Alex Soulsby: Creating Meaningful Opportunities for Young Learners

Alex is an internationally recognised creative education practitioner with an extensive career that stretches over twenty-five years. His work encompasses an extensive portfolio of international education development, creative project management, artist mentoring and educational policy-making.

In the UK, Alex played a key role in steering influential campaigns such as ‘Youth Arts Transforms Lives – FACT,’ benefiting from input and direction from the late Sir Ken Robinson as chair. His projects have twice been shortlisted for the UK National Charity Award and contributed to the Royal & Derngate Theatre and Arts Centre’s recognition as the UK’s Regional Theatre of the Year and Guardian’s Arts Centre of the decade

His work has featured in publications including The Times, The Guardian, Scotsman, RSA Magazine, the BBC, and the International Baccalaureate magazine, along with mentions in various academic journals. Recognition of his contributions to education and work with young people, recently resulted in a nominated and elected fellowship at the Royal Society of the Arts.

He is committed to creating meaningful opportunities for young people by bringing schools, creative minds, and educators together. His approach being, not just to work with, but to deeply embed schools in their communities and to reimagine the educational landscape for the betterment of young learners.

Design as Experience: Ksenija Miļča on Interiors, Branding and Education Design Education Talks

In this episode of Design Education Talks, we speak with Ksenija Miļča, Assistant Professor and Head of the Interior Design and Brand Design study programmes at EKA University of Applied Sciences in Riga, Latvia. Her work sits at the intersection of brand identity, spatial design, visual communication, sustainability and design education, bringing together questions of aesthetics, value, meaning and human experience.Together, we explore how design education can move beyond fragmented courses and passive learning towards a more integrated, practical and reflective model. Ksenija discusses the importance of real projects, material experimentation, interdisciplinary thinking and international collaboration, showing how students can learn to connect theory with practice and develop the confidence to work with complexity.This conversation is about more than interiors or branding. It is about how design forms relationships between people, spaces, organisations and values. At a time when education is being reshaped by technology, sustainability, global exchange and changing student needs, Ksenija’s perspective reminds us that design education must remain close to reality while still protecting imagination, judgement and creative courage.Support the showSince its inception in 2019, Design Education Talks podcast has served as a dynamic platform for the exchange of insights and ideas within the realm of art and design education. This initiative sprang from a culmination of nearly a decade of extensive research conducted by Lefteris Heretakis. His rich background, intertwining academia, industry, and student engagement, laid the foundation for a podcast that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of educational discourse.See all of our work on on https://linktr.ee/thenewartschoolFollow us on twitter at @newartschoolRead our latest articles at https://newartschool.education/and https://heretakis.medium.com/Equipment used to produce the podcast:Rodcaster pro IIRode NT1 5th generationElgato Low profile Microphone ArmMonster Prolink Studio Pro microphone cableThe rest of the equipment is here 👉https://kit.co/heretakis/podcasting
  1. Design as Experience: Ksenija Miļča on Interiors, Branding and Education
  2. The Education of Attention: Esen Karol on Design, Publishing and Joy Teaching Designers to See: A Conversation with Esen Karol
  3. Simon Collins – What Design Schools Get Wrong About the Real World
  4. Graham Fink – Why Process Matters More Than Finish in Creative Work
  5. Dan Vlahos – Dynamic Media, Critical Thinking, and Design Pedagogy

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