Newcastle University

Faculty Member, Fine Art

Lecturer in Art History

About

My research investigates the relationship between art and the urban environment, examining representations of cities in a range of visual media and public art in urban contexts.

My recent research has focused on issues of participation, community and collective memory, regeneration and public art policy, within public art practice and I am beginning a new body of work looking at narrative, nostalgia, temporality and memory in contemporary public art practice. This builds on previous work investigating the relationship between memory and place in urban photographic surveys.

Along with my colleague David Butler, I am a co-director of Intersections (www.intersectionspublicart.org.uk). Intersections aims to generate critical dialogue about public art practice and develop pioneering practice-based and theoretical research in this area. Intersections is a project which links Fine Art at Newcastle University with the wider arts and cultural sector in the examination of public art practice. Drawing together practitioners, theorists, sector organisations, policy makers and the wider public, Intersections examines the issues arising from the creative friction inherent in public practice, policy and space. Underpinning our work is an ethos of collaboration, where possible engaging with artists and organisations outside the University to host events and develop research projects. We take our lead from issues arising from public art practice to develop projects and events.

I teach across the four years of our undergraduate Fine Art BA degree programme as well as engaging in postgraduate supervision - I am currently on the supervisory teams for five PhD students, both theory and practice-led. In collaboration with colleagues in student wellbeing, I conduct pedagogical research into how we might best create supportive structures in a studio context for students with learning difficulties.

Before joining Newcastle I was a research fellow in urban cultural regeneration in the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences at Glasgow University and, reflecting this, my work is inherently interdisciplinary.

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