundation, and taught ceramics at the National Glass Centre. Her career has also included artist residencies in India and design work for Traidcraft in Peru.
During her 9 month VARC residency, she developed an ambitious exhibition titled Traces, which brought together ceramics, installation, moving image, textiles, printmaking, sound and sculpture. Initially intending to explore the theme of ‘mending’, Megan used the long residency to move beyond clay, producing a body of work that celebrated repair, place, and human connection.
In the Main Barn, Love Letters to Tarset featured hand-thrown plates, cups and bowls inscribed with community ‘love letters to place,’ glazed with wood ash from local fires. 21 Broken Things displayed repaired tools and utensils—mended with clay and surgical materials—as a tribute to visible mending. Looking Through Your Damage filled cracks in the barn’s walls with mirrors, evoking the Japanese art of kintsugi.
In the Projection Room, Drop documented the delicate frustration of learning to drop spin with ceramic spindles, while White Noise for Mending, a sound collaboration with musician Marc Rigelsford, captured the solitude and unease of Megan’s early days at Highgreen.
The Dutch Barn installation drew on the Greek myth of the Three Fates. Clotho used hand-spun yarn and ceramic microphones that unravelled through sound; Lachesis measured the nine-month residency through stitched, date-stamped silk ribbons; and Atropos featured porcelain chains and motorised scissors endlessly attempting to sever themselves.
The Artist Studio displayed minimalist clay chain sculptures, gold-leaf prints of repair instructions, and abstract ceramic views of Highgreen. In the Old Stables, Parian clay impressions of kid gloves and silk replicas referenced Hexham’s glove-making heritage, incorporating locally dug clays. Porcelain knots and daily watercolour drawings recorded the landscape and weather of Tarset.
Throughout her residency, Megan engaged deeply with local schools and community groups, running workshops and public events, including the Crafts Council’s Hey Clay! weekend. Her time at Highgreen reflected a sustained inquiry into care, repair, and connection between people and place.
