Alternative names for art teachers

Exhibited at: Dead Dog Gallery, Durham (October/November/December 2025)

As an artist-teacher-researcher, I am interested in the liminal, yet interconnected, space that my identity occupies as well as the various challenges that come with being in this space. I enjoy working with text and a range of different media to create pieces on this theme, and metaphors to aid understanding of the complexities often come into play.

This piece references the challenges in how others perceive art/artist-teachers, as well as how we perceive ourselves and represent the value of what we do to others. I wrote this poem whilst on a train on the way home from an artist-educator gathering in London thinking about art + education + research. I felt buoyed from being with my ‘tribe’. My apron symbolises something important - when I put it on, ready to teach, it also buoys me. This piece is a gentle poetic call to listen to art/artist-teacher voices, to listen to those who are sometimes overwhelmed, overlooked or sidelined in the current educational climate; a call to recognise the value that art/artist-teachers bring