firstsite Associate Artists are professional artists with a socially engaged practice, and experience working with diverse audience groups.

The posts are part-time, allowing the artists to continue their arts practice concurrently. Collaboration is key: the artists work together, supporting and challenging each other as they develop new and distinctive approaches. 

The Associate Artist programme includes:

• programme delivery
• professional development
• developing new resources
• artist as researcher.

Programme delivery

Depending on each artist’s skills and practice, they work with diverse groups including schools, young people, adults and families.

The artists deliver creative workshops, and encourage conversations about visual culture and its relationship to personal experience.

The team aims to stimulate people’s visual thinking and promote understanding and appreciation of contemporary visual arts.

Developments include

• A new workshop methodology to enable teachers, students and artists to engage directly with works of art and to explore plural meanings. 
• Gallery games and practical activities for families to investigate contemporary art.

The artist as researcher

The Learning Programme is designed to develop critical and reflective practice among artists and participants.

firstsite's Learning team sees the Associate Artists as a source of innovation; their structured research time has informed and shaped the current Learning Programme.