My artwork deals with issues relating to the education system at large. My enquiries examine the role of education with regards to high pupil resistance and low pupil well being. I have looked at resistant and unsettled behaviours in over 150 different schools in the London area were I have worked. Although most of my investigations have involved liaisons with senior teaching staff, more recent evidencing is now seeking direct participation with young people themselves.
My artwork deals with issues relating to the education system at large. My enquiries examine the role of education with regards to high pupil resistance and low pupil well being. I have looked at resistant and unsettled behaviours in over 150 different schools in the London area were I have worked. Although most of my investigations have involved liaisons with senior teaching staff, more recent evidencing is now seeking direct participation with young people themselves.
I have worked extensively in education for 30 years working in various senior capacities including Deputy Lead Teacher, Respite Deputy Manager, SENCO (Special Needs Co-ordinator), Head of Art, Art Lecturer and Community Artist. I currently work as a Lead Teacher in a small school specialising in working with adolescent pupils with severe SEMH (Social, Emotional & Mental Health) who are LAC (Looked After Childern). I have also worked comprehensively as a Community Arts Team Leader for many years and I am a Trustee for a large sucessful local mental health arts charity based in Bexley.
My artwork is documentary in nature and seeks to expose evidences of school pupil unsettlement. This involves work which explores found objects and found landscapes. The art project 'Resistantces' utalises found artefacts which attempt to highlight deviant behaviours. Here work is exhibited as large collections of confiscated items or as mostly solitary sculptures 'Resistant Materials' depicting aspects of school vandalism. In the art project 'School-scapes' landscape photographs are collected with older pupils which convey features of pupil disengagement and sabotage.
I am actively involved in trying to create an alternative education environment centring on aspects of nuture, much of my work can feed into imroving pupil behaviour and school improvement plans..
Qualifications
2009 - MA Community Arts, Goldsmith's College, London
1997 -PGCE Art and Design, Goldsmith's College , London
1994 - MA Art and Design, Sheffield Hallam University
1991 - BA (Hons) Sculpture , Sheffield Hallam University
1988 - BTEC National Diploma Art and Design, East Ham College, London
Exhibitions
2017-'Rejected', Rum Factory, Bow Arts, London
2014- 'Out of the Box', The No Format Gallery, Second Floor Studios, London
2014- 'Confiscation Cabinets', Centre for Life, Newcastle
2013- 'Confiscation Cabinets', The V&A Museum of Childhood, London
2013 - 'School-scapes', NICHE-Brighter Futures Programme, Romford, London
2013- 'A State of Un-Play', Atelier 35, Bucharest, Romania
2012 - 'At Play', South Hill Park Centre/ OVADA, Bracknell & Oxford
2012 - 'Pumped Up Kids', Leeds Metropolitian University Concourse Gallery, Leeds
2010 - 'Alienation,Boredom and Despair', 20-21 Gallery, Scunthorpe
2004 - 'God save the pupils', The Crossley Gallery, Dean Clough Galleries Halifax
2002 - 'God save the pupils', The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich University, London
Awards
2010 - The Juliet Gomperts Award
2005 - N.I.M.H.E. Positive Practice Award
2001 - Bexley Environmental Challenge Award
2000 - British Civic Society Award 1993
1993- Sheffield Grammer School Exhibition Fund 1993
1993- Individual Artists Award -Yorkshire & Humberside Arts
1992 - Foundation for Sports and the Arts
1992 - The Prince's Youth Trust Award
Featured Publications
2022 Out of the Box; a celebration of contemporary art by Tom Buchanan / Sarah Lea, Eight Books
2021 Artists Hands:Touch,Tell and Create- by Cally Trench, Peculiarity Press
2019 Centrepeices:A story of Mental Health and Art in Bexley- by Britta Von Zweigberg, C.P. Press
2013- 'Artists At Work' by Jason Haynes