Wolverhampton-based artist and illustrator Kanj Nicholas brings her nature-inspired, multidisciplinary practice to children’s publishing with Imagine If We Could Fly, a vibrant debut book that blends delicate watercolour and heartfelt storytelling to encourage young readers, and the adults around them, to create freely and without fear.

Wolverhampton-based multidisciplinary artist Victoria Murrain is embracing a long-delayed creative path, using ceramics and painting to chart a powerful story of reinvention, self-belief and the freedom to begin again at any age.

Odette Campbell is well known for her community-rooted crafting and crochet work, but a recent shift in her practice has seen her embrace a strikingly bold and rhythmic technique from the past, Bargello.

Working under the name Bag Lord, Wolverhampton-based artist and activist Ewan Johnston channels instinctive, politically charged poster art into the city’s streets, using humour and confrontation to question power, respond to local and national issues and imagine what else might be possible.

From childhood sketches of fungi to bold industrial tape artworks that celebrate overlooked architecture, Claire Buckerfield’s creative journey is one of reinvention, resilience, and pride in place.

After arriving in Wolverhampton as a refugee from Ukraine in 2022, Natasha Stoianovska transformed grief and displacement into a powerful multidisciplinary practice, using painting, poetry, and storytelling to explore trauma, resilience, and the connective force of art across borders.

During our Autumn Social in November 2025 we asked the guests a question: "In the future what do you hope the Black Country is known for in terms of creativity, community and culture?'

Over the past year, Creative Black Country has been celebrating ten years of creativity, community and collaboration across the region and one of the highlights of our anniversary programme has been the Bostin News zine series.

Alongside our friends at Fused Magazine we are commissioning local Black Country (Dudley Borough, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton) creative writers, illustrators, photographers, and artists to contribute to the next editions of BOSTIN NEWS!

Dudley Creates started as a Creative Black Country commissioned cultural programme designed to make possible a diverse and locally relevant programme of high-quality creative participation opportunities for local communities across Dudley Borough.

On a regular Monday morning in Dudley, just after the COVID restrictions had begun to lift, creative artist Gavin Rogers led a small group of women, POC and members of the LGBTQIA+ community into Netherton Tunnel.

This inclusive and inventive poetry and animation project consisted of a series of online writing workshops with poet and playwright Nafeesa Hamid and further online animation workshops with Sarah to bring the poems to life in an animated film

What do a freelance photographer and filmmaker, the front-of-house manager at a theatre, a touring company general manager, an art gallery visitor assistant supervisor, and a museum outreach manager all have in common? 

What do get when you bring together the Dudley Peoples Archive, the wonderful Growing Up In Dudley project, a stack of linen squares, an ambitious, creative community facilitator and a welcoming space at CoLab Dudley?

Bostin News edition 01 is available to read in full online and to download.

We’re kicking off 2021 by sharing some Bostin News - quite literally. We have copies of the Newspaper that collates some of the lovely work you might of seen already on here but also some special pieces of content that we have also saved JUST for the newspaper. Would you like a copy?

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor Anneka French

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor Louise Bloomfield

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor Tim Brinkhurst

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor HEATHER WASTIE