40 years ago, I was fortunate to receive a Churchill Fellowship to study the making of Washi (Japanese hand-made paper) and explore paper’s connection to architecture, the home and textiles. The impact of this experience has truly lived up to the claim of being an 'opportunity of a lifetime' – it started a process of learning and making that continues to inform my practice as an artist, educator, and writer to this day.
A later award, supported by the Japan Foundation, built on my Fellowship and helped me develop a distinctive approach to working with found paper, cloth, and related materials. This became a way to process ideas around place, and to reflect on discussions about the environment, sustainability, and migration.
Community engagement and teaching is at the heart of my practice. I’ve worked on projects with refugees, inter-generational groups, health professionals, and mental health organisations. I also initiate and organise exhibitions for artists and community groups that provide opportunities for them to share and exhibit their work in a supportive environment.
My creative practice has altered since my life-partner recently had a catastrophic stroke. I now balance care with creativity. This has drawn me to re-examine the world around me – and to adapt my work in response to new limitations on where I can go and what I can do. You can hear me talk about how art has helped me to cope with being a carer in the podcast ‘Carefully Considered’.
"I could never have imagined how far the Churchill Fellowship would carry me when I first set foot in Japan as a naïve 25-year-old."
My most recent touring exhibition, ‘The Shipping Forecast’, explores the concept of ‘place’ and how our inherited traditions, monuments, objects, and culture can shape our identities and our understanding of ‘home’. With migration, shifting working patterns, and increasing opportunities to travel, that sense of belonging can feel uncertain.
This work was first shown at the beautiful Sint-Anna-ten-Drieën church in Antwerp in summer 2022, through the organisation vzw ANNA3. A selection of the pieces was then installed on board LV21, a converted light vessel in Kent, before touring all four nations of the UK.
My most recent publications for Batsford Books include Embroidering the Everyday (2021) and Soulful Stitch (co-authored with Deena Beverley, 2024). Both explore how personal and global experiences can be expressed through cloth, paper, and stitch – offering more thoughtful ways to approach mixed media textiles. Work from Soulful Stitch was exhibited for the first time at the Batsford Gallery in London from 20-30 March 2025.
I am currently researching and developing a new body of work which will draw me back once again to paper and my training in Japan.
I could never have imagined how far the Churchill Fellowship would carry me when I first set foot in Japan as a naïve 25-year-old. As an artist of Romani origin, resilience is built into my DNA – and that sense of persistence and curiosity has shaped my journey ever since.
Find out more about Cas at casholmes.co.uk.
The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
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