On the eve of an eventful year in both education and wider afield, NSEAD has much to reflect on and much to be thankful for
In this year we celebrated NSEAD's 130 birthday. It has been an opportunity to reflect on our history, a history which can be traced back to 1888, to Henry Moore and Sir Herbert Read and to the royal patronage of King Edward VII.
Today, we remain the only UK-based subject association for art, craft and design and the only union specifically supporting and serving specialist art and design teachers. We represent thousands of members and supporters, with individual teachers, lecturers, schools and universities, galleries, museums and charities involved in our work.
This year we saw the publication of NSEAD advocacy resources, all made by members for members. We've researched the gender divide in our subject, persuaded the DfE to u-turn on the representation of our subject in initial teacher education, organised CPD and supported one-off events such the artist teacher symposium in Oxford. We've met with Ofsted, briefed ministers in both Houses and accepted an invite to work with the DfE to better define our subject.
We also successfully appointed Michele Gregson FRSA as our new General Secretary, and as of 1 January 2019 Michele will take up this role. On behalf of all our members we are privileged to welcome Michele on this post. With a background in teaching, in local authority advisory services and working for Arts Council England too, in Michele we have a highly experienced, and long-standing NSEAD member, leading us.
We also say thank you to Dr Peter Gregory who becomes Immediate Past President. We cannot be more grateful to Peter for representing NSEAD at numerous events and for steering the rigorous general secretary appointment system. We are also highly grateful to Dr Rachel Payne, for her work in this arena. Rachel becomes President of NSEAD 1 January 2019. In the next issue of AD magazine both Michele and Rachel will share their reflections and ambitions for the Society. We are very fortunate to have such strong wide-ranging expertise leading NSEAD.
Finally, we bid farewell to Lesley Butterworth, whose belief in our subject and our teachers led to a total of 17 years active NSEAD service. As general secretary, Lesley navigated the Society through unprecedented political changes and policies in education which impacted directly on art, craft and design education. She highlighted again and again the need for individuals and organisations to be part of a network which could autonomously champion and represent our subject locally, nationally and beyond. Lesley was the first female general secretary in the Society's history. On behalf of all our members we thank Lesley for her dedication, expertise and leadership and wish her well with all her future endeavours.
As we bid farewell to 2018, to Lesley and our birthday year, we will begin a new year knowing that there is much work to do and much to achieve. With our members, many new to the profession, many building their careers, we can remain autonomous and focussed on subject representation, championing and supporting art, craft and design education across all phases and all sectors. With 2019 in sight, we thank our members and partner organisations for their continued support and steering of our work, and wish you all a creative, art, craft and design filled 2019.
