Born in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil and currently based in Margate, Arnold Borgerth is an artist working simultaneously in three different areas within the photographic field since 1980.

As an artist, he has his work widely exhibited in South America and the UK.

As an academic, he has taught in various institutions across South America and Europe and teaches a photography MA Degree at Goldsmiths in London.
Arnold also works as a freelance for the Fine Arts and Design sectors.

Carmen Fernandez Agüera is starting her journey and developing her skills in upcycling furniture.

David Babaian spends most of his time in the darkroom developing and printing from negatives. David is a photographer and documents the community and the changes over the years through a strong emphasis on storytelling and modern interpretations of the sociological relationships of subjects and their environments. His work regularly explores modern societal issues, both on a large scale, as well as on a more internal and personal level, often exploring the emotional impact on groups or the individual He’s also hoping to spend time in the studio working on projects and would be very interested to learn from the other artists in the studios.

I live in East Kent, UK. I have always had an interest in photography, and this developed further after studying Art and Design at college and from there I went to university to study it further at undergraduate degree level and recently completed my MA in Photography. I have worked in education for nearly 14 years and currently work at a college within the Higher Education department. My photographic work predominantly focuses on my life and my connection with nature and the natural world, how it affects me, inspires, relates, and helps me deal with life’s stresses, especially topics around spinal health.

Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. Melanie is now based in Kent, UK. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a practice-based PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency, and is a fellow of The Margate School.

Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between photographic materials and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching a number of sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice. Melanie's recent project Acquaintance explores the creative possibilities of botanical cyanotype toning and sustainable photographic processes. This exploration considers how location-specific sustainable photographic processes can produce bodies of work that are materially connected to the landscape. This project is centred on the Peak District, an area close to where Melanie grew up. Melanie's 2021-2022 project "Precious Metals" considers the materiality of silver and palladium, from the production of silver and palladium within the cosmos, extraction from Earth and its uses within our society. This project focuses on their use in photography, suggesting methods of using the material that is less harmful to the ecology of the Earth. Her PhD practice-based research "Ancient Light: Rematerialising The Astronomical Image" considered how light travels thousands, if not millions of years, before reaching photosensitive film or a digital sensor. Ancient Light comprises analogue photographs of star-scapes, as well as a series of images created using telescopes and observatories around the world.

Rebecca is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice centres around ideas concerning the body, primarily the lived experience of her own medically altered body. She utilises personal experience to develop a greater understanding of the body and stories it can tell. Within this she explores how the act of making, through and with the body, can be used to create new forms of bodily knowledge. Current research interests include investigating the transformative process of light as a creative medium and how it can be used to emphasis the lived, corporeal aspects of the body, as well as ideas around Performance-as-Static, exploring the photographic image as a piece of performance - in itself, rather than just the documentary by-product of a performative event.

Rebecca is currently a lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury. She graduated from the MA Artist Teachers and Contemporary Practice programme at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2017 and has participated in numerous exhibitions both in the UK and abroad. She is part of an on-going international collaborative drawing project ‘Drawing Dialogue’ which is now in its 3 rd stage, and a participant of the cross-disciplinary research group PeARL - Performance Artistic Research Lab, co-directed by Goldsmiths and HSE Art and Design School Moscow.

I feel extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to start painting again at this later stage of my life.
My work in advertising for the last fifty years as a photographic stylist threw me into an ever changing world of colour.

Every season new colours would emerge as the latest must-haves for fashion or interiors and they were important to be considered in the work we produced.

But I have to admit my favourite colour palette has always been black, white and every shade of blue especially cloudy blue/grey.

I'm using my work experiences and memories of locations and set designs to inspire my paintings and the sea and skies around me as an influence.

Working in the centre of Margate has been great fun already. The other artists I've met here have been generous with their advice and encouragement and now that I have a studio within TMS it's wonderful to be in the midst of a vibrant creative community.

It's great to be able to continue my creative life into my 70s and I love every minute of it!

I make figurative and abstract sculpture which explore how texture can be evocative of emotion as well as colour. I am inspired by many sources such as abstract expressionism, prehistoric art, the natural world, Classical cameo carvings, August Rodin's sculptures.

