Jane Watts

Jane is an interdisciplinary practitioner, and began her career in textile design. She has since worked as National Craft Advisor for the Women’s Institute in the charity sector, and has 20 years’ experience of teaching in higher education across a range of creative programmes. Alongside running the BA Art Business programme, Jane is also passionate about drawing and making, facilitating interdisciplinary approaches to creative practice and broadening our perceptions of what ‘practice’ might mean, and how ethical and inclusive work can benefit individuals, communities and the planet.

Jane’s postgraduate research was the inspiration for this new and innovative programme, and seeks to explore how the making community has responded to shifts in the nature of production, distribution and consumption.

Previous research discussions have focused on the exploration of the terms professional and amateur as labels for creative practice, and whether tensions may manifest between the two. Jane is interested in how changes in the concept of labour and leisure, a democratisation of making technology and an increasingly networked society, have dramatically changed the commercial landscape for practitioners, audiences and policy makers.