Glasgow School of Art Deputy Director Academic, Rachel Dickson Mac News

Glasgow School of Art Deputy Director, Academic News

17 December 2022

Rachel Dickson appointed Deputy Director, Academic at The Glasgow School of Art

Rachel Dickson, current Dean of Academic Programmes at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts, London) is to be the Deputy Director, Academic at The Glasgow School of Art.

photo courtesy of the GSA

Glasgow School of Art Deputy Director, Academic – Rachel Dickson

Rachel, who graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA Ceramics and Glass, has an extensive career as an academic leader within creative education. She has significant experience in designing and leading courses across all levels of Higher Education, of interdisciplinary working, improving the student experience and delivering new approaches to education that encompass social justice, responses to climate emergency and equality and diversity. Prior to her appointment as Dean of Academic Programmes at Central Saint Martins she was Associate Head of School at Belfast School of Art at the University of Ulster.

In her current role, Rachel is a key member of Central St Martin’s Senior Leadership team, contributing to the development of their strategy and vision. She has specific responsibility for academic leadership and management of four academic programmes; has developed and led on strategic partnerships with industry and academic institutions including a £1.5 million LVMH Partnership and an MOU with the prestigious research University Tokyo Institute of Technology.

As a maker, Rachel’s focus is both personal and political. She is interested in the role of women; the representation of the female voice, memory, the narrative of objects; sustainability in making; the space between art and craft; and is an invited course leader for the UNESCO & Women@Dior: Women Leadership & Sustainability Programme.

“I am delighted that Rachel will be joining The Glasgow School of Art as our new Deputy Director Academic,” says Professor Penny Macbeth, Director of The Glasgow School of Art. “Rachel will bring significant experience as an academic leader, most recently at two prominent centres of creative education – Central St Martin’s and Belfast School of Art – and has a wealth of personal and professional qualities that will be invaluable to us as we take the GSA forward.

As a key member of our Senior Leadership team, Rachel will make a huge contribution to the development and implementation of our academic vision and build on the work already being undertaken to deliver the highest quality student experience.

“I am very much looking forward to joining The Glasgow School of Art as Deputy Director Academic at such a pivotal time,” says Rachel Dickson. “The launch of the new strategy under Penny’s leadership creates the opportunity to work with all of our community both within and outwith the GSA to collectively and collaboratively shape our future through ambition, courage and care.

“I bring with me almost twenty years of experience in Higher Education together with my practice as a maker, and although I recognise and celebrate the rich history of the GSA, I am excited to become part of and help shape its future.”

Rachel Dickson replaces Allan Atlee. She will join the GSA in March 2023

Rachel Dickson

Rachel Dickson is Dean of Academic Programmes at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Rachel also sits as Chair of UAL’s Japan and south Korea Regional Strategy Group.

With nearly twenty years of experience in higher education, she has a focus on arts education, interdisciplinary working, the student experience and new approaches to learning and teaching that encompass social justice, responses to climate emergency and equality and diversity, and is a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy. She was a member of the review panel for the 2019 QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Art and Design and has contributed to conferences and journals on aspects of Art and Design education. Rachel has contributed to large collaborative research and knowledge exchange projects including the co-funded Creative Europe project ‘Ceramics and Its Dimensions’, a project spanning eleven countries with twenty-five partners which brought museums, universities, and research institutes together to provide an integral view of ceramics past, present and future.

Rachel graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA Ceramics and Glass and is a maker who has exhibited internationally and is a former Director of the Board of CraftNI and judge on Future Lights: European ceramics competition. As a maker, her focus is both personal and political; interested in the role of women, the representation of the female voice, memory, the narrative of objects, sustainability in making, and the space between art and craft. Works include a commission for the Northern Ireland Assembly launched on International Women’s Day, exploring the lack of female representation as Members of the Assembly. ‘At The Table’, a thirty-piece ceramic dinner service visually exploring the data surrounding the lack of women in the role of MLA in the Assembly.

She is an invited course leader for the UNESCO & Women@Dior: Women Leadership & Sustainability Programme 2020, 2021, 2022. Judge of the Global Eco Artisan Awards 2022, the under 30s category for the H100 awards 2019, Design and Crafts Council of Ireland Future Makers Award judge 2020 and was an invited Guest Speaker at Tokyo University of the Arts, 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in conjunction with Cockpit Arts, she initiated and delivered a series of online talks, ‘Is Beauty Enough’, which explored the economic, cultural and global value of making.

Previously on Glasgow Architecture:

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The Glasgow School of Art appoints Penny Macbeth as new Director

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aerial photo courtesy of Police Scotland