I am proud to have been one of the founding tutors on the Young Creatives course at Leeds Arts University. The Young Creatives is an opportunity for children aged seven to eighteen to explore Art and Design at a leading Arts University. From 2012 until 2019 I taught a range of problem solving, idea enhancing workings from illustration techniques, narrative, animation, photography, paper and textile printmaking and portfolio development - examples of which are pictured here.
These course allow children to make and play outside of formal education. According to data from the National Society for Education in Art and Design, there has been a (whopping) 40% fall in GCSE arts entries since 2010. Schemes like the Young Creatives allow the enriching power of problem solving and being creative - allowing children to persevere with failure and answer questions through visual methods, which is vitally important in self expression, confidence and building social mobility.
I have designed and delivered various print based workshops, exploring different techniques from mono-printing, screen-printing on paper and cloth, lino and relief printing techniques at various institutions and spaces such as The Art House, The Hepworth Gallery, Nottingham Trent University, Leeds Arts University and Leeds Trinity University.
No Outcome (2015 - 2017) was a workshop and a pedagogic conference paper which has been delivered at various conferences across the country. The premise of the workshops is for students to defy the assessment procedure that can be detrimental at worst and opposing at least to the explorative, risk taking nature of an arts and design curriculum.
No Outcome gives students the space and time to play outside their graded coursework to explore materials, media, techniques and technologies as well as ideas and practice based research techniques.
No Outcome workshops and papers have been delivered at:
Future Trends in Visual Communication Design at Nottingham Trent University.
GDEN-by-the-sea, graphic Design Educators Network Conference at Bournemouth Arts University.
Ideas of Revolt, Graphic Design Educators Network Annual Conference at Sheffield Hallam University.
Pathways is a two year vocational programme for the next generation of talented illustrators from diverse backgrounds. The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration (formally House of Illustration) present the scheme and I was approached to host an animal illustration masterclass in collaboration with Harper Collins publishing house. During the one day workshop students were encouraged to explore image making and character design through an array of materials, processes and approaches to help encourage play and experimentation. Some of the results are pictured.
Since 2016 we have invited up to thirty refugees and asylum seeking young people to our Graphic Design Studio at Nottingham Trent University to encourage conversation which cuts across languages through image making.
We produce zines based on the work made in the session, which has then been displayed at the end of the year at an exhibition open to the public at the Djanogly gallery based at The University of Nottingham.
