Caitlin Akers

Lecturer
Foundation

Caitlin Akers is a visual artist and a lecturer on the UAL Art Foundation course at Manchester School of Art.

Research and Practice

Caitlin works with artist’ books, printmaking and installation to explore domestic histories, poetry and language. Her artistic research by practice often involves workshops in hand made processes, inviting participants to learn new skills together to foster community, agency and conversation through making.

In 2023 Caitlin published Twisting Heads a limited-edition artist book commissioned by Od Arts Festival in Somerset. The book was designed, printed and bound by the artist and was intended to be a ‘slow guide’ for visitors to Dawe’s Twineworks, the UK’s only surviving Victorian twineworks in West Coker, Yeovil, Somerset. The festival also commissioned a series of special bookbinding workshops in which Caitlin worked with local schools to create books made from the original Victorian twine from Dawes.

In 2022 Caitlin was commissioned by contemporary arts festival B.Side, in Dorset to transform an empty shop space into the ‘Portland Print Workshop’ a radical, pop up, print workshop on the Island of Portland. Over the course of the festival Caitlin ran workshops for festival goers, local groups and charities, drop-in workshops for families and an evening zine making workshop. The workshops focused on the festival theme of ‘This Land’ looking at land rights, environmental issues in Dorset and Portland’s unique history.

In 2018 Caitlin received funding from the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) to travel to Nijmegen, Netherlands for a knowledge exchange programme on Risograph printing with Knust Press. In 2017 Caitlin received an Academic Fellowship award for an artist residency at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy where she created a body of work using traditional printmaking techniques.

Caitlin is a studio holder at The Birley artist studios in Preston, Lancashire and she is a founding member of artist collective and international residency programme Edition Residencies.

Education and Teaching

Caitlin graduated from Manchester School of Art's BA (Hons) Photography course in 2010. After graduating she went on to become a technician running the Bookbinding and Letterpress workshops at Manchester School of Art.

In 2018 she gained a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts: Book Arts at Camberwell College of Arts and a PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PGCTLHE) at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Caitlin joined the UAL Art Foundation teaching team at Manchester School of Art in September 2023.