London, United Kingdom
Liz Atkin
Age Group
A Level
Infants
Primary
Secondary
Categories
Drawing
Bio
Liz Atkin is an artist and educator. She reimagines her Compulsive Skin Picking and anxiety into drawings, photographs and performances. Liz is a mental health advocate and raises awareness for the disorder around the world. She has exhibited and taught in the UK, Europe, Australia, USA, Singapore and Japan. Her work is permanently held in the Wellcome Collection, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, Derby Museum, and Bethlem Gallery Collection supported by the Peter Sowerby Foundation and National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, she gave away more than 18,000 free #CompulsiveCharcoal newspaper drawings to commuters on public transport in London, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Cologne and more.
Liz teaches art in schools, hospitals, hospices, prisons, arts venues and universities. She is an ambassador for The Big Draw, the world’s largest drawing festival, focusing on the role of creativity for health and wellbeing.
Liz received the Unstoppable Spirit Award for Outspoken Advocacy at the TLC Global Conference for Skin Picking and Hair Pulling Disorders in San Francisco in 2018, and was a finalist in the Janey Antoniou Award with Rethink Mental Illness in 2018. Her work has featured on TEDx, BBC News, Woman’s Hour, Vice, Women’s Health USA, Huffington Post, Channel News Asia, Metro, AlJazeera and more.
Experience in Schools
Schools, children and young people Whitstable Family Beach Drawing Workshops for +4 years and above and their parents 2023, 2024 and 2025 Oaks Infants Primary School, Sittingbourne Kent Visiting artist charcoal workshops for 90 KS1 year 2 children, 2023, 2024, 2025 In Place of War: 100 Creative Agents of Climate Change Lead artist, online wellbeing and drawing session for young people aged 17-24, 2022 and 2024 London Bubble Theatre Company Speech Bubbles practitioner: drama programme for KS1 children with speech & language problems 2017 - 2023 Hayward Gallery and Southbank Centre Creative Learning Lead Artist: Online workshops for primary school children, curation of child-led ideas exploring 2021 exhibitions of Matthew Barney and Igshaan Adams. Generating curriculum linked resources for classroom-based primary school groups (KS1-KS2) and Hayward at Home My own art classes for children Online Children’s art classes for 7-12 year olds launched in 2020 - 2023 V22 Louise House, Forest Hill In person Children’s Art Classes 4–12 year olds, 2016 – 2021 Windmill Cluster Schools, Brixton London Lead Artist: CPD Cluster Inset ‘Art for Wellbeing’ for 40 Primary and Secondary School Practitioners, Jan 2020 Lead Artist / Consultant on Paul Hamlyn funded Teacher Development Fund: Confident Creators 2018 - 2020 Lead Artist: Twilight Art Toolkit sessions, CPD for staff across 20 Primary Schools 2018 - 2020 Lead Artist: CPD ‘Messy Play’ for nursery and reception practitioners 2019 - 2020 Lead Artist: CPD Cluster Inset ‘Teaching Art to Children’ session for 40 Primary School practitioners 2018 & 2019 Barking and Dagenham Council Childcare Service, Education, Youth and Childcare Alibon Children’s Centre Annexe Lead Artist: CPD training sessions in Messy Play and Art for Early Years 2018-2020 Stratford Circus Associate Artist in Residence (Funded by BBC Children in Need) Messy Play for Early Years in Children’s Centres in Barking and Dagenham (Sue Bramley Children’s Centre and Mark’s Gate Children, and Monthly Pop-up community events for 140 toddlers and parents) 2017-19 Hoxton Hall Lead Artist: Summer School 3D Art / Construction for 8 – 19 year olds 2016 & 2017 Lead Artist: Half Term 3D Design Dance / Drama / Art project for 8 – 19 year olds 2016 Lead Artist: Easter Project for 8 - 19 year olds for Roald Dahl’s The Twits and James and the Giant Peach Lead Artist: 3D Design for Youth Classes (8 – 16 years) April 2016 Arts Depot, Finchley Lead Artist: Weekly Children's Art Classes for 5 - 7 year & 8 - 12 year olds 2015 - 17 Lead Artist: Weekly Messy Play, Early Years from 18 months – 4 year olds 2015 - 17 Lead Artist: ‘Fun Palaces’ Art and Science for children 2015 & 2016 Lead Artist: Older People’s Art group, 2016 Lead Artist: Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice – Art for children with complex needs & their families 2015 Half Moon Theatre Lead Artist for 1 day CPD Movement & Messy Play for Primary School Practitioners 2016 - 2022 Lead Artist: Speech Bubbles, Drama for children with speech & language problems 2015 - 2022 Lead Artist: Messy Play for Toddlers 2016, 2017, 2018 Lead Artist: Set Design Commission for 40th Anniversary Performances at Half Moon June 2016 Lead Artist: Art Sessions for disabled teenagers from Richard House Children’s Hospice 2015 - 16 Lead Artist: Set Design for Half Moon Transitions 5 day Summer School, Bishop Challenor School 2015, 2016 Lead Artist: Richard House Children’s Hospice Creative Family Days with parents, carers and siblings 2015 Lead Artist Richard House Hospice 1-2-1 Residential Sensory sessions with children 2015 - 20 Lead Artist for Early Years and Youth Summer Schools in Drama / Art 2014-5 Access Worker: Solar, inclusive drama group for disabled teenagers 2015 Access Worker: 1-2-1 support for a young person with autism 2015 Assistant Director: ‘Drama in the Mix’ Radio Project, 7 East London schools, at Rich Mix 2015 Support Artist: Creative workshop with mothers from Richard House Children’s Hospice 2015 Emergency Exit Arts Lead Artist: Messy Art and Science experiments for young people, ‘Fun Palaces’ 2016 Blue Elephant Theatre Lead Artist exploring Mental Health & Well-Being across 3 Southwark Schools 2015Areas I Cover
London
South East
South East
Max Group Size
35 students