Libby Anson is a writer, artist, creative and professional development coach and lecturer. She studied Fine Art at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne before undertaking postgraduate Art Gallery & Museum Studies at Manchester University. She has since worked in the public and private gallery sectors, curating exhibitions and working as a gallery educationalist. Since 1990, she has been a freelance art critic and from 1993, a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). Her work as a critic followed on from her management at the end of the '80s of the commercial Creaser Gallery, Portobello, London, concentrating on contemporary abstract painting.
Her writing has been published in various national and international publications, including Art Monthly, Contemporary Art Magazine, UNTITLED, Taïde (Hungary) and Material (Sweden), among others, producing mainly exhibition reviews and artists' interviews. Libby co-authored the 'A-Z of Art' and has written and contributed to a number of exhibition catalogues. Libby has edited art historical books, practical drawing guides and art education publications. She has also been a fine art lecturer and creative development coach for over thirty years. She currently works at The Glasgow School of Art supporting students and graduates with their preparations to become professional practitioners, while maintaining her own writing and fine art practice, focusing on painting and drawing. Alongside this, she writes creative non-fiction and performs and writes for theatre.
Stephen Farthing studied at St Martin's School of Art, London (1969-73) before taking his Masters Degree in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London (1973-76). Here he was awarded an Abbey Major Scholarship, taking him to The British School at Rome for a year from 1976. His teaching career began as a Lecturer in Painting at Canterbury College of Art (1977-79), after which he was a Tutor in painting at the Royal College of Art, London from 1980 to 1985.
Stephen Farthing has exhibited extensively in one man shows since his first solo exhibition held at the Royal College of Art Gallery, London in 1977. His work, representing Britain, was shown at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1989, leading to many further solo shows in the UK and abroad, including South America and Japan. He has also participated in many group exhibitions since 1975, including the John Moores Liverpool Exhibitions, in which he was a Prize Winner in 1976, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1997 and 1999. He was represented by The Edward Totah Gallery in London and New York until Edwards death in 1997.
Farthing was Artist in Residence at the Hayward Gallery, London in 1989. He was elected Royal Academician in 1998 and in 2000 was made an Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 2000, Duckworth published, The Intelligent Persons Guide to Modern Art. He was executive director of the New York Academy of Art from September 2000 until August 2004 when he was appointed Rootstein Hopkins Research Chair of Drawing at the university of Arts London, which he has held until 2017. Stephen now lives and works in New York and London.
Francesca is a writer and art historian based in Bristol. Since graduating with Distinction from the Warburg Institute in 2015, she has launched into a varied freelance career in the arts. Working at the interface between art and the public has left her adept at transforming complex ideas and academic jargon into something both accessible and (fingers crossed) entertaining.
Francesca is the author of two books: PINCH ME: Trying to Feel Real in the 21st Century and Wilfred Avery and the Unpredictable Image (both October 2023).
For some time I have wanted to know more about art but time and in my case, mobility difficulties, made it hard for me to pursue my interest in any formal way. I was therefore delighted when I spotted an advertisement for an online Art Appreciation Course run by The Art Institute.
Manchester