Designer and creative thinker Megan Fitzoliver is co-ordinating a celebration of North Staffordshire’s creative and caring individuals, groups, and industries.
The inaugural Festival of Hands will take place across Stoke-on-Trent and beyond, 1st to 14th June 2026.
We sat in Spode Rose Garden in Stoke, enjoying a coffee from the Bluebird cafe, chatting about the festival and its themes.
Megan’s looking for expressions of interest from anyone that wants to get involved.
“Let’s join hands, build on the centenary celebration foundations, and show the world what we can do together in this creative city.”
I met Yuliia Holovatiuk-Ungureanu, one of two Ukrainian artists currently exhibiting ‘On The Edge’, at the University of Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.
PODCAST: 19 minutes
Yuliia talks us through the themes of the exhibition, co-produced with fellow Ukrainian artist and friend Olha Barvynka.
The exhibition explores ‘transformation in response to a world shaped by crisis.’
One part of the mixed media exhibition, Yuliia’s ceramic bricks, have attracted unwelcome and upsetting attention from a small number of visitors to the Henrion Gallery space – a thoroughfare used by students and visitors to the university. Yuliia updates us about what has been happening.
“Sometimes art is born not from nice feelings inside, sometimes art is born from pain. And from my experience, and actually it’s one of the reasons why I’m doing art, is that I feel pain. I feel so much pain inside, so many emotions, different feelings, that you can’t do anything else only express it somehow, and I express it through art.”
Yuliia Holovatiuk-Ungureanu
UPDATE: since recording yesterday morning, the artists’ exhibition in the Henrion Gallery at University of Staffordshire has suffered more vandalism, including the breaking of several of Yuliia’s ceramic bricks. We’ve welcomed both Ukrainian artists into our city to give them safety and a home. They’ve responded in gratitude by giving us incredibly poignant art, adding greatly to our local arts scene. It’s shocking to think that a small number of visitors to the gallery would act in such a vile way to our friends. I hope the police and university exercise their fullest powers in bringing the perpetrators to account.
I met up with artist Rob Pointon in Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre as he battled the elements to continue his series for the Brampton Museum and Art Gallery, entitled ‘Painting Through The Dark Month’.
Local artist Rob Pointon will be attempting the challenge of completing an oil painting a day throughout the month of January. Rob paints outdoors in all weathers, temperatures, day or night. As soon as the painting is completed we will hang it and gradually populate this exhibition.
Brampton Museum & Art Gallery
We enjoyed a chat about the town’s palette and his notable style of painting with an exaggerated perspective.
Also good to be reminded we’re both alumni of the University of Wales, lol.
Chilean Rose tarantula spider. Copyright Jerome Whittingham.
Here’s something you probably don’t know about my professional photography interests…
Throughout my long and varied career as a professional newsy photographer I’ve always enjoyed photographing animals – indeed, I started out as a wildlife photographer in my 20s.
Photographing animals is not something I’ve done much of since returning to North Staffordshire in 2021, and I’d like that to change.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about where my photography has been going, and where the media industry I love is going, thanks to changing technologies and social trends.
I’ve joked with a few friends recently that I should dial my career back a decade or so and look again at subjects that once filled my diary.
Before 2016 I was known for photographing ‘interesting people doing interesting things’.
Some of my documentary photography was about homelessness, addiction, housing. But I was also commissioned to look at local food initiatives, farming, and nature conservation.
And animals, I photographed a lot of animals! From wildlife on farms to illustrate environmentally friendly farming techniques, to stories of insect conservation on nature reserves, to people’s exotic pets and pet care – it was great exploring these issues with clients.
And those issues have not gone away! I’m sure there are new stories for me to pursue.
So, apologies if you hate spiders, grabbed your attention though didn’t it?!
I’d love to hear from anyone – potential clients especially, of course – that might have an interesting animal related story for us to develop together. I’m happy to hop on a train for this, if outside of my Stoke-on-Trent home territory.
And yes – I’m up for some straight forward pet photography too!
