At the School House Gallery Robert and Paula have curated over 60 exhibitions since 2009, many with a socially engaged focus, providing an inclusive focal point for creative and cultural activity within the city of York.
2022 – 2023 Jake Attree: A Northern Sensibility
Exhibition of oils and pastels posing the question: what is a ‘Northern sensibility?’ It explored Attree’s abiding fascination with Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his North European aesthetic.
2020 Ideas of Home
An online collation of creative responses during Covid lockdowns to the notion of ‘home’. (Arts Council England funded)
2019 – 2021 Michael Lyons: The Alchemist
Posthumous exhibition of sculpture and works on paper.
2019 Brumby + Bell: Rendezvous
Paintings and ceramics by Robert Brumby and Chris Bell-Pearson
2019 David Hancock: A Still Life
Intricate watercolours exploring the doll as a recurring motif – as explorations of the artist’s self, an un-gendered avatar aligned to their own personality and tastes.
2018 Phil Reynolds: 10 Years in the Landscape
2018 Hilly Fletcher: Belonging(s)
Exploring themes of refugees and precarious experience.
2018 Shirley Teed: Mother Love
Survey exhibition of oil paintings from the 1940s to 2010s.
2018 Kate Walters: The Start that Falls from Heaven
Using motifs of the feminine, the mythical and the natural world Kate Walters asks: What does it mean to be human, knowing, and living in the anthropocene age?
2017 – 2018 Jake Attree: In Search of the Key
Abstract and figural interpretations of the city of York.
2017 Alun Kirkby: All Small Things Must Evolve Slowly
Cyanoptypes.
2016 – 2017 ICE: Institute for Cultural Experimentation. Production, exchange, creativity, ideas
Transforming the gallery into a thriving point of interchange housing ten artist-makers whose practice mirrored the zeitgeist of a yearning for a ‘post-survival’, off-grid, hand-made culture. A space where beautiful and useful things are made by hand, embodying a making and doing culture – a space where ideas are shared or challenged and dialogue can happen.
Accompanying talks by Alistair Hudson (The Useful Museum), Christine Lalumia (Contemporary Applied Arts), Roger Keyes (Hokusai), Ben Johnson (Cityscapes), Nicola Dewar (Crafts Council), David Gauntlett (Making is Connecting), Paul Digby (Art in the Public Sector), Helen Walsh (York Art Gallery) and Kate Walters (Punctim and Plume).
(Arts Council England funded)
2016 Bartosz Beda: Feeling Good About Things
2016 Human Transferral
Work by Arts Faculty lecturers at York St John University.
2016 Eleanor Worthington Prize: International Day of Persons with Disability
In association with Premio Eleanor Worthington, Urbino, Italy.
2016 Extracts
Paintings and ceramics by Linda Ingham, Rob Moore, Ilona Sulikova.
2015 Toast
Part of New Curators – curated by undergraduates from York St John University.
2015 Jake Attree: The City Beneath
2015 Michael Lyons: Half Light
Sculpture and drawings from the 1980s to the present.
2015 PH1: Artists In Place
Survey exhibition of the PH1: Artists in Place residencies by John Newling, the Le Bas Family, Stevie Ronnie, C. Sutcliffe-Fuller.
(Arts Council England funded)
2015 Eleanor Worthington Prize: Overcoming Barriers, Beyond Disability.
In association with Premio Eleanor Worthington, Urbino, Italy.
2015 And How Do You Feel About That?
Part of New Curators – curated by undergraduates from University of York.
2014 Imagination of Matter (In Memory of Monica Ross)
Mikhail Karikis, Nikolaj Larsen, Bernard Mills, Uriel Orlow, Annika Strom, Suzanne Treister, Damian James Le Bas, Paula Jackson, Robert Teed
2014 The Manchester Connexion
Jane Dzisiewski, David Hancock, Lucy Elsie Harvey, C J O’Neill, Joe Hartley, Megan Ocheduszko, Imogen Clarkstone
2014 Kate Walters: A World Revealed
Animal-human forms that tap into the primitive shamanistic beliefs in our common ancestry.
2014 Dimidium
Degree show by York St John University Fine Art students.
2014 John Newling: 21st Century Eden
Exhibition complementing the off-site residency as part of PH1: Artists In Place
(Arts Council England funded)
2014 The Le Bas Family: Grace In Thy Sight
Exhibition complementing the off-site residency as part of PH1: Artists In Place
(Arts Council England funded)
2013 Black Butterflies: Roma Gypsy Art and Identity
Textile installation, works on paper, mirrors and video by Delaine Le Bas, Damian Le Bas, Daniel Baker and Damian James Le Bas.
