ALYSON AGAR

Reader (Visual Arts)

Alyson Agar is a Reader in Visual Arts with over 20 years of experience working in diverse educational settings within national and international contexts. Alyson’s current teaching responsibilities include teaching and assessment duties across all modules on MA Design History, MA Arts Practice, MA Design Practice and MA Art, Culture & Curation at The Northern School of Art. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Alyson is an experienced External Examiner at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in art, design, and film practices, recently having held positions in institutions including Birmingham City University, University Centre Leeds, and Open University, Alyson has spent several years working as an external panel member advising on history of art and design in the curriculum.

Alyson’s research and visual arts practice explore the intersections between women’s knowledge and climate action through experimental, nature-based photographic practices. Her work has been supported by British Council, Arts Council, BFI, and UNESCO. Alyson has exhibited internationally; and has previously undertaken residencies in Iceland, Berlin, Ukraine, and China. Alyson is the author of several photobooks and has recently contributed chapters on the intersections between climate justice and photographic pedagogies and practice. Alyson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Qualifications:

PhD | Embodied Connections: Conversations in Landscape & Climate through Nature-based Photographic Practice | Teesside University, UK
MA Photography with Distinction | University of Sunderland, UK
PGCE (Post-Compulsory Education) | University of Huddersfield, UK
Graduate Research Fellowship in Fine Art | Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
BA (Hons) Fine Art with First Class Honours | Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

Writing & Publications:

Embodied Connections in Nature-Based Photographic Practice in Lemon, N. (ed.) Make as Wellbeing, Wellbeing as Making: Explorations in Creativity and Self-Care in Higher Education Classrooms and Research Spaces. London: Routledge Publishing. (Currently in development, due December 2025) (Book Chapter)
Perspectives in Art and Design – A Creative Publishing Outlet for Arts-based Scholarly Activity | Advance HE CBHE Festival of Scholarly Activity and Research | 2024 (Conference Paper)
Embodied Connections: Establishing a Framework for Experimental Environmental Pedagogies through the Principles of Photography | PAD | Perspectives in Art and Design, The Northern School of Art Staff Research and Scholarly Activity Conference Edition | 2024 (Conference Paper)
Embodied Connections: Establishing a Framework for Experimental Environmental Pedagogies through the Principles of Photography | PAD | Perspectives in Art and Design | The Northern School of Art Staff Research and Scholarly Activity Conference Edition | 2023 (Conference Paper)
A SAR Student Celebration | PAD | Perspectives in Art and Design, The Northern School of Art Staff Research and Scholarly Activity Conference Edition | 2023 (Conference Paper)
Most Significant Change Training with Arc Stockton, Thinking Practice & Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) | 2020 (Report)
Monuments to the Everyday | NGCA | 2018 (PhotoBook/exhibition text)
How do Cindy Sherman’s Instagram Works Contribute to the Art Historical Canon? PAD | Perspectives in Art and Design Edition 1| 2018 (Paper)
Ukrainian Smile | 2016 (held in BALTIC Library) Baltic + (2016) Ukrainian Smile. Baltic Archives (Book)
Colourscapes | Photo Salon | University of Sunderland | 2019 (Abstract)
Solid Paradise | House of Blah Blah | 2015 (PhotoBook)
The Tricks: A Psychogeographic Survey – A photo-zine produced as part of the David Lynch Intervention series in conjunction with David Lynch’s ‘Naming’ exhibition at MIMA, Middlesbrough | UK | 2015 (PhotoBook)

Conference Presentations & Symposiums:

