Meet the MIMA Academics

The Creative Fuse Tees Valley project consists of several research-based work packages involving academics from MIMA School of Art and Design. Find out who’s who…

Sharon Paterson

Associate Dean, MIMA School of Art and Design at Teesside University and Associate Director at MIMA.

Sharon serves as a member of a number of cultural sector boards including the North East Cultural Partnership (NECP) Board where she works as member of the NECP Case for Culture Steering Group, acting as Chair for the Talent and Progression Working Group. Sharon is also Chair of the Creative Darlington Board, a member of Middlesbrough Culture Partnership, Chair of Board of Trustees for Theatre Hullabaloo, a national sector lead in theatre for young audiences and  Chair of Dance City, the regional dance development organisation for the North East of England.

Sharon leads the Creative Fuse North East Project for Teesside University and is currently working as part of the Tees Valley Combined Authority Culture and Visitor Economy Task Force which has been established to support the sector through the pandemic.

Sharon has worked at Teesside University since 2008, prior to taking up this post she was Head of Performing Arts at Northumbria University managing a portfolio of programmes at Undergraduate and Post Graduate level in Drama, Performance, Dance and Music.

Sharon has a background in professional theatre where she worked as an actor, facilitator and theatre designer, working with companies including Live Theatre Company, The Tricycle Theatre, Oily Cart, The Unicorn Children’s Theatre, Northumberland Theatre Company, Pentabus and Tyne Wear Theatre in Education Company. She has acted in an advisory capacity for a number of professional companies including Northern Stage, Theatre Cap A Pie, Open Clasp, The Maltings Berwick, and South Hill Park Arts Centre.

sharon paterson

Paul Alexander Stewart

Lecturer in Fine Art at Teesside University

Dr Paul Stewart is an artist and researcher based In Newcastle, who makes curatorial and installation performative works through text, sound and video. He teaches Fine Art at Teesside University. Completed a PhD in Art and Philosophy (2018) Teesside University; MA in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths College; BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art from Lincoln University (2011).

Core elements in his practice and research include the effects of neoliberalism on Higher Education structures and Critical Pedagogy as a methodology in art making alongside research into digital communities in art making and the effects of digital making on curation and collection processes.

Recent Publications include Co-Editor with Dorothee Richter for Issue 45 On-Curating titled: Curating the Digital (2020), Chapter, ‘Knowledge Exchange and Knowing: Art and the digital’ written with Dawn Bothwell in Knowledge Socialism, Springer (2020) and a new book called Art, Critical Pedagogy and Capitalism, Routledge, 2020.

Creative Fuse interests include: Post-digital Practice, Digital Communities, Knowledge Socialism and Co-creation and Networks.

Sarah Perks

Professor, MIMA

Sarah Perks is an interdisciplinary curator, academic, consultant and writer. She is Professor of MIMA School of Art & Design and Head of Art & Design at Teesside University, England. One of Creative Review’s 50 Creative Leaders in 2017, Sarah has led major participation, performance and curatorial projects with international artists including Rosa Barba, Phil Collins, David Lynch, Rachel Maclean, Noorafshan Mirza & Brad Butler and Qasim Riza Shaheen.

Sarah has published over twenty essays and books across critical and creative writing, most recently Artists Moving Image in Britain Since 1989 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art & Yale University Press, 2019). Sarah is also senior researcher and co-curator of Asia Triennial Manchester (ATM) and last year established the first online school of art for a mental health care and social organisation, Turning Point School of Art. Sarah is also chair of Islington Mill Foundation (Salford), a trustee of Alchemy Film & Arts (Hawick, Scotland), editor of the Engage Journal (the international journal of visual art and gallery education), business advisor for Prosper North and Programme Advisor (Artist Moving Image) for the BFI London Film Festival.

Creative Fuse interests include: Curating, Contemporary Art, Creative Strategy, Interdisciplinary Practice and Restorative Futures.