Maria Hanson MA
Associate Professor - Jewellery & Metalwork / Course Leader - MA Jewellery & Metalwork
- Department of Art and Design
- Sheffield Creative Industries Institute
- Art Design and Media Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre
- Culture and Creativity Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute
Summary
I am Associate Professor and Course Leader for MA Jewellery & Metalwork. My current role involves supervising post-graduate and PhD students alongside undertaking research and practice. I have worked in higher education since 1993 at several universities across the UK. As a senior researcher I engage in design, making, writing and curating. A key element of creative research explores personal and social rituals through wearable artefacts and domestic objects and the reading of these in the context of contemporary visual culture.
About
I am Associate Professor and after 8 years as programme leader for MA Design became Course Leader for MA Jewellery & Metalwork. I have worked in higher education since 1993 at several universities across the UK and in my current role supervise post-graduate and PhD students alongside undertaking research and practice. I studied at the RCA in London graduating in 1991 with a Master of Arts in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery. I established a creative design studio in London and in 1995 relocated to Sheffield where I currently live and work.
As a senior researcher I engage in design, making, writing and curating. A key element of my creative research explores personal and social rituals through wearable artefacts and domestic objects and the reading of these in the context of contemporary visual culture. Ï㽶ÊÓƵ is primarily practice-led and through the production of artefacts I explore the relationship between jewellery and objects to body, place, context and their meaning. Sensory experience through the interaction of these objects challenges the wearer or users emotive, physical and visual perceptions.
Emotional attachments and the hand-crafted object also relate to material sustainability, consumption, and audience engagement. Recent projects investigate how co-creative Participatory Ï㽶ÊÓƵ (PAR) methods can empower and create meaningful agency. Since 2014 I have worked on projects funded by the EPSRC and AHRC and led a Ï㽶ÊÓƵ England’s Global Challenge Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Funded project. Through 'Create & Connect' in East Africa and 'Making Links' in Indonesia I undertook collaborative research with artisan craft makers, academics and fair-trade organisations to enable social and economic empowerment. Outcomes from these have been disseminated internationally through exhibitions, international trade fairs, conference presentations, journal papers and guest lectures.
I have exhibited nationally and internationally and was in the 2000 shortlist for the Jerwood Applied Arts prize for Jewellery. My wearable artefacts and objects have been purchased for several collections including the Crafts Council, The Goldsmiths’ Company, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The National Museums of Scotland, and the Sheffield Assay Office. In 2019 I was invited to curate the inaugural exhibition for the opening of the BR gallery at the Intangible Cultural Heritage Center for Metalwork in Yunnan, China.
I am passionate about education, widening participation in the creative arts and supporting new designer/ makers and their enterprises. I have done this by contributing to many external organisations during my professional life. I was on the first executive committee for the Association for Contemporary Jewellery (ACJ), was a founding member of Sheffield’s Galvanize Festival, a mentor for the starter studio for Silversmithing & jewellery at Yorkshire Artspace and a Trustee of Museums Sheffield for 7 years. My contribution to the subject discipline has been recognized through the awarding of Freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company, the City of London (2006) and the Company of Cutlers’ in Hallamshire (2007).
Teaching
Department of Art and Design , Sheffield Creative Industries Institute
College of Social Sciences and Arts
What's in my stuff?
Create & Connect
Making Links
Postgraduate - Portfolio 2
Material Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, Theory & Practice
Critical making - Jewellery & Metalwork
MA Project - Jewellery & Metalwork
Ï㽶ÊÓƵ
- Art and Design Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre
- Culture and Creativity Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute
Memory & Meaning
This research sits within narrative jewellery & objects, a well-established and dynamic genre within contemporary applied arts practice. It employs techniques such as association, personal viewing methodologies, and connections between historical references and contemporary language. There is a distinctive interplay between the past and the present which draws upon diverse cultures, traditions, and visual and material vocabularies. References are not simply replicated but are reinterpreted and re-contextualised enabling new discourses to emerge.
Narrative making serves as a vessel for individual stories, emotions, and experiences. These artefacts, embody complex ideas that resonates with both the creator, user and wearer, exploring the objective – subjective dichotomy of the biographer as the researcher. It is a medium through which personal stories are shared, and universal themes are explored, allowing for both personal and collective memory and meaning to be expressed.
Making Links: Craft Value Chain
AHRC
EPSRC
Ï㽶ÊÓƵ England - GCRF
Just Trade Ltd
Publications
Journal articles
Hanson, M., Cave, L., & Zulaikha, E. (2020). . Making Futures, 6.
Levick-Parkin, M., Stirling, E., Hanson, M., & Bateman, R. (2020). . Global Discourse An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs.
Hanson, M., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2016). . Making Futures Journal, 4.
Hanson, M. (2014). Making Futures Journal, 3, 411-421.
