Northern Print Symposium.Northern Print Biennale convened a Symposium in September 2009 in conclusion to their extremely successful exhibition.

Keynote Panel Presentation. Paper title: "Teaching Through Practice". The paper is a discussion of the role of practitioner as teacher, with emphasis on personal signature practice and research in the context of the symposia key issues- how and why artists make prints, collecting prints, dissemination of prints.This one day symposium focused on a number of discussions by groups of professionals involved in aspects of contemporary printmaking. the Symposia was chaired by Godfrey Worsdale, Director of Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and brought together 9 speakers from throughout the UK and beyond whose involvement in print encompasses artist, printer, dealer and collector. The day took the form of three panel presentations, of which I led one, with time for questions and debate. Godfrey perfectly summed up how intriguing these interdependent relationships are:‘Since writing about it as an undergraduate in the 1980s, I have continued to be fascinated by the dynamic between artist, print workshop, dealer and collector. No other part of the art making process brings together issues of authorship and authenticity, or democratisation and commercialisation in quite the same way. Having spent four years working closely with the national collection of prints, these contradictory issues are seen to endure, and provide a very particular angle on the way in which art can be brought into being, considered and then consumed.’The symposium was aimed at professionals involved in print including: artists, curators and arts professionals; collectors.These discussions highlighted the work of printmakers/ artists working with editioning studios and open access workshops, the role of publishers and the building of collections centred on contemporary printmaking.