SHIFT: Jenny Eden

Drawing on her experience as a lecturer and an artist, Jenny Eden offers practical approaches to supporting the development of ideas through the process of making, both in art education and one's own artistic practice.

Centring the importance of making and experimentation, Jenny advocates for a robust yet flexible relationship to ideas, philosophies and theories. She provides advice to teachers on supporting students to focus on material exploration and skill development, rather than adhering to the pressure of needing an ‘idea’ or ‘concept’ first.

Instead of overdetermining the direction of one’s practice, Jenny calls for philosophical concepts to be ‘present in the activity of making’, which ‘move into’ the practice as needed.

Jenny Eden is a painter, writer and lecturer based in Manchester. Jenny lectures in the BA and MA Painting programmes at Manchester School of Art. She also co-runs Oceans Apart, a gallery in Salford dedicated to contemporary painting, and she exhibits her own work nationally and internationally.

This film is part of SHIFT, Freelands Foundation’s seasonal series of short films spotlighting varied practices, approaches and philosophies within art education. 

All audiovisual material and research is courtesy of the artist.

Captions and editing by Sixbetween.