Stephanie James
BA (Hons) Sculpture
Hull College of Art and Design
MA Fine Art
Newcastle University
Principal Lecturer and Course Leader
MA Programmes
Acting Director of the School of Art
Stephanie’s work focuses on curation and the dynamic between space and the creative process. Her work involves exhibiting, organising and curating exhibitions, while as a practising artist, Stephanie is also interested in the context in which artists show work. Current projects explore the ways in which artworks are used by galleries to construct knowledge and interrogate the wider role of the gallery for society. These include ‘The Management of Critical, Promotional and Contextual Writing for ArtSway in the Production of New Forest Pavilion; ArtSway and the Venice Biennale’ supported by an AHRC Knowledge Catalyst Award (2007-8). This collaborative project (see also Jim Hunter) aimed to bring the expertise of the academic community to the enterprise partner (regional gallery ArtSway) through the exploitation of the Arts Institute’s text + work research base in order to manage and develop texts for publication and to organise a series of scheduled public seminars. The ensuing publication, Word Matters (Hunter, J., James, S., Shamlou, O. and Sanna, J. eds) was published by text + work (The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, 2007) and contains the transcripts of the seminars along with an audio CD.
Stephanie held an Arts Institute at Bournemouth Research Fellowship in 2007. She enlisted the collaboration of a number of Institute colleagues in the project she curated and managed in association with the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, and with support from Arts Council South West, Renaissance MLA and the Arts Institute at Bournemouth. Appositely entitled ‘Meeting Place: Contemporary Art and the Museum Collection’ (2007-8), the exhibition explored the responses to the museum of twenty designers and artists and thus brought contemporary art to the museum context. These responses were chronicled in the associated publication, Meeting Place (text + work, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, 2007).
Other publications in the 2005-8 period include: James, S. and Bonnell, P. eds: B.OK (Bournemouth: The Arts Institute at Bournemouth in association with ArtSway, 2007, and distributed by Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester and Matts Gallery, London); James, S., ‘The Third Space: A Paradigm for Internationalisation’ in Drew, L. ed., The Student Experience in Art and Design Higher Education: Action for Change (Cambridge: Jill Rogers Associates Ltd, 2008).
‘Lemon Breast’ and other sculptures, made by Stephanie James in response to the collection in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, in an exhibition, ‘Meeting Place: Contemporary Art and the Museum Collection’ (2007-8).