Creative Learning Tutors

The Creative Learning Team at Brewery Arts is made up of various skilled practitioners, each of them experts within their field and experienced in teaching their craft.

Emily Davies – Engagement Officer: Dance
A previous Brewery Youth Dance member, Emily has been delivering sessions at Brewery Arts and other settings since gaining her Dance degree in 2016. Her style of movement is grounded in contemporary technique, creative dance and connecting with people, be that in the studio or with an audience. Emily enjoys sharing her love of dance with those she teaches.

Contacts Emily by emailing emily.davies@breweryarts.co.uk

Helena McGregorLearning & Engagement Officer
Helena is the newest member of the Creative Learning team, responsible for administration and ensuring a smooth running of classes and workshops at Brewery Arts. She is a visual artist and a qualified Secondary Art and Design Practitioner with over 10 years of experience, teaching 11-18-year-olds in a range of creative subjects. She also has experience in Primary Art, art CPD, and art workshops for adults.

Contact Helena by emailing helena.mcgregor@breweryarts.co.uk

Freelance Team

Chris Barnes is a practising ceramic artist with a background in fine art. His ceramic work has been exhibited widely in the UK and Germany. He has taught pottery to adults since 1994 and has experience of teaching art in schools from the infant to the secondary school level.

Jessica Emsley is an artist and walker, and an advocate for engagement with nature and the outdoors through creativity. Her work as both artist and facilitator aims to explore new forms of the creative process, with a particular focus on creative engagement with nature. Jessica recently completed an MFA in Fine Art with Nottingham Trent University and is currently pursuing an ML which will allow her to lead more adventurous art workshops outdoors.

Catherine MacDiarmid specialises in portraiture, typically working in oil, charcoal and pencil. She has exhibited widely; her work has been selected for show at MAFA and the BP Portrait Award, and also features in private collections throughout the UK as well as abroad. She is an elected member of The Lakes Artists Society and appeared in Sky Portrait Artists of the Year in 2014, and 2018, and reached the semi-finals in 2019. Catherine has worked as a Brewery Arts tutor for over 20 years, helping students explore a range of disciplines within drawing and painting.

Sophie Martin is a local artist, illustrator and educator who specialises in lively pen and watercolour illustrations often drawn on location. She studied Visual Communication at Edinburgh College of Art specialising in illustration, and now works as a freelance artist and illustrator; undertaking numerous commissions, exhibiting locally and further afield, and self-publishing a number of books. Sophie has a PGCE in Post Compulsory Education and enjoys sharing her creativity through teaching illustration, art classes, and workshops in both formal and informal educational settings.

Sarah Walkley trained at Vetrate Artistiche Toscana in Siena between 1994-1995. She had a stained glass studio in London for several years before settling up business in Kendal and developing a specialist fused glass range named Sarah Bibet Fused Glass, which she now sells online and to local shops. Sarah has been teaching her skills to classes for 30 years.

Amy Williams brings a wealth of experience in art, craft and design. She is a professional artist having studied for a BA (Hons) in Sculpture and an MA in Illustration. In her current practice, she works on large-scale commissions creating paper installations. She enjoys working with a diverse range of groups and developing creativity in others.

Caroline Stow is a painter and printmaker based in Cumbria, whose work is rooted in an interest in ecology and our absolute reliance on the natural world.  She makes extensive use of observational drawing as a basis for ideas, although many final images are quite abstract. She uses printmaking (etching, etched lino, monoprint and collagraph) to make and remake images, forming and dissolving connections across a picture plane. She is interested in making an explorative process, which melds together materiality and slow thinking. Testing form, line, and colour intuitively, she will often spend several weeks developing and refining a series of images and constructing printing plates, before experimenting further with the mechanics of the printing process.

Grace Herron trained as a Theatre Designer, studying at both Central Saint Martins and Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. She has worked within art departments across theatre, TV and film. Whilst continuing in her design career, Grace runs creative and engaging arts and craft workshops to inspire young people to explore the idea of a career in the arts.

Kate Battersby graduated from Edge Hill University with a first-class BA Hons Degree in Dance and began her career as a freelance Dance Artist. After freelancing for two years, Kate became a Dance Development Officer working in Cultural Education and Youth Talent Pathways, visiting schools across the North West to deliver multi-arts projects. Kate now delivers dance in all educational settings from nurseries to universities, alongside being a Mentoring Manager at DanceSyndrome, supporting their dance leaders progress personally and artistically.

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Key Contacts

Our key people that you may need to contact.

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Board of Trustees

A list of our KBACTL Trustees & KCC Board Members.

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