Sean Kaye

About

Sean Kaye is Joint Programme Leader for Contemporary Art Programme at British Higher School of Art & Design. Until September 2024 he was Director of Research and International Collaborations at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow. Until April 2023 he was Programme Leader for Foundation Art & Design at BHSAD, prior to this he worked for many years as Programme Leader for Foundation Art & Design at Leeds College of Art. He has taught at a range of art schools and universities including the Royal College of Art, the University of Edinburgh, Glasgow School of Art, University of Leeds, Central St Martins College of Art & Design, Liverpool John Moores University and Manchester School of Art. He studied on the Foundation Course at Cumbria College of Art & Design, then at St Martins School of Art (BA) and University of Central Lancashire (MA).

He is the co-director of the exhibitions programme blip blip blip. He recently co-curated the exhibition cycle Fully Awake for the organisation Teaching Painting. In 2021 he helped establish the International Network of Foundation Educators (INFE) of which he is a member of the current steering group. He is a member of the collaborative art practices: Doug Bowen and Sean Kaye, Leeds United and Sean Kaye and Jenny West and as part of these practices he has exhibited at venues including Camden Arts Centre, Tate Liverpool and ICA.

Sean Kaye’s research is centred around identifying and developing traditional and non-traditional modes of pedagogy that can enable students to develop independence and a degree of autonomy in relation to the art world. The focus is on exploring and developing active models of pedagogy that involve students in building bodies of knowledge alongside staff and other students. This research has been pursued through his involvement with blip blip blip, INFE and Teaching Painting.

Projects

blip blip blip

A curatorial programme which is committed to examining and fostering relationships between contemporary art practice and art education.

The Gallery in the Expanded Field

The Gallery in the Expanded Field is a series of exhibitions that explore the possibilities of what could constitute an art gallery through presenting the programmes of a series of interesting 'galleries' some of which have now ceased to exist and some of which are still functioning.

Fully Awake

Fully Awake was a six part exhibition cycle and research project that set out to examine the practices and teaching of painting from an inter-generational perspective.

Research Outputs

Body & Space
29.11.2023 – 15.12.2023
Curated by Doug Bowen, Sean Kaye & Fedor Toschev
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition

Art & Language
10.10.2023
Gestures and Languages: Innovative Approaches to Artistic Thinking and Pedagogy Symposium
UniArts, Helsinki
Conference Paper

The Gallery in the Expanded Field
08.09.2023
Gathering Ourselves, GLAD Conference
CSM, London
Conference Paper

The Gallery in the Expanded Field II
14.06.2023 – 06.07.2023
Curated by Doug Bowen & Sean Kaye
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition

Visual Artist’s Workbook, essays and exercises on teaching art
2022
edited by Pilvi Porkola and Denise Ziegler,
The Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts, Helsinki (ISBN 978-952-353-434-6)
Chapter in Book

Cover Version
03.02.2022 – 08.04.2022
https://blipblipblip.co/cover-version
Curated by Doug Bowen & Sean Kaye
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition

INFE (International Network of Foundation Educators) Past, Present and Future : Collective Imaginings
03.12.2021
Online and live at FutureLab, Shanghai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTCFvLmjDr0
Invited Speaker

Fully Awake 04 Levels and Layers
10.11.2021
https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/event/talk-fully-awake-04-levels-and-layers
Henry Ward in Conversation with Rebecca Fortnum, Atsuhide Ito, Tim Johnson and Sean Kaye,
Freelands Foundation
Invited Speaker

Fully Awake 6.6
05.11.2021 – 17.12.2021
Curated by Ian Hartshorne & Sean Kaye
Holden Gallery, Manchester
Exhibition
Balancing Act
26.05.2021
https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/event/sean-kaye-balancing-acts-between-abstraction-and-figuration
Painters Talking Painting 7
Freelands Foundation
Invited Speaker

The Gallery in the Expanded Field I
25.05.2021 – 25.06.2021
https://blipblipblip.co/the-gallery-in-the-expanded-field
Curated by Doug Bowen & Sean Kaye
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition

INFE (International Network of Foundation Educators) A Celebration : Foundation Projects
22.06.2021
Online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjFumuyHeNg
Invited Speaker

Contemporary art, talent and the art school curriculum 31.03. 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tYv47xuEuA&t=7s Magnus Quaife in conversion with Annie Davey, Sean Kaye, Misha Levin, Harry Meadley, and John Seth. blip blip blip, Moscow Invited Speaker

Foundations: 100 years after VKhUTEMAS 10.11.2020 – 26.02.2021 https://blipblipblip.co/foundations Curated by Doug Bowen, Sean Kaye & Mikhail Levin blip blip blip, Moscow Exhibition

The VKhUTEMAS Legacy: British Foundation courses and their link to educational avant-garde practices of the first part of the 20th century 05.12.2020 https://blipblipblip.co/the-gallery-in-the-expanded-field Misha Levin in conversion with Sean Kaye, Geoff Teasdale, Doug Bowen, Daria Sorokina, Alyona Sokolnikova & Ksenia Efimova. blip blip blip, Moscow Invited Speaker

Transmitter 05.12.2020 – 13.05.2020 Curated by Sean Kaye and Magnus Quaife FutureLab, West Bund Arts Centre, Shanghai Exhibition

Moscow Calling 2 05.12.2020 – 13.05.2020 Curated by Sean Kaye and Magnus Quaife FutureLab, West Bund Arts Centre, Shanghai Exhibition

Fully Awake 02 Going Going Gone 02.12.2020 https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/event/talk-fully-awake-02-going-going-gone Sean Kaye in Conversation with Matthew Cornford, Natasha Kidd, Zoe Mendelson and Kathleen Mullaniff Freelands Foundation Invited Speaker

Fully Awake 09.07.2020 https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/event/talk-fully-awake-henry-ward-in-conversation-with-ian-hartshorne-and-sean-kaye Henry Ward in Conversation with Ian Hartshorne and Sean Kaye Freelands Foundation Invited Speaker Fully Awake: Painting Now 26.02.2020 Ian Hartshorne and Sean Kaye University of Hertfordshire Contemporary Art Practice Research Group Invited Speaker

Fully Awake 5.6 06.09.2019 – 03.11.2019 Curated by Ian Hartshorne & Sean Kaye Freelands Foundation, London Exhibition

Fully Awake 4.6 25.07.2019 – 25.08.2019 Curated by Ian Hartshorne & Sean Kaye ECA, Edinburgh Exhibition

Moscow Calling 03.05.2019 – 09.05.2019 Curated by Ian Hartshorne and Sean Kaye PS Mirabel, Manchester Exhibition

Distant Constellations 2019 Leeds United Castlefield Gallery (ISBN: 978-0-9559557-8-5) Includes an afterword by Tim Brennan Publication

Fully Awake 3.6 03/09/2018 – 14/09/2018 Curated by Ian Hartshorne & Sean Kaye RCA, London Exhibition

Fully Awake 2.6 02/11/2017 – 18/11/2017 Curated by Ian Hartshorne & Sean Kaye House for an Art Lover, Glasgow Exhibition

Fully Awake 1.6 06/04/2017 – 21/04/2017 Curated by Ian Hartshorne & Sean Kaye blip blip blip, Leeds Exhibition

Teaching Painting: How Can Painting be Taught in Art Schools? 2017 edited by Ian Hartshorne, Donal Moloney and Magnus Quaife Black Dog Publishing (ISBN978-1-911164-10-4) Chapter in Book