Meet The Artist: Ross Bolwell-Williams
November 17, 2025 | BlogsFind out more about Artist Ross Bolwell-Williams who is working with Made With Many on our festive Winter Makes activity this November and December!
What kind of artist are you?
I am a freelance Participatory Visual Artist with over 18 years’ experience, specialising in creating unforgettable creative engagement experiences for children, young people, adults and communities. I work locally and nationally within schools, the community and the culture sector. Curiosity, collaboration and imagination are the cornerstones to my practice, and my work has encompassed curating exhibitions, creating art trails, interactive installations, specialised crafting sessions and creating immersive multisensory environments. I believe in the creative genius of everyone; through my work, I aim to connect people to their playful and creative selves. I am also a qualified Art Psychotherapist. This means I use art to help people who are experiencing poor mental health, to communicate, express and make sense of difficult experiences and things which sometimes can’t be conveyed by just using words. When I’m not working, I can mostly be found walking my dog, making art and visiting beach huts (it’s my dream to one day have my very own art studio in a beach hut!)
Where do you find inspiration?
I was inspired to be an artist because my art teacher told me that I wasn’t allowed to study art. I also spent a long time feeling like I was a robot who just pushed buttons to enable other people to do their own art, and I missed doing it myself. I ran away with the circus, attended art classes, I picked up a pencil and drew in my sketch books, I made friends with the best artists in my community, I attended art galleries and dared to dream big. I also had the once-in-a-lifetime chance encounter with Artichoke and Royal de Luxe’s Sultan’s Elephant back in 2006 which was a game-changing moment. Seeing the 12-foot robotic elephant parading across central London was a moment which burned itself into my psyche. Seeing art which caused people to stop in their tracks and playfully disrupt their everyday was a golden moment of inspiration.
My artistic inspiration is drawn from a wide range of people and things, which include: Philip Pullman’s Daemons & His Dark Materials, Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms and inflatable structures, David Best’s Burning Temples, Luke Jerram’s In Memoriam and Takuro Kuwata’s From Tea Bowl.
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to be an artist in Northamptonshire?
This is a GREAT question. I believe that everyone in the community (children AND adults) is an artist. You don’t need to have studied ‘art’ to be an artist. You don’t need to have a qualification to be an artist. To me, an artist is someone who can tap into their curiosity and be led by their imagination. An artist is someone who is able to colour outside the lines and who has an open mind and heart. Art helps us see the world in a different way, and to do that, we sometimes need to turn the volume down on that part of ourselves which tells us not to take risks, or that we aren’t good enough, or what we are making isn’t good enough.
I would encourage people to draw inspiration from everything around them, and be open-minded. I would encourage people to enjoy the process of making the art that they are making, and to be aware of the words you use to appreciate the art – don’t be critical, shake off the judgment, and hold your art with care and kindness. Art is making something which wasn’t there before, and that is a gift to behold. As a poet once told me “if you don’t make a mess, you don’t make nothing”.
Do you have any memories of Made With Many projects that are important to you?
I first worked with Made With Many back in Summer 2024 on their wonderful Family Arts Festival. I ran the Box Clever session where I got to help families make sculptures and larger-than-life structures using A LOT of cardboard! These are my favourite type of projects, where big ideas can be brought to life and families got to experiment, connect through play and invent.
Ross Bolwell-Williams at Box Clever in 2024
I also got to work with my friend and creative collaborator Sophie Loosemore (who runs the Wellingborough Bub Club) on Tiny TeePee Adventures where we worked with local nurseries and their families to make dens and we played with light and shadow puppets.
Tiny TeePee Adventures at Family Arts Festival 2024
Made With Many’s co-creation approach chimes with my own creative practice. With all of my creative engagement sessions, I actively encourage everyone to get involved – including adults who are accompanying their children as this is an invaluable opportunity to connect through creativity. I believe that art and culture should be instigated by the communities it happens in, and that means the community should have the power to choose what they want to do and who they want to work with.
What is your favourite biscuit or treat?
This is very controversial, as I don’t eat many biscuits these days BUT when I was younger I loved a Wagon Wheel (the biscuit and marshmallow ones!), Snow Balls (coconut and marshmallow wonderment!), YoYos (the mint ones!) and Jaffa Cakes.
Where can we find you?
I still haven’t got around to building my website yet (for all my sins!) but you can follow me on Instagram through @RossBolWill
