Email: s1671725@ed.ac.uk

Programme: Art - PhD/MPhil

Start date: September 2017

Mode of study: Part time

Research title: Art, Praxis, Transformation

Beth Dynowski is an artist based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her work takes the form of performance, installation, sculpture, public projects and texts. Her most recent works explore how individuals and communities are shaped by their socio-economic circumstances.

Selected past exhibitions and projects include: Songs for Work Generator Projects, Dundee; What does open learning look like here? School of Commons, University of Zurich; Magnetic North Lead Artist in Residence, MacRobert Theatre, Stirling;  Cool Down COP26 Fringe, Glasgow; Songs for Work Glasgow International; Beyond Perception University of Aberdeen; Creative Scotland Funded Fellow, ZKU Berlin; Drawing Connections Siena Art Institute.

Beth's poetry has been shortlisted for The White Review Poet's Prize and has been published by Adjacent Pineapple, Gutter and Dancing Girl Press. She runs a small local independent press, Leven Street Press, that distributes poetry and open educational resources. 

Beth has initiated a range of projects including a peer-led learning commons Free Association at the CCA in Glasgow with Sacha Carr and Alice Brook,  she co-founded the arts space The Pipe Factory, ran an alternative art school Temporary Art School with Peacock Visual Arts and co-founded KINship a parent and carer network for artists with Sacha Carr and Kathryn Ashill. She was Lead Artist in establishing the young people's programme FreshFruit at the Fruitmarket Gallery and published research on self organisation and public resource creation in the arts across the US. She has initiated and run a range of public lecture series and seminars across libraries and public spaces in Scotland.

She holds a First Class Honours in Sculpture from Glasgow School of Art, a Masters in Modern Thought from the Centre for Modern Thought on the philosophy of Jacques Rancière and a TQFE with Distinction from the University of Aberdeen where her written research has focused on emancipatory learning and open educational practices.

Beth is a Teaching Fellow within the School of Art where she teaches on the MA in Contemporary Art Theory and on Undergraduate modules in Art in Context. She is also a part time Lecturer in Art & Design at Forth Valley College where she teaches a range of courses from Access to Honours level. She is primarily responsible for co-leading and delivering an Honours Studio Practice module to University of Stirling students with Ewan John, teaching BA Studio Practice and leading the BA Independent Contextual Studies module for Art & Design students.

Beth has worked with people in a range of arts and community settings both independently and for the public sector. She worked as Artistic Pathways Manager in Aberdeen, overseeing a team of arts officers to offer lifelong learning provision for children, young people and adults across the city. This included leading on a data driven review of Expressive Arts provision in secondary schools and pathways into and beyond FE/HE across the third sector. She set up the city's first post-academic programme for socially engaged practice with Jonathan Baxter, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Previous to this Beth worked as a care worker for adults in supported housing for several years across Greater Glasgow.

Beth's research experientially explores the relationship between the cognitive, affective and structural conditions for subject formation through and within the context of contemporary art and education. It adopts commoning as a practice - focused within art and education but applicable to other forms of the commons - while exploring and extending its poetics. This takes the form of experimental ways of writing, performance, installation, self organised study groups, teaching and public projects and events.

Beth's research is funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities Doctoral Award.