(Arts Council England funded)
2013 John Newling: Stall of the Gathered Things (No. 1)
Installation gathering works from John Newling’s career that embody social capital and the ecology of place.
2013 CREATE13!
Degree work by Fine Art students at York St John University
2013 York Six
2013 Jane McAdam Freud: Flesh and Stone
Sculptures and drawings exploring the dynamic of Jane’s relationship with her father, Lucian Freud, and her creative growth during the year since his death.
2013 Michael Lyons: The Mithras Suite
Sculptures, drawings and etchings by this towering figure of British sculpture.
2013 Kelly Jayne: Intimate Realities
2013 Jake Attree: The City, the Gardens and the People
2012 Allowed Voices: Art and Human Rights
Matt Writtle (photography), Prof. Stephen Dixon (ceramics), Paula Jackson and Robert Teed (four screen video installation)
2012 Act 39: A Performance by Monica Ross
2012 In My Craft or Art
Stella Harding, Lucy Elsie Harvey, Paul Reid, Helene Uffren
2012 Louisa Taylor: Inspired by York
New ceramics work made in response to York Art Gallery’s collections.
2012 Transformation
Featuring Helen Chadwick’s ‘Piss Flowers’ alongside specially commissioned multi-disciplinary responses – new poems by Jo Shapcott, ceramics by Joe Hartley and Laura McGrath, and video and installation works by Paula Jackson and Robert Teed.
(Arts Council England and Jerwood Foundation funded)
2012 53 Degrees North (No.3)
53 degree students’ work selected from arts schools across the UK.
2011 I Am Human
A discourse on Human Rights and Equalities to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Ceramics by Stephen Dixon, Claudia Clare and Magdolene Dykstra; textiles by Alison Welsh; ‘The Holocaust Memorial Library’ a sound and photography installation by Paula Jackson and Robert Teed (exhibited at Huddersfield Art Gallery 2012).
(Arts Council England funded)
2011 Northern Stars
Annual exhibition by Northern Potters Association
2011 Jake Attree: Landscape with Figures
2011 53 Degrees North (No.2)
53 degree students’ work selected from arts schools across the UK.
(Arts Council England funded)
2011 In Safe Keeping
An exhibition exploring themes of personal space, security, concealment and the protection of treasured objects in our lives. Watercolours by David Hancock; ceramics and objects by Andrea Walsh, Jenny Pope and Hannah James.
2011 Robert Brumby: Revealed
2011 David Hancock: Peter Pan
Exhibition of works completed during a residency at York Theatre Royal.
2010 Eve Bennett: A Bird In The Hand
Ceramics and sound installation.
2010 Home
Linda Bloomfield, Rachel Dormar, Kevin Millward, Hanne Rysgaard, Annette Bugansky, Kochevet Ben-David, Liadin Cooke, Emma Whiting, Ellie Evans, Lewis and Louisa Creed, Jacqueline James, Rachel Llewellyn, Sarah Stevenson
2010 Navigation
Annie Turner, Tracey Rowledge, Terry Ryan, Carys Davies, Shirley Teed, Gemma Truman, Anke Hennig
2010 Northern Potters Association
2010 York Open Summer Exhibition
2010 Abstraction
Ceramics by Merete Rasmussen, Fenella Elms and Antonia Salmon; glass by Gillie Jones; sculpture by Jonathan Newdick; silver by Sarah Denny.
2010 Reclaim: Recycling in Objects and Art
Robert Cooper, Virginia Graham, Peter Coates, Nick Barberton, Yasuyo Cooper, Yan Preston, Serena Partridge, Jennifer Collier, Suzi Tibbetts, Gina Cowen, Emma Gale
2010 53 Degrees North (No.1)
53 degree students’ work selected from arts schools across the UK.
2010 One
Billy Lloyd, Sun Kim, Gina Cowen, Anke Hennig
2010 Crunchtime
International artists responding to the global economic crisis.
Marco Bagnoli and Vittantonio Russo (Italy); Steingrimur Eykford (Iceland); Sean Hillen (Ireland); Laila Shawa (Palestine); Mladen Miljanovic (Bosnia); Samba Fall and Guy Wouete (Senegal); Grace Ndiritu and Conrad Atkinson (UK).