Conference papers
Hanson, M., Larasati, V., Zulaikha, E., & Cave, L. (2021). Making Links: Crafting Creativity and Collaboration. In Saad, Q. (Ed.) ‘FUTURING CRAFT’ THE INDIAN OCEAN CRAFT TRIENNIAL IOTA21, Curtin University, Western Australia, 17 September 2021 - 18 September 2021 (pp. 213-226). CURTIN UNIVERSITY, THE SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT:
Levick-Parkin, M., Stirling, E., Hanson, M., & Bateman, R. (2017). . In Making and Unmaking the Environment : Design History Society Annual Conference, University of Oslo, 7 September 2017 - 9 September 2017.
Stirling, E., Hanson, M., Bateman, R., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2017). . In International Visual Methods Conference, Singapore, 16 August 2017 - 18 August 2017.
Atkinson, P., Bateman, R., Gwilt, A., & Hanson, M. (2015). . In The Value of Design Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, 11th International European Academy of Design Conference, Paris, 22 April 2015 - 24 April 2015.
Hanson, M., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2015). . In Discourse, Power and Resistance15 (DPR 15th annual conference), Goldsmiths University of London, 15 April 2015 - 17 April 2015.
Levick-Parkin, M., & Hanson, M. (2015). . In Design Anthropology Seminar 3: Collaborative Formation of Issues, Moesgard Museum Aarhus Denmark, 22 January 2015 - 23 January 2015.
Hanson, M., & Wood, N. (2010). . In Design and Craft : a History of Convergences and Divergences : 7th Conference of the International Committee for Design History and Design Studies, Brussels, Belgium, 20 September 2010 - 22 September 2010.
Hanson, M., & Wood, N. (2010). . In Design and craft: A history of convergences and divergences: 7th Conference of Design History and Design Studies (ICDHS), Brussels, Belgium, 20 September 2010 - 22 September 2010.
Hanson, M. (2010). . In Transmission: HOSPITALITY, Sheffield, UK, 1 July 2010 - 3 July 2010.
Theses / Dissertations
Al-Ismaili, A. (2019). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by O'Dubhghaill, C., Hanson, M., & Green, G.
Internet Publications
Hanson, M., Larasati, V., Zulaikha, E., & Cave, L. (2021). Making Links: Crafting Creativity and Collaboration. [Video].
Artefacts
Hanson, M., & Knight, C. (2022). Sculptural mirror: "Here I am". [Silver and cast iron].
Hanson, M., Cave, L., & Zulaikha, E. (2019). . [Jewellery].
Bateman, R., & Hanson, M. (2015). .
Hanson, M. (2014). . [Artefact].
Bateman, R., & Hanson, M. (n.d.). .
Exhibitions
Hanson, M., & Knight, C. (2007). . [Printout of images]. Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Notts.
Hanson, M. (2005). . [Catalogue and portfolio of images]. Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso, Texas.
Hanson, M. (2002). . [Printout of images]. Museum of Silversmithing, Chateau de Seneffe, Belgium.
Hanson, M. (2002). . [Printout of images]. Metallum Galleri, Stockholm, Sweden.
Hanson, M. (2011). . [Exhibition and Catalogue]. SIA Gallery, Sheffield, UK & Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Hanson, M. (2012). . [Artefacts]. Sheffield, Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow.
Hanson, M. (2012). . [Artefacts]. Sheffield, Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow.
Bateman, R., & Hanson, M. (2015). . Paris.
Bateman, R., Hanson, M., George, L., & Waterhouse, S. (2015). . Nottingham Trent University.
Hanson, M. (2015). . [Exhibition]. School of Jewellery, Birmingham and Studio Gabi Green, Munich.
Hanson, M. (2015). . [Exhibition]. Nottingham Trent University.
Hanson, M. (2019). . [Jewellery and Objects]. BR Gallery, Yunnan province, China.
Hanson, M. (2019). . [Jewellery and Objects]. BR Gallery, Yunnan province, China.
Presentations
Hanson, M., Cave, L., & Zulaikha, E. (2019). . Presented at: Making Futures VI – People, Place, Meaning: Crafting Social Worlds and Social Making, Plymouth, 2019
Hanson, M. (2016). . Presented at: Across Continents: adventures in and beyond contemporary jewellery, Birmingham, 2016
Hanson, M., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2014). . Presented at: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2014, RGS, London, 2014
Other activities
1991 - Present Artist / Maker: Jewellery & Objects
2012 – 2019 Trustee: Museums Sheffield
2006 – 2015 Committee Member: Galvanize Metalwork Festival, Sheffield
2007 - Present. Freeman of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire
2006 - Present Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company & City of London
2001 - 2014 Mentor - Yorkshire Artspace
1997 – 2001 Executive committee: Association for Contemporary Jewellery (ACJ)
Postgraduate supervision
I am interested in supervising PhD students who's topics align with current research interests.
Director of Study Amal Al-Ismaili: Interpreting the Traditional Jewellery of Bedouin in Oman through Contemporary Jewellery Practice (Completed 2020) Imogen Cheng: Durable Relationship: Revealing the hidden values of kept objects through Contemporary Jewellery (In progress)"