Susanna Hastilow

Susanna Hastilow grew up in London in a creative household, and was encouraged from an early age to draw and make things. Regular visits to museums and galleries fired her imagination and fostered a lifelong fascination with collecting, display, and storytelling. She studied History of Art at the University of Edinburgh and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Art Gallery and Museum Studies at Manchester University; all whilst continuing to make art in her own time. After several years of working as an Outreach Officer for Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery, she went freelance for organisations such as the National Museums Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland; a time in which she focused on ways to engage people with collections, fascinated by the power of artefacts to spark curiosity, evoke memories, and connect us to past lives.

Over the past three years she has been a part of the mentoring programme at Leith School of Art, during which she has developed a love of collage, combining images and ephemera to create three-dimensional paper forms. Hastilow’s recent work brings together her experience and interests within the structure of the box frame; collecting, researching, displaying, and creating narratives around small artefacts. She aims to create windows onto small worlds infused with nostalgia, gentle humour, and a hint of darkness.

“I am drawn to old-fashioned museum displays and scruffy junk shops, and I’m fascinated by vintage ephemera – scrapbooks, magazines, and picture postcards with their rich mix of imagery. Above all, I love small vintage toys – celluloid dolls and hard plastic creatures once cherished by unknown hands, each carrying its own hidden story.”