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From Train Stations To Hospital Gardens Lucy Grainge Makes Art Everywhere For Everyone
Lucy Grainge's approach to art emphasizes accessibility and community engagement, suggesting that brand strategies should prioritize inclusivity and responsiveness to local contexts. By embedding art in everyday spaces and collaborating with communities, brands can create deeper connections and foster a sense of belonging among their audiences.
Creative Boom: Inspiration Experience From train stations to hospital gardens, Lucy Grainge makes art everywhere for everyone The Manchester-born artist, printmaker and facilitator has spent a decade using play and community as the raw material for a practice that refuses to stay inside a gallery. Written By: Katy Cowan 2 June 2026 Wiggle Wonderland at National Memorial Arboretum, artwork by Lucy Grainge. Photo by Beca B Jones Lucy Grainge will tell you that her final year at Glasgow School of Art was "basically one long therapy session".
She had arrived there undiagnosed dyslexic, carrying years of school in which she'd been called "dilly dally day dream" rather than understood (the name of which she also turned into a book). Art school gave her the language and the space to unpick it – she interviewed dyslexic friends, pored over statistics, made prints from spoonerisms and words she'd always mispronounced. "Showing my insecurities off in my artwork was cathartic, and a powerful connector with others." Later, she was also diagnosed with ADHD.
"It's definitely a strength in my job, but it comes with many challenges which I've developed coping strategies to work through – however, burnout is real!" Originally from Manchester, Lucy studied Communication Design at the Glasgow School of Art after an art foundation at Manchester Metropolitan University.
What came after graduation was a patchwork life that turned out to be formative: four years of freelance design and illustration work, a stint as a part-time swimming teacher, facilitation work at Impact Arts in Glasgow working as creative assistant at Craft Cafe – a regular arts group in Govan for older people that she describes simply as "the antidote to loneliness" and employability workshops for teenagers, many of them dyslexic and extremely creative, who didn't yet know it.
"I shared my journey with them, and at first they didn't believe me," she says, "as they thought no one with dyslexia could get to university." Impressions of Nature and Play, Wiggle Wonderland at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Photo by Jon C Archdeacon Impressions of Nature and Play, Wiggle Wonderland at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Photo by Jon C Archdeacon Wiggle Wonderland at National Memorial Arboretum, artwork by Lucy Grainge. Photo by Beca B Jones By the time Lucy moved to London in 2021, she had a clear sense of what she wanted her practice to be. That was embedded in communities, responsive to place and existing outside the gallery.
She launched Wiggle Wonderland CIC – a touring pavilion, designed in collaboration with architectural designer Beau McCarthy, whose hanging artwork is created by local artists and communities wherever it lands. It has since been installed at Brainchild Festival, Tottenham Court Road, a shopping centre in Croydon, a school field in Enfield, the National Memorial Arboretum and St Bartholomew's Hospital. "I've always felt art should be accessible to everyone and embedded in the everyday," she says.
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The article discusses an innovative approach to integrating art into community spaces, which can significantly influence brand strategies focused on inclusivity and local engagement, making it highly relevant for brand strategy professionals.