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About

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Exhibitions

  • Northern Open, Touring Exhibition
  • Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
  • Calouste Gulbenkian Gallery
  • Cahill and Grebler Gallery, London
  • Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
  • Cahill and Grebler Gallery, London
  • Carneavan Hall, Gateshead, Women�s Festival
  • Polytechnic Gallery, Cardiff College of Art
  • Contemporary International Art Group, London
  • International Contemporary Art Fair, Olympia
  • Bishopsgate Institute, London
  • The Design Centre, Felling
  • "A New Necessity" Tyne International Festival, Gateshead
  • Bergens Kunstforening, Norway
  • DLI Museum, Durham
  • Collingwood Gallery, Durham University
  • Bondgate Gallery, Alnwick
  • Central House of the Artists, Moscow
  • Tampere Art Museum, Finland
  • Tullie House Museum, Carlisle
  • The Academy of Art, Riga, Latvia
  • Clayton Gallery, Newcastle
  • Hatton Gallery, Newcastle
  • Hunt Jennings Gallery, London
  • Contemporary Prints, Hatton Gallery (R.B. Burt print award)
  • Pitt Rivers Museum., Oxford
  • Berwick Museum
  • Northern Centre for Design
  • Middlesbrough Art Gallery Open 95 Prizewinner
  • Docklands Gallery, London
  • Joensu, Finland
  • Hatton Gallery, Newcastle touring to Atlanta USA
  • Manchester Museum
  • Art Centre, Newcastle
  • Lahore, Pakistan
  • �Beauty, University of Northumbria
  • Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Australia
  • Pewith Region Gallery and Lewes Bequest, NSW, Australia
  • International Centre for Life, Newcastle
  • VANE 1999
  • I Space Gallery, Chicago, USA
  • Waygood Gallery
  • Budapaest University
  • Red Box Gallery Newcastle
  • Customs House Gallery , South Shields
  • Corn Exchange Edinburgh
  • Northumbria Univ. Gallery
  • British School at Rome
  • Academia Romania Spazi Aperti
  • Red Box Gallery Newcastle
  • Northumbria Gallery Newcastle
  • Corn Exchange Edinburgh
  • APT Gallery London
  • Waygood Boutique
  • Corn Exchange Edinburgh

Collections

  • Darlington Memorial Hospital
  • Art for Offices
  • Northern Arts
  • Laing Art Gallery
  • University of Northumbria
  • Blyth Library, permanent commission
  • Northern Rock Building Society
  • Arts Council of Gt Britain
  • Mappin Art Gallery
  • RVI Newcastle Upon Tyne
  • Open University

Awards and Commissions

  • Northern Arts Purchase Award 1984
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  • Northern Arts Purchase Award 1985
  • Printmaking Bursary Arts Council 1987
  • Tyne International Installation of Flags, “Whistling Women” 1990
  • Blyth Library Commission for permanent installation 1992
  • Northern Arts Travel Award to India 1992
  • R.B. Burt Print Award 1994
  • Middlesbrough Open Prizewinner1995
  • Flag for British Rail 1996
  • Arts Council Award for a Catalogue 2004
  • Rootstein Hopkins Sabbatical Award 2006
  • British Academy School of Rome Abbey Fellowship Award 2007 aaaaa
  • Publications and Conference Contributions
  • Using the Gallery as A Resource for Teaching BALTIC 2003
  • Otherworlds Publication Video BALTIC 2004
  • Otherworlds Conference BALTIC 2004
  • NSEAD Conference Tate Modern 2005
  • Carol Rama Conference BALTIC 2005

Catalogues:

  • SHIP 2001 Year of the artist Residency
  • Helen Baker Exhibition 2004 ACE funded
  • ‘Colour’ Helen Baker pub. Corn Exchange Gallery 2006
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Biography

Biography

Helen Baker
also sometimes known as Helen Baker-Alder

Education

Heaton High school, Newcastle Polytechnic 68-71 (Fine Art Painting BA Hons), Newcastle University PGCE 1979, Northumbria University (MA Fine Art) 1985.


Initially Helen worked in a figurative style and was known for works that addressed gender politics (aka Helen Woodhouse and Helen Baker Woodhouse ). Since 1996 she has developed a series of works that are abstract and minimal. There is an interest in the idea of production as a system of values that link the moral, aesthetic and social. She has also worked within the medium of video. All her work has a social content that is presented through formal means her publication ‘Colour’ (2006 pub. Corn Exchange Gallery Edinburgh) demonstrates her ideas.

Helen exhibits work regularly. She was awarded the Rootstein Hopkins Sabbatical Award for Painting 2006 and in 2007 was awarded, British Academy Abbey Fellowship with a three month Painting Residency at the British School at Rome.
The work from this residency can be viewed at Red Box Gallery Newcastle upon Tyne in September 2008 and APT Gallery London November 2008.

Helen was Head of Fine Art at Northumbria between 1994 and 2006 and has now taken the position of Gallery Director for Gallery North with a brand new Gallery build opening at the School of Arts and Social Sciences in Spring 2009.

A studio holder at Waygood Studios and a member of the Waygood Board, Helen has written a strategy for artist led education at Waygood ‘Pink and Formless’2007. Research is continuing and a publication is being prepared for 2010 which will document the model being co- developed by a unique collaboration of the Waygood artists , led by artists including Helen Smith, Judy Thomas, Topsy Qu'rtet and Paul Mulvihill.
Helen is on the Programme Group and the Studio Holders Group of the Board.

She has delivered papers at conference for both the ATS ‘When Artists Teach’ and NAFAE relating to art education. She is presently Secretary of the National Assoc. for Fine Art Education (NAFAE) and organised the BALTIC Conference ‘Using the Gallery as A Resource for Teaching’ 2003 and NAFAE AGM and Annual Conference in Association with Paradox.

Helen has contributed to conferences and talks at BALTIC (Carol Rama and ‘Otherworlds’.) and interviewed for the video publication for ‘Otherworlds’.
Helen was offered the position of Trustee on the Board in 2008 at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and is on the Programme Group and the Audit Group since June 2008.

Helen is currently Principal Lecturer in Fine Art with special responsibility for Painting. She leads the MA Fine Art & Education part-time Programme at Northumbria in Collaboration with Baltic Education team and has been a member of the Artist Teacher Scheme (ATS) Steering Group since 2005, supported by NSEAD and ACE. She is first supervisor for two PhD studentships researching radical approaches to Gallery Education. Helen is currently external examiner for Chelsea School of Art at the Univ. for the Arts London and MA Fine Art & Ed Goldsmiths College London.

Helen has lived and for most of her life in the North of England.
Helen has three children (two artists and one chef) and four grandchildren.
Her husband, John Alder is a Composer of music and creates video for theatre. top

 

Bibligraphy
coming soon