Materials I use are both traditional; plaster, clay etc and less traditional; such as breeze block, latex, fibre-resin composites, and natural bio-plastics (made from casein/milk protein).

I aspire to make art which changes people's perception and provides an engaging and unique experience which evokes both classical and modern art as well as show the unique beauty of the materials themselves.

I strive for meaning in my art and try to plan carefully but I usually end up playing with materials in an intuitive and subconsciously dirrected way. I hope to make objects which convey some wonder and fascination with the world (scientific, natural or creative).

Chris Vervain enjoys contrast, apparent incongruity and surprise, like the stillness of a mask dispelled when worn and animated through movement and dance. She wants her art to be a celebration of the extraordinary richness of human experience; its triumphs and defeats, a continuous journey of discovery, a perpetual transformation through colour, shape and form.

Much of Vervain's work has involved ancient Greek drama for which she makes masks and props, employs actors, dancers and musicians, writes feminist adaptations of the plays and puts on productions. Some of these can be seen on Youtube.

Chris Vervain has a degree in Fine Art from Hertfordshire University, an MA Text and Performance from King’s/RADA, and a doctorate on re-inventing masked Greek Tragedy from Royal Holloway College, University of London.
She is married, loves walking, swimming and dance and has recently moved from London to Cliftonville (where she feels closer to some of her ancestors - fishermen of Deal, sailors of luggers.)

‘See the beauty in everything, find the light in the darkness.’ is EIRINN HAYHOW brand philosophy, as she creates unique, high vibe garments, salvaged from unwanted materials.

Sustainability has always been in the heart of her creativity. A self taught designer, her love of fashion came from a young age.

'Putting my legs through the bottom of carrier bags from our weekly shopping trips, pulling up the handles like straps, I had made my first pair of dungarees. paper - mêrching together tissue boxes and toilet roll tubes, painting them pink, I made myself some high- heeled shoes, then strutted down my garden like a catwalk.'

This playfulness is still present in her garments today.

EIRINN HAYHOW initially studied Fine Art, graduating with a 1st. After graduating, she spent many years in Berlin, which had a huge influence on her work. She returned to the UK in 2018 to study her masters in Fashion Design, and graduated with a distinction in 2019.

She creates her own dyes from foraging plants and berries, and using fruit and vegetable waste. Everything is made from salvaged and sustainable materials that have a positive impact on our ecosystem.

She continues to research innovative ways to produce materials from natural resources.

I am a photographer and educator, focusing on social change and participatory projects. I am interested in power dynamics and how repetitive images shape our understanding of the world.

Nina Joanna Dmyterko loves working with clay. She admires its organic nature, material composed of earth and water. Most of her work is characterised by organic shapes and colourful repetitive patterns. Nina uses patterns in order to explore their structural rhythm and design and its relation to the form. All the pieces are hand painted, wheel thrown or hand formed. Her work aims to reflect the intrinsic beauty of nature and our connection to it. She’s inspired by indigenous art from around the world.

Nina is interested to explore screen printing and how it can be applied to ceramics as well as 3D printing where she could learn how to make a 'mother form' in order to be able to do slip casts.

Sam Giles is a street artist from Kent, spraying walls under the name DREAM SAFARI.

He's painted murals in a variety of different styles in UK and Germany.
Sam also runs workshops for people of all ages.

"The aim of DREAM SAFARI is to get people interested in art by making it more accessible to the public; promoting a sense of identity within the community and rejuvenating our urban landscape."

Vicki Salmi’s practice is in visual and public art and has so far been very much about the making using intuitive marks and words to construct a visual reaction to the world with an aesthetic that is bold and full of energy that asks more questions than it answers.

Vicki has just graduated in Fine Art with 1st class honours and is looking forward to immersing herself in a practising artist-led environment and having the opportunity to share skills and ideas and create opportunities for one another. On a practical level, she wants to use screenprinting, the industrial sewing machine and the FabLab. You will be able to find Vicki in a window pod on the FabLab floor.