“Folk is the stuff we make, do and think for ourselves—and the radical potential of these things.”
What if ‘folklore’ wasn’t just a niche interest, but a potent agent for resistance and change?
About Lucy Wright
Lucy Wright is an artist based in the North of England. Her practice sits at the intersection of folklore and activism, often using as source material her 10+ years of cited research into lesser-known contemporary and female-led folk customs.
Following a stint as the lead singer in BBC Folk Award-nominated act, Pilgrims' Way, Wright received a Vice Chancellor’s scholarship from Manchester School of Art for her PhD before becoming a Visiting Research Fellow in Folklore at University of Hertfordshire in 2019. Recent activities include solo shows at Portico Library, Manchester; Field System, Devon; group shows at Leeds Art Gallery and Compton Verney, residencies at Hospitalfield and the Hugo Burge Foundation, and features in Sunday Times Style and Weird Walk. In 2025, artist Lucy J Wright was an invited speaker at the British Academy and a contributor to Claire Bishop’s ‘Ancestral Avant-gardes’.
Lucy is a ‘hedge morris dancer’, author of the ‘Folk is a Feminist Issue’ manifesta, and originator of ‘Dusking’, a 100% invented tradition and annual participatory project for anyone who has ever wanted to dance the sun down!
'a vital, questioning, vibrant force of nature...Wright is an ascendant star who seems entirely and univocally herself, no matter where and with whom she practices.'
—Kirsteen McNish, Caught by the River
‘…engaging, witty, pointed – everything I was hoping for!’
—Claire Bishop, Ancestral Avant-gardes
'mainstay of a scene aiming to remove folk from male, pale and stale hands and return to them to the people'
—Kate Spicer, Sunday Times Style
Read an article featuring Lucy’s work: ‘Who should wake coyote? The role of exemplary stories in a time of climate change’, Victoria Walters, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 2025
Recent rites + rituals
Recent rites + rituals
Ancestral Avant-gardes
Holden Gallery, Manchester School of Art
Curated by Claire Bishop, March 2025
Making Traditions
A documentary by Jonny Randall
Music by Stealing Sheep
HEDGE MORRIS DANCING
