City Lit fine art: year 1

Amanda Bracken started her teaching career at the Serpentine Gallery, researching, developing and delivering projects to a range of audiences, which illuminated the art work on show in the exhibition programme, including a teachers’ pack for the Bridget Riley exhibition. She also gained substantial experience developing projects and workshops within the education departments of The Drawing Room, the Estorick collection, The National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria Miro Gallery in particular Alice Neel: Portraits. Bracken holds an MA in Fine Art gained at Central Saint Martins. She also holds a BA in joint Art/Dance and a PGCE gained at Goldsmiths College London. Brackens paintings, drawings and installations have been selected for exhibitions in London and nationally including the Drawing Room, ASC Gallery, C and C Gallery and Atkinson Gallery Millfield. ‘I am interested in colour and form in all its permutations and the qualities of the substance of painting and drawing-the figurative, the abstract and the in-between. Citylit has a diverse Art department where I can use my experience to stimulate students to develop their own work'.

Anne-Marie studied Fine Art at Epsom School of Art & Design and Advanced Printmaking at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art & Design. She has been working with printmaking, drawing, watercolour and mixed media since 1976 and has been involved in art education since 1987 at City Lit College of Adult Education, Central Saint Martin’s School of Art & Design, Bath Spa University School of Art & Design, Norwich School of Art & Design, Havering college of Further & Higher Education, V & A Museum Education department (printmaking workshops,) Morley College of Adult Education. Anne-Marie has exhibited nationally including the Hayward Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Battersea Arts Centre and internationally at Brooklyn Art Library USA, RAMOMA (Museum of Modern Art Nairobi Kenya,). Publications: Mandy Bonnell & Stephen Mumberson ‘Printmaking on a Budget’; Jane Stobbard ‘Drawing Matters’; Jackie Newell & Dee Whittington ‘Monoprinting’ Teaching forms an integral part of Anne-Marie’s art practice with both often acting as a stimulus for the other.

Ruth Studied Ceramics at Harrow College of Art, and MA Printmaking at Camberwell College of Art. From 1978 Ruth began as Art College lecturer, where she discovered her great love of teaching. In 1982 she began teaching regularly at Camberwell College of Art, on the Foundation and Degree Courses, and in 2002 she moved to City Lit, where she has been teaching regularly on Ceramic and Mixed Media Courses. Inspired by the expressive qualities of different mediums and techniques, Ruth’s work has moved from hand-built clay forms, to mixed-media sculptures, sewing, collage and drawing. Looking at personal experiences for inspiration, Ruth has been making sculptures inspired by her family history and professions. Ruth’s teaching aims to ignite students’ own personal expression, through diverse set projects, expressive materials used, and techniques taught. On-going encouragement of students’ strengths, enables confidence and self belief to develop. Ruth has exhibited extensively, and has her work in several Art Collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, and The Crafts Council, London. Website: www.ruth-franklin.co.uk Instagran: ruthfranklin_artist

Alexandra Harley is a sculptor with an immersive engagement with materials working in Stratford, London. She began teaching woodcarving at City Lit in 1985 and has taught other materials including bronze, stone and life modelling. She was elected to the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2000 and The London Group since 2017. She began studying sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art under Katherine Gilli and Glyn Williams and at St Martins School of Art under Tim Scott. Alexandra Harley has had several prestigious fellowships in Japan and the USA and was awarded the Brian Mercer Fellowship spending time in the Mariani Bronze Foundry, Italy, in 2016. Exhibitions include the ING Discerning Eye, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition, Creekside Open, Cork Street Open and the London Group Open; she has an extensive international CV and work in private collections. Her sculptures seek the capture of a fleeting moment and engage with the suspension of movement by fixing a physical interpretation of a brief and transitory fragment in time. With an internal energy pulsing through the complex constructions, her sculptures evade a single analysis.

Monika Kita is an artist and filmmaker. Video installation, sound and photography form her practice and works have been shown at festivals and exhibitions across the UK, Europe, and South America, including Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca, BBC Shorts, East End Film Festival and Venice Biennale. Teaching is an integral part of her practice. Her flexible approach encourages connection between conception, making and materials, recognising spontaneity and liberation to be at the ‘beating heart’ of practice and pedagogy.

Amanda Knight studied Botanical, Medical and Natural History illustration at Falmouth School of Art in pre-digital times when encyclopaedias graced bookshelves and Infographics upheld an applied mode of 2D practice. On graduation, Amanda worked freelance in industry, notably at Helicopter studios in Soho, with clients in publishing, advertising and design. She also took her first steps in Adult Teacher training, working as a part-time teacher of A-level art. Community Arts and personal Fine-Art practice gradually replaced industry with freer avenues, accompanied by post-graduate study at Central Saint Martins (2000). Amanda also studied on the transformative City Lit Fine Art course for which she is now joint Course Co-ordinator. Amanda has experience of art-fair and gallery sales, represented by Stark Gallery from 2005-2012. Subsequent project work has seen a return involvement with contemporary, socially driven arts projects and fringe artist communites such as Teatro Vivo, Urban Art and Deptford X. She has twice been selected for inclusion in Creekside Open, and accepted into professional studio groups Brookmill Studios and Deptford Foreshore.

Ute works in sculpture, drawing, photography and print. She exhibits in the UK and abroad, including shows in Janus Avivson- Paris, Gallery Unwahr- Berlin, The Watermans Art Centre, National Trust, The Round Chapel- London, St Pancras Chambers and studio1.1.london. She is interested in 'Art and Landscape' and has collaborated with other artists in this area. Residencies and public art include ‘SelfScapes’ in Dalby Forest, an artistic research project with catalyst funding from York St John University; Hurlingham and Chelsea School - ACAVA;Winton School- The Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust. Publications: Kate Wilson, Drawing and Painting Materials and Techniques, 2015; The E list,Winter.No 55. Work reviews include: Time Out by Martin Herbert; Catalogue Essay by Tom Mc Carthy. Ute worked as Trustee member of Shoreditch Town Hall Trust and as gallery curator, Tram Depot Gallery. Ute has over 10 years of experience teaching in Further and Adult Education, on the Art and Design Foundation Diploma; Developing Art Practice; EDAM and The City Lit interior design course, specialising in sculpture - 3D, drawing and colour. Qualifications: MAFA and PGCE