Bio

Amy Ash (she/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist engaged with collective care through processes of shared meaning-making. Working through a range of processes and media, her practice traces connectivity through the intersections and overlaps between memory, learning, and wonder, to incite curiosity, and kindle empathy. Often working collaboratively, their work gently and playfully disrupts the hegemonic systems that support hierarchy and inequality. The spark of emergent creativity becomes a methodology of care, as projects carve out space for a chorus of personal meaning to be created within the context of a shared experience. Amy has exhibited internationally, with projects commissioned by the National Gallery London (UK), the NB International Sculpture Symposium, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

Residency Project

I love developing projects that nurture shared learning, nuanced and layered, where everyone is both a teacher and a learner. Projects that are interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary are of a particular interest to me, and I enjoy working with groups who value experiential learning, differentiation, playful process and emergent creativity. In an ideal situation, learning is layered so that students have the opportunity to build technical skills and make cross-curricular connections, while learning more about themselves and their community. I work across a wide range of media, from textiles, to photography, collage, sculpture, illustration and installation, with a consistent focus on process (the journey) rather than on product (the final destination).

I am open to all kinds of projects, and love the process of collaborative curriculum development. Past collaborations with schools have linked concepts of geometry with identity, social responsibility and belonging, while others have considered generational identity and memory through the poetics of changing landscapes, tides and erosion. In each case, the project was tailored specifically to the needs of the school, and this is how I prefer to work with schools—collaboratively and creatively. Currently, I'm especially interested in pursuing projects that foster safe spaces within schools. Please reach out and we can come up with an engaging interdisciplinary project together.

Teaching Experience

I am a qualified teacher (BEd UNBF, 2010) and have taught in the school system from K-12 in Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. I also have a specialized interest in interdisciplinary and experiential curriculum development, and have fulfilled Learning Curator roles managing gallery and arts education programs in London, UK, as well as in New Brunswick. I am an instructor at the New Brunswick College of Art and Design, and I’ve completed several collaborations with schools and organizations across the province and beyond.