Stephen Felmingham

Professor Stephen Felmingham is an artist and educator and has lectured extensively in drawing, painting, print and contemporary art practice on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across the UK. He gained his doctorate from the University of Leeds in 2014 and was made Professor of Artistic Research in 2023. He has an active research interest in creative pedagogies, drawing and alternative art school models and he leads on projects that work in and for communities, through socially-engaged art and education. His research interests include work with refugee communities, co-founding Beyond the Now, a syndicated online platform working in locations across Europe, the MENA region and the Global South to open new creative, cultural and political affinities for a post-pandemic world. His doctoral research in drawing focussed on the Cold War landscapes of East Anglia, achieving a particular resonance in terms of this enquiry as the manifestation of a continually mutable process: the movements, rhythms and operations of the mind. Drawing by its nature suggests an intimacy of engagement where the eye of the viewer, tracing and following the hand of the drawer, is caught up endlessly in the space of action and event. It represents the materialisation of an act of consciousness where the gestural act embodies an act of thought: a disjuncture between the familiar and the unfamiliar.

As Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at Arts University Plymouth and a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive, he has wide experience of building, mentoring and leading effective teams across the arts and education sector in varied settings. As Professor of Artistic Research, he has been invested in the leadership and governance of major national and regional multi-partner projects in the city, for example British Art Show 9, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, national projects with Tate Exchange and internationally with curator Glen Adamson and Fuller Craft Museum, Mass. in Another Crossing, foregrounding the indigenous crafts of 17th century First Nation Americans. He also led on a major international China/UK collaboration through the FutureLab Art and Design Education Expo at the West Bund Art Centre in Shanghai, conceiving and running with students a highly successful exposition of creative education based on the University’s ethos and approach.

Contact Information

e-mail: [email protected]
research profile: https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/dr-stephen-felmingham
website: https://axisweb.org/artist/stephenfelmingham

Professional Practice & Experience

Education

2022 Professor of Artistic Research: Arts University Plymouth
2009–14 Practice-led PhD: Drawing, Place and the Contemporary Sublime, University of Leeds
2006–08 Postgraduate Certificate in Education, University of Leeds
1998–99 M.A. Drawing in Fine Art Practice, University of the Arts London (Wimbledon)
1988–91 B.A.(Hons) Fine Art at Middlesex University
1986–87 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Norwich School of Art

Professional memberships

2023– Society of Artistic Research (SAR)
2013– Higher Education Academy
2009– National Association of Fine Art Education
2009– LAND2 Research Network (Convenor)

External examining and advisory roles

2024– External Examiner – practice-based PhD, Bath Spa University
2023–24 GuildHE/UKADIA Steering Group
2021–22 External Examiner – practice-based PhD, Norwich University of the Arts
2016–17 External Examiner, Manchester Metropolitan University, FdA Contemporary Art Practice at the Manchester College
2015–16 Reader for University of Wales, Trinity St. David: Cert HE Art and Design Foundation
2013–16 External Examiner, University of Salford FdA Contemporary Art Practice at the Manchester College

Research activities

2024– Co-PI ‘The Power of Print’ AHRC research collaboration with the University of the West of England
2023 Research convenor, Society of Artistic Research with University of York St John and the National College of Art & Design, Dublin
2019– Founding member of the Beyond-the-Now consortium with Counterpoints Arts, co–culture (Berlin), Ettijahat–Independent Culture (Beirut and Brussels), CREATE (Ireland); Open University and the Mozilla Festival (Amsterdam). Funded projects include:

Hip Hop Pedagogy and Power: Re-Imagining the Archive (2020–21)
Re-Framing Migrants in the European Media (2022–23)
Beyond the Now: Socially Engaged Art in a (Dis)Connected World (2023)
2014– Member of LAND2 place-based research network and SW co-convenor

Selected exhibitions

2024 Beyond What We Know – MIRROR at Arts University Plymouth with Professor Paul Fieldsend-Danks
2017 Collateral Drawing Archive – Folkestone Triennial – Beaston Projects
2017 Made Up – Glasgow Arts Club, curated by Alan Bond
2016 Royal West of England Academy (RWA) Candidates Show, Bristol
2016 Imagined Landscapes – RWA, Bristol (with Paul Gough, Rae Hicks, Eileen Lawrence, etc.)
2015/16 Collateral Drawing – University of Suffolk, Ipswich (with Sarah Lucas, Ryan Gander, etc.)
2015 Recent Drawings – Plymouth Theatre Royal Gallery (with Joseph Hillier)
2014 The Violet Club – PCA Gallery, Plymouth (solo show)
2013 Peripheral Artifacts – Lubomirov–Easton Gallery, London
2012–13 touching:clear – Galerie Lucy Macintosh, Lausanne (solo show)
2011 Tocsin Bang – Union105 Gallery, Leeds (solo show)
2011 Art Dubai – Galerie Lucy Macintosh
2010 Finalist – Celeste Art Prize, Brooklyn
2010 Stockholm Art Fair – SevenSeven Contemporary Art, Kulturhuset
2009 Jerwood Drawing Prize – Jerwood Space, London + national tour

