Printmaker, poet, author, artist, theatre director, occasional musician, lecturer and cultural provocateur. Co–author, with Sue Gill, of the Dead Good Guides.
1938 Born Hull. National Service West Africa, Hons Degrees in PPE at Oxford and Fine Art in Newcastle. After lecturing in art colleges:
1968 co- founded Welfare State International . Artistic Director.1968-2006
1991/ 1998 Northern Electric Awards for Outstanding Achievement
1998 Large woodcut triptych, for English Estates : permanent mural in The Trinity Enterprise Centre Barrow in Furness
2002 "Eyes on Stalks "autobiog.Methuen
2006 April Fools Day. Archived Welfare State International
Arts '06 Arts Council of England Life Times achievement Award.
"An immense influence on three generations of artists, teachers and administrators, both in this country and throughout the world."
ACE Artist/Time/Space Award for cross disciplinary project "Pick Up Sticks"
“Graphics and Gifts". Retrospective exhib. of woodcuts for Mid Pennine Arts.
2009 Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts LIPA
2009 Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
2008 -11 Senior Research Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts. Arts and Humanities Research Council ( AHRC) at the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Art (LICA) at Lancaster University. An exploration of ecology, place and performance on the shoreline of Morecambe Bay.
Hon Fellow of Universities of Cumbria and Central Lancashire.
2012 June MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours.
This is an acknowledgement of the unstinting contribution you have made as an inventor of forms of creative participation and celebration. As a leading exponent of celebratory arts in the UK you have inspired and trained hundreds of community leaders across the UK. I am delighted that your work has been recognised in this way.
Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP. Sec of State. Department for Culture Media and Sport.