Ellie Barrett
Teaching Associate in Fine ArtResearch Overview
I am a practice-based researcher and specialist in socially engaged sculpture, exploring the relationship between material and co-production methods. My work is invested in establishing material literacy in the visual arts towards opening wider public access to making and viewing.
My Role
I am an associate lecturer in Fine Art at Lancaster University, teaching across the BA course alongside PhD supervision.
My teaching practice operates in the interface between practice and theory, combining hands-on explorative activities alongside academic study. This especially involves teaching technical methods, such as casting, from a contemporary perspective whilst understanding how such processes have initiated shifts in artistic practice.
External Roles
I am a director at Good Things Collective, a community-centric arts organisation based in Morecambe. This role involves strategic development, fundraising and evaluation and partnership development.
Between 2020 to 2023, I was a Lecturer at City & Guilds Art School, London. My role was primarily focused on developement and delivery of a specialist Masters course - Art and Material Histories - which combined studio practice with theoretical and philosophical frameworks related to material's genealogies, histories and socio-political roles. My role ended with the closure of the course.
PhD Supervision Interests
I would be interest to supervise PhD research across a broad range of fields, including sculptural practice, twentieth-century sculpture, material literacy, social sculpture and socially-engage practices, and new materialist and post-human practice-based research.
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Collect, Make & Rearrange
27/05/2026 → 21/10/2026
Research
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The Sculpture Plinth Commission
18/05/2026 → 29/11/2026
Research
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Establishing an evidence-based approach for early years creative play across Morecambe
08/09/2025 → 14/04/2026
Research
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Sculptural Co-Production Project
20/01/2025 → 31/10/2025
Research
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In-Residence
01/11/2023 → 31/03/2024
Research
Being at Sea
Participation in conference - Academic
Unknown Shoppers: proposal presentation
Invited talk
Play Day
Other
Canadian Society for Education through Art Dialogue Series
Invited talk
How to make sculpture with people
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
MOTHRA Artist-Parent Project residency
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
All Kinds of Hands
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
Everyday Play
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
"Material Literacy & Motherhood" - guest interview on The Mater Podcast
Invited talk
Handmade Soft Play
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
Play, Make, Build
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
Sculptural Co-Production Project
Prize (including medals and awards)