Exhibitions and events
- 2022 Let The Song Hold Us, FACT, Liverpool (group)
- 2021 Beano: The Art of Breaking the Rules, Somerset House (group)
- 2021 Uncertain Data, FACT, Liverpool (group)
- 2019 All His Ghosts Must Do My Bidding, Wysing Arts Centre (group)
- 2018 Marriage is Punishment for Shoplifting in Some Countries, Flat Time House, London (event)
- 2017 Award Machine Reading Group, Grrrr! London (event)
- 2017 Truth Machine, Grrrr! London (group)
- 2015 LUSTRE FABRICS, Saltaire Arts Trail (solo)
- 2014 The Pure Ideology Personal Brand Workshop, Legion TV, London (solo)
Writing and publications
- 2021 Excavate: The Wonderful & Frightening World of The Fall, Faber & Faber (co-editor, with Bob Stanley)
- 2020 Wysing Broadcasts: current research playlist
- 2019 The Fields Here Are Full of Ghosts, a limited edition looseleaf publication released by Wysing Arts Centre’s Wysing Polyphonic label
- 2019 Pivotal Moments, ed. Sonya Dyer, SPACE/London Creative Network (contributor)
- 2019 “Becoming Baby: Stupidity, boredom, time and escape” in Doggerland: A reader on Sociality & Idiocy (essay)
- 2018 – ongoing Accompanying essays for exhibitions at Ex-Baldessarre, Bedford, curated by Andy Holden: Estate of Hermione; Silly Symphony (Ollie Dook, Elly Thomas, Andy Holden); Sour Persimmons Chasm (group)
- 2018 Some Notes on Wayne’s World, Cruelty, Kindness and Radical Vulnerability, The Bad Vibes Club Reader, ed. Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau and Beth Bramich (essay)
- 2017 – ongoing Writing about contemporary art (essays, profiles, contemporary art reviews, books) for various publications including: Burlington Contemporary, The Wire, Tribune, Corridor 8, Art Licks, This is Tomorrow, Garageland
- 2017 Marriage is Punishment for Shoplifting in Some Countries (email newsletter)
- 2017 Digital Voodoo, or Tragedy Plus Time, Laugh magazine #3 (text piece)
- 2016 London’s Hottest Grassroots Arts Spaces (mail project)
- 2014 At Home He’s a Tourist, Lots of Planets Have a North (text piece)
- 2014 Art Theory Urban Dictionary, Hoax #3 (text piece)
Readings and talks
- 2021 Festival of Words, Halifax
- 2021 Excavate! Panel discussion with Adelle Stripe and Bob Stanley, Manchester Literature Festival, HOME, Manchester
- 2021 Excavate! Book launch, Rough Trade, London
- 2020 Print Perform Present, The Tetley, Leeds (reading)
- 2019 Doggerland x Montez Press Radio, live broadcast
- 2019 Silly Symposium, Ex-Baldessarre, Bedford (group performance)
- 2018 Wysing Arts Centre residency event: Reading & in conversation with Lucy Mercer (more here)
- 2018 Shady Todmorden #3, curated by Roy Claire Potter (reading)
- 2018 Pivotal Moments (Space Arts / London Creative Network): Reading & in conversation with Donna Lynas
- 2016 Children are the Shock Troops of Gentrification, Liverpool Biennial (reading)
- 2014 Lots of Planets Have a North, The Tetley, Leeds (reading)
Research and editorial
- 2021 Editing and typesetting, Collected Free Labour, Andy Holden (book)
- 2020 Researcher, Beano exhibition, Somerset House
- 2017 Researcher, Abstractions of Holderness, Bob Stanley/Esther Johnson film commission for Mind On The Run, Basil Kirchin weekend for Hull 2017 City of Culture
Awards and residencies
- 2020-21 Jerwood Arts / FACT Digital Fellowship (more here)
- 2020 Longlisted, UEA New Forms Award
- 2018 Residency at Wysing Arts Centre (more here)
Selected press, podcasts etc
- The Guardian, Let The Song Hold Us review (“Norton’s conversational tone is soothing, but the content is probing, highlighting the discomfort generated by oppression over generations.”)
- Bookforum (Excavate reviewed by Sasha Frere-Jones; “my favorite expansion on Smith’s work is Tessa Norton’s essay about Smith as his own school of education, the vision of a man presenting a syllabus as rock songs (or vice versa).”)
- FACT Podcast: I’ve Got The Power! Voice notes exchange about art, ethics and haircuts with Shonagh Short
- Corridor 8 (Uncertain Data exhibition reviewed by Leah Binns).
- 4 Columns (Excavate reviewed by Sukhdev Sandhu; “The Fall’s border crossings, their provocations and productiveness, their edge and endlessness: Norton, in her essay, argues that they’re less a band than a counter syllabus.”)
- Louder Than War (Excavate reviewed by Audrey Golden; “Excavate! feels like a Mark E. Smith version of the Arcades Project—never finished, and always producing new meaning”.)
- Backlisted podcast (Excavate reviewed by Andy Miller)
- Bigmouth (podcast – interview with me and Bob Stanley)
- Little Atoms (podcast – interview with me and Bob Stanley)
- Word In Your Ear: The Folklore of The Fall (podcast – interview with me and Bob Stanley)
- Bob Stanley and Tessa Norton present a Front Room Family Disco, Faber Social, May 2020
- “The making of a truly radical arts centre buried in the Cambridgeshire countryside”, interviewed for feature about Wysing Arts Centre, Louise Benson, Elephant Magazine, July 2019
- Feature on All His Ghosts Must Do My Bidding, FAD Magazine, July 2019
- Doggerland Podcast #3: Becoming Baby
Education
- MA Cultural & Critical Studies, Birkbeck, University of London
- BA Law (haha I know), University of Cambridge
Employment
- Freelance writer, artist
- Head of Communications, Northern Ballet
- Freelance marketing and communications for arts organisations including Yorkshire Sculpture International, NYMAZ, Corridor 8, The Modernist Society, Arts Marketing Association, Siobhan Davies Dance / BALTIC and more.
- Board member at LUX film.
- Past: Cecil Sharp House / English Folk Dance and Song Society, LSE.