The Creative Learning Team at Brewery Arts is made up of various skilled practitioners. Each of them are 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.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Emily leads adult dance sessions including Mature Movers for over 60s and Get Moving, alongside youth performing arts classes, Stage Stars and our flagship Brewery Youth Dance Company for dancers aged 7–18.
Contact Emily by emailing emily.davies@breweryarts.co.uk
Helena McGregor – Learning & Engagement Officer: Visual Arts
Helena McGregor is a visual artist and a qualified Art Teacher with 15 years of experience in UK and International Schools, teaching in a range of creative subjects and year groups. She is now part of our Creative Learning team at Brewery Arts, overseeing the Exhibitions and Youth Visual Arts programmes as well as teaching visual art classes for both young people and adults. Helena enjoys an exploratory approach to creativity, focusing on experimentation with different media, techniques and ideas and believes in the importance of play.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Helena leads our Youth Arts Makers Club, introductory printmaking workshops for adults, and family printmaking sessions.
Contact Helena by emailing helena.mcgregor@breweryarts.co.uk or, for information on the exhibition programme, email exhibitions@breweryarts.co.uk .
Freelance Team
Chris Barnes
Chris is a practising ceramic artist with a degree in sculpture and 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 teaching art in schools from the infant to the secondary school level.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Chris leads a range of courses and workshops, including Pottery for Beginners and Improvers, Youth Arts Clay Club, Pottery Throwing, and introductory clay workshops.
Catherine MacDiarmid
Cat 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.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Catherine leads courses and workshops in life drawing, life painting and portraiture practice, alongside specialist sessions introducing and developing skills in, oils, acrylics, watercolours and charcoal.
Sarah Walkley
Sarah 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.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Sarah leads courses and workshops in stained and fused glass for beginners and improvers, alongside introductory glass art sessions and seasonal decorative glass workshops.
Caroline Stow
Caroline 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. Caroline 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.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Caroline leads printmaking courses and workshops for beginners and improvers, alongside seasonal sessions and specialist workshops exploring techniques including collagraph, lino printing, etching and monoprinting.
Liam Collins
Liam teaches all things through a lens at the Brewery. He is an award-winning photographer who moved into filmmaking two years ago when he became a tutor in Film Production at Kendal College. Liam has been leading the Film Crew for a year and loves working with young people to make new and original pieces of work. He is currently working on long-term documentary projects photographing folk traditions and festivals in the United Kingdom. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Liam leads photography and digital camera courses for adult beginners and improvers, our Youth Arts Film Crew, and is the lead supervisor of our Darkroom.
Simon Sylvester
Simon is a writer, traditional storyteller, filmmaker, teacher and occasional poet. He works on everything from pub quizzes to podcasts by way of short films, magazine articles, site-specific installations and documentary voiceovers. His short stories have been published in Dark Mountain, Gutter, New Writing Scotland and many more. His debut novel The Visitors won the Guardian’s Not The Booker prize.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Simon leads creative writing courses for adult beginners and improvers.
Kate Battersby
Kate 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.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Kate leads our weekly Mini Movers sessions for under 4s and their carers to move together.
Ciara Heaton
Ciara moved on to pursue a career in community arts after studying Fine Art at University. Ciara spent many years working within specialist education, mental health support and creative community groups around the country. She has since moved with her young family to Cumbria to indulge in the outdoor lifestyle, inspiring her to study a Painting degree, specialising in large abstract landscape pieces. As well as being a practicing artist, she has a great passion for making the arts accessible to all.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Ciara leads Art Explorers, our Youth Arts course for home-educated young people.
Tricia Gordon
Founder and Director of our community Theatre group, Act Your Age, aimed at those over 60.
Mel Yalcin Evren
Mel’s love of film began at an early age during her weekly trips to the cinema. Her passion for film curation began after graduating from Manchester School of Art, where she transitioned from filmmaking to programming. She started out by organising cult and genre film events in Manchester’s independent cinemas. Now living in the Lake District, Mel works as a Film Programme Assistant at Brewery Arts, channelling her enthusiasm for arthouse and world cinema (particularly East Asian Cinema). Though her favourite film is always changing, right now it’s August in the Water (1995) by Gakuryū Ishii.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Mel leads our Cine-Social workshops for film lovers to explore and discuss cinema together.
Danny Clahane
Danny began carving stone while studying at Canterbury College of Art, where he also worked as an assistant to sculptor Stephen Cox on major granite works for Broadgate, London. While completing his MA at Wimbledon School of Art, Danny worked with sculptors Stephen Cox and Glynn Williams and completed his first public commission for Morden Library. Now based at his studio at Halecat in Witherslack, Cumbria, Danny creates primarily stone-based sculpture for exhibitions, private clients and public commissions. His work can be found across the UK, including Bristol, Birmingham and Newcastle, as well as throughout Cumbria and Lancashire.
Here at Brewery Arts:
Danny leads beginner stone carving courses and workshops, alongside specialist slate carving sessions.
View our Creative Learning events here.
