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Creative Lives programme

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Updated: 1 February 2021

Our School of Art and Design Creative Lives talks offer many examples of how creative professionals live, work and thrive in the arts and creative industries. You will gain an insight into the creative process and career routes through a series of talks from local and nationally-renowned practitioners at different career stages, many of whom are University of Sunderland alumni.

You'll hear from artists, designers, makers, photographers, curators, filmmakers, and much more.

These workshops are open to all students in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, and the general public. There's no need to book individual places, just come along on the day and join the session at the time stated. 

You will be joining a Microsoft Teams call, click ‘Watch on the web instead’ and then ‘Join Anonymously’.

Published: 8 January 2020

Creative Lives speakers 2021

Creative Lives 2021 artist Anthony Amoako Attah
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Anthony Amoako Attah - 2 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm

Anthony is a current PhD research student at the University of Sunderland Glass Department. Unlike many contemporary glass artists, Amoako Attah is primarily self-taught. His work focuses on migration, integration, dislocation and life chances. Anthony put his traditional Kente designs and Adinkra symbols on glass through printing of glass powders and enamels through kiln forming techniques making the glass looks like a woven or printed fabric.  

Find out more about Anthony Amoako Attah - 2 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Robyn Townsend
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Robyn Townsend - 9 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm

Robyn Townsend’s background is in Art and Design / Contemporary Crafts. She graduated in 2011 with a BA (Hons) in Glass and Ceramics from the University of Sunderland, after which she spent several years making and exhibiting internationally as well as designing and making work for other artists. She also worked as a design consultant and maker of larger sculptures, installations and products.

Find out more about Robyn Townsend - 9 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Paul Wenham Clarke
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Paul Wenham Clarke - 16 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm

Paul Wenham-Clarke is a documentary photographer and a Professor of Photography at the Arts University Bournemouth. His work has been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Somerset House and St Martin-in-the Fields Gallery and has been featured on the BBC2 Culture Show.

Find out more about Paul Wenham Clarke - 16 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm
Fashion expert Maggie Mattioni, one of the Creative Lives workshops speakers
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Maggie Mattioni - 16 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm

Brand identity is key to any brand. In this presentation, fashion expert Maggie Mattioni will show you what she does in her professional life, looking at how new starts up are born and how to reinvent a brand. She will take you through brand DNA and dig down to find what sets brands apart and find their unique story. Maggie will talk you through some of brands she has worked with including Edmund Hillary, David Gandy, and new start up Grand Alliance to name but a few. She will also walk you through the process of how you create your brand bible.

Find out more about Maggie Mattioni - 16 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Rosalind Faram
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Rosalind Faram - 23 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm

Rosalind Faram is an artist based in Sussex, UK. She is an alumnus of Chelsea College of Art, London and winner of the BEEP 2020 Contemporary International Painting Prize. Her dynamic paintings are informed by a wide-ranging research into visual culture, that can include anything from Giotto to 1970's sweet wrappers and Muppets characters, to present day emojis, fashion culture and more.

Find out more about Rosalind Faram - 23 Feb 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Christian Lavigne
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Christian Lavigne - 2 Mar 2021, 4pm-5pm

For 30 years, Christian Lavigne has been using computers, numerically controlled devices or (since 1993) additive manufacturing machines for his works and is now well known as a pioneer in digital sculpture. With Alexandre Vitkine, he created ARS MATHEMATICA, which organizes the worldwide computer sculpture biennial INTERSCULPT since 1993, and numerous events related to art and science, among them the web cast – Cafe des Arts des Sciences et des Techniques – co-founded by Simon Diner (2013) and Christian Lavigne. 

Find out more about Christian Lavigne - 2 Mar 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Julia Stephenson
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Julia Stephenson - 9 March 2021, 4pm-5pm

Julia Stephenson has worked at National Glass Centre as Head of Arts for the last nine years. During this time, she has established a formal collection of international Studio Glass, delivered a series of temporary exhibitions and supported wide ranging residency and public engagement programmes. Julia comes from the North East of England and began her career as Assistant Curator of Craft at the Cleveland Crafts Centre.

Find out more about Julia Stephenson - 9 March 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Jenny McNamara
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Eve Cromwell and Jenny McNamara - 16 March 2021, 4pm-5pm

Eve Cromwell (b. 1996) sees art making as an exercise in design. Fictioning utopian futures and speculating how that could change the look of our everyday surroundings. The work then aims to tell these fictions using the right materials. Jenny McNamara (b. 1994) is a visual artist from Dublin and based in Newcastle. Her practice focuses on visual perception, pattern and how we see and understand imagery. The sculptures she makes are pattern machines – experimentation between surface, space and colour.

Find out more about Eve Cromwell and Jenny McNamara - 16 March 2021, 4pm-5pm
Design experts Gareth Davis and Mark Wane, one of the Creative Lives workshops speakers
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Gareth Davis and Mark Wane - 19 March 2021, 10am-12noon

Gareth Davies is a University of Sunderland graduate and has spent the last 20 years practicing graphic design for brands, technology companies and tier 1 consulting firms across the globe. Mark Wane has spent 13 years embedding customer centricity and end-to-end service design into banks, government and airline organisations. Together they form ACID_WORKS, a design and innovation collective based in Dubai, UAE.

Find out more about Gareth Davis and Mark Wane - 19 March 2021, 10am-12noon
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Bridget Harvey
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Bridget Harvey - 20 April 2021, 4pm-5pm

Bridget Harvey uses making to ask critical questions, generating new understanding and adding meaning through craft. Investigating processes and concepts through making: she asks what we make, how we make it, and why that matters. Harvey embraces interdisciplinarity, using found objects and materials like fired ceramics, wood, and textiles. Through artifacts she examines ideas like pace, repetition, and playfulness.

Find out more about Bridget Harvey - 20 April 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Lily Daniels
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Lily Daniels - 13 April 2021, 4pm-5pm

Working with a range of materials including illustration, ceramics and heritage crafts Lily Daniels collaborates with researchers and artists across the UK. After studying Glass and Ceramics at the University of Sunderland she began working in gallery engagement, going on to complete an MA in Inclusive Art Practice at University of Brighton.

Find out more about Lily Daniels - 13 April 2021, 4pm-5pm
Work by Creative Lives 2021 artist Deni Bagi
Creative Lives speakers 2021

Dena Bagi - 27 April 2021, 4pm-5pm

Dena Bagi is a researcher and gallery-based learning designer, who works closely with community members and artists to curate clay workshops, projects and learning/play spaces. She believes passionately that working with clay can have a profound effect on 'healing’.

Find out more about Dena Bagi - 27 April 2021, 4pm-5pm

Creative Lives 2020

To give you a flavour of what you might see and here in the Creative Lives 2021 series, here are some of the highlights of the 2020 series.

Colin Rennie

Fascination and wonder in the deep fundamental questions that scientific practices investigate are a manifest theme in Colin's work. Join him for his Creative Lives talk as he takes us on a journey through his career and developing practice:

 

Andrea Khora

Andrea Khora is an artist exploring the malleability of reality through sculptural, performative and audio formats. Join her for her Creative Lives talk:

 

Gareth Davies 

A story of post-university design industry exploration by Gareth Davies, founder of ACID_WORKS and University of Sunderland alumni:

 

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