Embodied Connections: Women’s Conversations in and through Nature-based Photographic Practice | Arts-based Research Creation Seminar | Plus TATE network & MIMA | 2025
Perspectives in Art and Design – A Creative Publishing Outlet for Arts-based Scholarly Activity | Advance HE CBHE Festival of Scholarly Activity and Research | 2024
Embodied Connections Conversation Series | The Northern School of Art Staff Research & Scholarly Activity Conference | 2024
Embodied Connections Conversation Series | Practice-based Research Seminar | MIMA | 2024
Embodied Connections: The Photographic Image & Expression of Landscape | Storytelling Seminar | MIMA | 2024
Embodied Connections: Establishing a Framework for Experimental Environmental Pedagogies through the Principles of Photography | The Northern School of Art Staff Research & Scholarly Activity Conference | 2023.
A SAR Student Celebration | The Northern School of Art Staff Research & Scholarly Activity Conference | 2023
Embodied and Expanded Photography | Teesside University & University of Westminster | 2022
PRAXIS seminar | MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, UK | 2022
PGR Seminar – From the Photograph to the Photographic – Embodying Experience | Teesside University & Sunderland University | 2022
Conference: Taking Places: Identities formed in an Adverse Space. | Paper: Autoethnographic Poems of Place | Centre for Culture & Creativity, Teesside University | 2021
PhD Student Showcase | MIMA, Middlesbrough, UK | 2021
Tees Valley Screen and Empty Shop Creative Social, Fear and Hope for Documentary Film in the Wake of Covid | Northern Film + Media | 2020
Photography and the Digital City | Refresh Teesside & Big Bite | 2020
Psychogeographic and Photographic Representations of Teesside | Heritage Unlocked Leisure and Recreation History and Heritage Day, supported by Arts Council England and the Society for the Study for Labour History | 2019.
Tees Valley Screen, Northern Film + Media, Middlesbrough Art Weekender, Art, Archives and AI Panel Discussion | Middlesbrough Art Weekender | 2019
Working with Museum Collections in the Classroom | Bowes Museum | 2019
The Influence of Academic Theory on Creative Practice, PAD Seminar | The Northern School of Art | 2019
Chernobyl and Kiev: 30 Years On (Alyson Agar and Claire A. Baker) | Cleveland College of Art and Design | 2016
Artist Talk: Collective 26:86 (Alyson Agar, Claire A. Baker, and Nicola Golightly) | Blimey! Darlington, UK | 2016
Raising Standards through Learner Critique | NSEAD National Society for Education in Art and Design | 2015
Drawing on the Region (Localism exhibition) | MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art | 2015 [online]
Artist Talk (Close Encounters) | MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art | 2014
1950s Fashion (Art and Optimism in 1950s Britain | MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art | 2014

Exhibitions:

The Living Archive – A Place, A Moment in collaboration with Nick John Williams and Vlogbase (System Design/Concept by Nick John Williams and Short Films/Photography by Alyson Agar) | Middlesbrough Art Weekender, in conjunction with Vlogbase, Tees Valley Screen and The Auxiliary Project Space, Middlesbrough | Funded by Northern Film + Media, Arts Council England and European Economic Development Fund and Tees Valley Combined Authority | 2019.
Monuments to the Everyday | Inaugural Show | Pineapple Black Contemporary Arts Space, Middlesbrough, UK | 2019
Monuments to the Everyday | Connectivity Collections Show | MIMA, Middlesbrough, UK | 2018
Monuments to the Everyday | Changing States | NGCA Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK | 2018
Collective 26:86 | Hartlepool Art Gallery, Hartlepool, UK | 2016
Chernobyl and Kiev: 30 years on | House of Blah Blah, Middlesbrough, UK | 2016
Finding Feminism | Darlington Crown Point Art Gallery, Darlington, UK | 201
Solid Paradise | House of Blah Blah, Middlesbrough, UK | 2015
Close Encounters (an installation of in-situ drawings chartering the hidden cartographies of the MIMA building as part of the event ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ | MIMA, Middlesbrough, UK, | 2014
The Big Pink | Pyrgos Industrial House, Santorini Biennale of Art, Greece | 2012
We are Floating in Space | ARC Stockton, UK | 2009.
An Effective, Deadly Chop to the System | AV Festival 08 | Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle-upon Tyne, UK | 2008
BAG 03 | Squires Gallery, Northumbria University | 2003
Exploding Camera | Sakaide Gallery, Sakaide, Japan | 2003

Honours & Awards:

The 13th Summer Exchange Program of the Hebei International Partnership | Hebei Provincial Association for UNESCO China | 2024
Lifetime Achievement Award | The Northern School of Art | 2024
The Sue Scheilling Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Student Experience category – Access to HE programme at The Northern School of Art | 2021
Festival of Place Research Bursary | Festival of Place & Design Council | 2020
Recipient of Arts Council England Funding Award for Most Significant Change Training with Arc Stockton and Thinking Practice | 2020
Tees Valley Screen Artist Residency | Tees Valley Screen, Northern Film + Media, The Auxiliary Middlesbrough, Arts Council England, and the European Economic Development Fund | 2019
Robson Fund Award: Exhibiting Contemporary Photography | University of Sunderland | 2018
Certificate of Commendation | The Royal Humane Society | 2013
Recipient of Arts Council Graduate Award | Arts Council England | 2004
Recipient of Graduate Fellowship in Fine Art | Northumbria University | 2003