Sally Barton (b. 1999, Sheffield) is a socially engaged artist and photographer based in London. Currently working at V&A East in the role of Creative Studios Practitioner, Barton designs and facilitates creative workshops and learning programmes for the Learning & Engagement department across both V&A East Storehouse and Museum.
Barton’s practice explores the industrial and social history of the UK. Her work has been shaped by her home in Yorkshire, from the legacies of industry to its breathtaking landscape, she explores the relationship between land, labour and gender. Through sharing these important stories and collective memories in her work, she create’s an alternative archive for industrial history.
Barton graduated from Chelsea College of Arts in 2021, where she gained a First in BA Fine Art. She then went on to complete two years on the ACME Associate Studio Programme and the Barbican Young Visual Arts Programme.
Exhibitions
2026 The Art of Possibility, presented by the FA at Saatchi Gallery
2026 Our Freedom: Then and Now, Southbank Centre
2025 Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Visitor Centre
2024 Lore, Sunny Bank Mills Gallery, Leeds
2024 B-Side, 3D Women Collective,Coleman Projects
2023 Bloc Projects Members Show
2023Works That Never Came to Life, 3D Women Collective, Art Hub Studios
2023The Art of the Football Scarf,OOF Gallery
2023Repair Redux, Hypha Studios
2023Part of the Furniture, Safe House
2022Waiting With {Sonic Support}, Frieze London
2022Reframing Reclaiming, The Art House, Wakefield
2022 The Age of Many Posts, Barbican Conservatory curated by Abbas Zahedi
2022Re:repair, Barbican Centre
2022 Spit Cycle: Part 1, We Are Sweet Art
2022Lucian Lates; Playing Up, The Freud Museum
2021Made in Arts Collection, London
2021Regenerate, Barbican Young Visuals Arts Group, Barbican Centre
2021Ones to Watch, Sunny Bank Mills Gallery, Leeds
2020You Burn Me, Freud Museum, London
Programmes, Residencies & Commissions
2025 Our Freedom: Then and Now, commissioned by Future Arts Centres and Open Eye Gallery
2024 Rosetta Arts, Artist Accelerator Programme, for Socially Engaged Artists in East London
2024 English Heritage & Photoworks, Focal Point Commission
2021 – 2023 ACME Associate Studio Programme
2022 – 2023 Hannah Starkey Photography Programme, The Hepworth Wakefield
2021 UAL Creative Shift Residency
2020 – 2022 Barbican Young Visual Arts Group
Publications & Press
2026 Sludge Mag - ‘The FA presents the Art of possibility’
2025English Heritage Podcast ‘The enduring allure of stone circles’
2025 FAD Magazine - First ever exhibition of new photography to be exhibited at Stonehenge
2025 The Guardian - ‘A space for solace’: Stonehenge show explores attraction of stone circles