I am a primary and secondary school teacher, specialising in art and design and technology. I will be celebrating 20 years as a teacher in 2024! In 2018 I started my own pop-up art studio called ‘The Art Room’. I take an art studio to schools, cafes, galleries, community groups, museums and more to facilitate art, DT and textiles workshops. I do large scale project work in schools such as the piano project (see attached) and the friendship benches projects (see attached), as well as art lessons tailored to fit the curriculum. I create weekly participatory workshops for adults. I teach Saturday art classes to children, tweens and teens where we study a wide range of artists, experiment with a range of media and study towards arts award qualifications (I am an arts award advisor). I work with local art galleries: The Hatton, Laing and Shipley Art Galleries, in a variety of contracted roles such as assistant learning officer, arts participation and events officer and project officer. I develop and deliver arts participation events and workshops for Sunderland Culture and the Arts Council Collection. This year I have worked with over 250 adult learners in workshops, taught over 1500 children in primary school workshops, achieved 118 Discover Arts Award certificates with my Saturday art class group and local schools and worked as a steering group member for the networking group PATERN (Primary art teacher and educator regional network) of which I am a founding member. In March 2023, I created The Art Room Creatives CIC which aims to provide arts education for those facing financial hardship or other barriers.
