With over a decade in the creative industry, Emma Blake Morsi is an award-winning Multi-Disciplinary Arts Producer, Non-Executive Director of Rising Arts Agency and former Bristol City Council’s Culture Board member. A prolific visual storyteller, she predominantly works across photography, words, illustration, design, film, events and sound. Morsi challenges approaches to inclusion and innovation in the spaces she works, producing work that can be experienced by all but most importantly gives visibility to and engages those from marginalised groups.
Born in Nigeria and Bristol-raised, she has previously lived in Germany and worked internationally across the Middle East to Africa, with commissions by Arts Council England, Forestry England, Method, gal-dem, Enviral, Greenpeace UK, Harper’s Bazaar, Bustle, BBC, Saffron, Youth Music, PUMA, National Portrait Gallery, Situations x Theaster Gates, Creative & Cultural Skills, University of Bristol, University of Manchester, Watershed, M Shed, The Resilience Project, Bristol Green Capital, Bristol City Council and many more. As a creative intersectional environmentalist following years in STEM, her research consisted of developing a sustainable circular system repurposing waste substances to using hybrid tools for creating inclusive nature-inspired experiences.
Nature As A Resting Tool is an experimental, nature-inspired hybrid workshop developed by Morsi for virtual and in-person attendees during Covid-19, and has since toured the South West and Midlands of England. This playful interactive experience combines mindfulness and storytelling through activities that inspire you to rethink and engage with your surroundings, and was initially created to connect marginalised communities with existing nature groups in their communities as part of an artist residency programme.
Morsi is passionate about finding innovative, creative solutions to the world’s social and sustainable challenges, and is renowned for her unique ability in making complex narratives accessible for all without watering down the message.
The World Reimagined commissioned her as a national Globe Artist, where she designed ‘Maize & Grace: The Untold Courageous Stories of Afrikan Environmental Heroes & Sovereignty Guardians’ for the Bristol trail, and has gone on to speak at the House of Lords about the themes in her globe. University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute For Environment also commissioned her as their official national COP26 artist, where she produced artistic billboards inspired by their sustainability research, which were located across Bristol city during summer and later exhibited at the official COP26’s Green Zone in Glasgow.
As Enviral’s Production and Partnerships Manager, she most recently led the production for Greenpeace UK x Everyday Plastic: Big Plastic Count campaign which engaged 1 in every 250 UK households with over 9.6 billion pieces counted. Previously leading on Digital Marketing for Saffron, Morsi is now their freelance Special Projects Manager and produced the first Saffron Zine. It featured six Black women, non-binary and transgender music technology professionals across the country from Brighton, London, Nottingham and Glasgow who are changing the game.
While living in Germany as part of PUMA’s Global Creative Direction & Design team, her primary focus was shifting their work to authentically centre on representation and sustainability innovation.
Featured by the BBC, Morsi was also the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Nocturnal, an interactive magazine using the Arts to creatively address social and cultural issues. The biannual publication was a collection of digital stories as an authentic voice for young Creatives to showcase their obsessions and creatively express themselves through the Arts. She was awarded Rife Magazine’s 2015 24 Influential Bristolians Under 24 title as well as nominated for Babbasa’s EMPOWERED 2016 Award for her Nocturnal work. Since then, she has also been the Lifestyle Assistant Editor for gal-dem, and now writes in a freelance capacity. In 2017 she was awarded UK Apprentice Of The Year for her work with Saffron, Bristol’s first record label for women, non-binary and transgender people, as well as taking on invaluable opportunities within Rising Arts Agency, such as the Whose Future? billboard campaign.