2009 – 2010 Vessel
Carina Ciscato, Heyejeong Kim, Isabel Denyer, Sun Kim, Helen Beard, Errol Fryer, Chris Keenan, Ninna Gotzsche, Robert Cooper, Merete Rasmussen, Hannah James, Jo Davies, Rose Ellen Cob, Gina Cowen, Rachel Llewellyn, Liz Danby, Catriona Stevenson, Laura Henderson
Residencies
2016 – 2017 ICE – an Institute for Cultural Experimentation
Production, exchange, creativity, ideas driven by ten artist-makers
2014 PH1: Artists in Place:
John Newling: ‘21st Century Eden’
A one month residency based off-site in St Helen’s Square, York
The Le Bas Family: ‘Grace In Thy Sight’
An off-site, month long residency based beside Clifford’s Tower and the Law Courts.
Stevie Ronnie: ‘Time’
C. Sutcliffe-Fuller: ‘Land with Opportunity’
Creating prints in response to the new Hiscox building
2012 Transformation
Joe Hartley, ceramicist
Sophie Robinson, poet
Miles Salter, writer
2012 Louisa Taylor: ‘Inspired by York’
Residency researching ceramics collections at York Museums Trust.
2012 Three Points of Contact
Featuring Portuguese artists von Calhau! in collaboration with artists and curators from across the UK. In partnership with the Gulbenkian Foundation, York St John University, The Exchange Penzance and Glasgow School of Art.
2011 Hannah Lovett, glass artist
2011 David Hancock
York Theatre Royal residency during rehearsals and production of Peter Pan
2011 Magdolene Dykstra
Ceramics residency in association with University of York
2010 Crunchtime
A residency by Free International University, a social and environmental group from Amsterdam.
Short Films
2022 Jake Attree: A Northern Sensibility
A short film exploring the themes of Jake Attree’s recent exhibition
2022 Jake Attree: Some Questions and Answers
2015 Iby Knill: I Was There
2014 John Newling: The First Stage
2014 John Newling’s 21st Century Eden: Performance
2014 Damian James Le Bas: Charley Lee
2013 Michael Lyons: The Mithras Suite
2013 Sampo
A son et lumière projection on St Helen’s Church (commissioned by Illuminate York). Based on the Finnish fairytale ‘Sampo Lapellil’.
2013 Kelly Jayne: Intimate Realities
2013 Memoria: Berlin
Artist film responding to Berlin’s Holocaust and Roma Sinti Memorials.
2012 Jo Shapcott: Urban Air
2012 Jo Shapcott: My Body Rises
2012 Jo Shapcott: Magnificent Water
2012 Jane McAdam Freud: Memories and Reflections
2012 The Defender’s Voice
A 4-channel, immersive film featuring testimonies from human rights defenders Pascal Nylibakwe (Rwanda), Mauggi Min Min (Myanmar) and Dmitri Utukin (Chechnya). In partnership with University of York. Premiered at the Ron Cooke Hub 360 degree screen.
2011 H&G
Animated short film based on the Hansel and Gretel fairytale.
Publications
- Half Light, Michael Lyons. Exhibition publication. (School House Gallery Press, 2017)
- Home from Home: International Ceramics in Britain (Contemporary Applied Arts, 2017)
- ‘21st Century Eden’, John Newling (School House Gallery Press, 2014)
- Transformation, Jo Shapcott. Hand made letter press book of poems and illustrations (School House Gallery Press, 2013)
- Contributing Editor of Learning from the Learners’ Experience (University of Greenwich, 2009)
- Editor ofDesigning for Learning: Post Conference Reflections and Abstracts (University of Greenwich, 2008)
- Author and Designer of Just Connect (Kestrel Books, 2008)
- Author and Designer of International Students Connect (Kestrel Books, 2007)
- Contributing Author to Philosophers, ed. N. Chalton (Basement Press, 2008)
- Photographer for Arcanum (National Museums and Galleries of Wales, 2005)
- Short story The Burglars broadcast on Radio 4 (1997)
Conference Papers
2011 | Sackler Conference, Victoria and Albert Museum, London | ‘Engage, Create’
Paper: ‘Do Not Feed the Animals: Audience engagement with artists in residence’.
2015 | European Conference for Educational Research, Budapest | ‘Education and Transition’
Paper: ‘Grace In Thy Sight: Reflections on the York Residency of Delaine and Damian Le Bas’