Broadcast media

2018 BBC Radio 4 – Cold Art with Louise K. Wilson and Katherine Sandys, produced by Freya Hillier (Loftus Media)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09yfplt

Publications and journals

Felmingham S. (2023) in Access and Widening participation in Arts Higher Education: Practice and Research ed. Broadhead S. London: Palgrave and Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-03097-449-7
Charnley K., Eernstman N., Felmingham S. & Hay P. (2019) Tate Exchange and new approaches to risk in Creative Education in Tate Papers, London: Tate
Felmingham S. and Clancy M. (2019) Drawing Out: Encounter, Resistance and Collaboration in Drawing, Research, Theory, Practice Vol. 4 (2) Bristol: Intellect
Felmingham S. (2019) Figures of Speech: Can conversation be a democratic mode of drawing? in Drawing, Research, Theory, Practice Vol. 4 (1) Bristol: Intellect
Felmingham S. (2017) in Approaching the bunker: bodies, materiality and meaning-making in Cold War ruins ed. Bennett L. London: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN: 978-1-78348-733-2
Felmingham, S. (2016) in Allen J. and Rowles S. Professional Practice: 20 Questions. Q-Art and the Higher Education Academy. ISBN: 978-0-9564355-8-3
Felmingham, S. (2014) in Allen J. and Rowles S. 15 Methods 20 Questions: process, value and potential of art education and methods of teaching art and design. Q-Art and the Higher Education Academy. ISBN: 978-0-9564355-3-8
Felmingham, S. (2014), Putting It Into Practice: Bridging the gap between learning and doing in: Making Futures: Interfaces between craft knowledge and design: new opportunities for social innovation and sustainable practice. Vol 3. ISSN 2042-1664
Felmingham S. in Kovats, T. (2014). Drawing Water: Drawing as a Mechanism for Exploration. Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery. ISBN: 978-1908612267
Felmingham. S. (2013). The Drawing Derivé. In: 72 Assignments: The Foundation Course in Art and Design Today. Briggs C. (ed) Paris: PCA Press. ISBN 978-2-9546804-0-8
Felmingham S. (2012). T-shaped Thinkers: Drawing and Professional Practice in the Art School. TRACEY Drawing Research Network Conference, University of Loughborough. [Online]
Celeste Prize Catalogue. 2010. Julia Draganovic, Mark Gisbourne. Treviso: Zel Edizioni
Jerwood Drawing Prize Catalogue. 2009. Tania Kovats, Roger Malbert, Shonagh Manson, Anita Taylor, Nicolas Usherwood. Jerwood Visual Arts. ISBN: 9780956357007

Peer review

2015– Anatomical Sciences Education, Wiley/Blackwell
2013– TRACEY Journal of Drawing and Visualisation Research, University of Loughborough

Conferences

2023 Convenor – Art, Community and the Future(s) of Intangible Cultural Heritage, The Box, Plymouth
2022 Convenor – British Art Show 9 symposium ‘Tactics for Togetherness’
2021 Panel member – Beyond the Now: art and mutual aid after the pandemic, ImagineBelfast
2020 Convener – Listening to the Future with Simon Morrissey and Foreground
2019 Convener – What’s Your Proposition, Tate Exchange with Tania Bruguera
2018 Panel member – Land & Water Summer Symposium, University of Plymouth
2017 Speaker – ASLE-UKI Conference, Sheffield Hallam University
2017 Speaker – Cultures of Making Research Group, York St John University
2016 Speaker – PedRIO Conference, University of Plymouth
2016 Co-convenor – Land2/Land & Water International Conference, Plymouth University
2016 Speaker – NAFAE Annual Symposium, London Metropolitan University
2015 Speaker – Q-Art Symposium, UWTSD Swansea
2014 Speaker – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
2014 Speaker – Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, London
2012 Speaker – Drawing Research Network Conference, University of Loughborough

Awards and competitions

2010 Finalist, Celeste Art Prize, New York
2010 East Street Arts Gallery Prize, Leeds
2009 Shortlisted for Jerwood Drawing Prize
1999 UAL Wimbledon Post-Graduate Drawing Prize