Work Workshops Workshop Overview

In 2007 I gained a distinction in a postgraduate certificate in Teaching and Learning Art & Design for Higher Education from the University of the Arts, London. In addition to my ongoing studio practice I currently combine technical support work in the higher education sector with occasional independent creative workshops for a variety of clients. I am familiar with a wide range of workshop processes—from fine art printmaking techniques to photographic dark room methods.

Between 1994 and 1996 I worked as a freelance visual artist on a range of community arts projects in Scotland’s central belt. A couple of those early projects are described below.

Primary School Mural Project 

beancross3
Mural artists with their work.
As part of the MacRobert Arts Centre’s ‘Schools Week’ program, I was employed to run a mural project in Beancross Primary School, Grangemouth. Pupils from various year groups created a mural for the infants’ corridor within their school. A selection of pupils designed and painted the mural, which they based on letters of the alphabet. I developed the project to involve as many children in the school as possible. The infants made ceramic tiles to run along the base of the wall. The space at the top of the wall was used for hanging detachable wooden letters painted by pupils in various classrooms throughout the school during the project week. The wooden letters were designed by the pupils to be used in the infant classes as teaching aids.

Bellsdyke Psychiatric Hospital

Bellsdyke Project Work
Bellsdyke Project Work—details

In 1994 Artlink Central set up a project at Bellsdyke Psychiatric Hospital. Due to restructuring within the hospital, some long-term residents had recently moved into a complex of new, purpose-built bungalows. The project enabled a small group of these residents to create a piece of work for their communal living area. From initial photographs and drawings made in response to their new environment the residents developed a large collaborative piece. This took the form of a collage, a mixture 2-D and 3-D elements representing their new home framed in a grid of CD boxes. Funding was secured for a further five projects in the bungalows as a result of their work.