Gareth is the Course Leader for MA Illustration Practices (Online), launching in September 2026. Over the past fifteen years, Gareth has taught widely across Illustration, Visual Communication and Art & Design, developing curricula that foreground practice-led research and thinking through making. Gareth’s approach encourages students to experiment across moving image, publishing, performance and emerging technologies, positioning illustration as a relational, transdisciplinary and socially responsive field, and helping students to situate their work critically within cultural, ethical and political contexts.

Gareth previously taught onto the MA Illustration course at Camberwell College of Arts where he was the Unit 3: Realisations lead, with responsablity for the Major Project Showcase and a suite of Public Dissemination Events. He was responsible for the planning, development and delivery of all aspects of the unit, including assessment. As part of Unit 3 Gareth organises a series of public facing events which ask students to consider the specific contexts within which they are working, making the work public through a research symposium, an open school, a publishing fair and an micro-artist residency. Gareth works specifically with students that are interested in applying for PhD’s and longer form research projects, helping them to develop proposals and supporting them in the editing and design of their own journal alongside the hosting of a public symposium. 

Whilst working at Birmingham City University and with the support of the faculties Innovation Fund, Gareth developed a Production Manual for Level 4 Art and Design students. The manual is designed as a toolkit for their studies and reflects the wide range of projects, research strategies, methodologies, workshop inductions and idea generating techniques that are taught as part of the first semester. The manual has proven to be a great success in shaping the ambition and nature of BA Art and Design, a course that had traditionally struggled to differentiate itself from Fine Art. It has also contributed to improved retention from Level 4 as students have a much clearer understanding of the course and its objectives. Retention increased from 83% to 94% between 2017/18 and 2020/21. The manual was also highlighted by the external examiners as an outstanding project with the potential for lasting impact on studentship. Jonathan Harris (former Head of School) has described it as “a highly innovative project with an outcome that has significant institutional, national and international value…The project will, in addition, feed into our developing transition plan for the next five years, and aid all students across the new Institute.” 

In 2019 Gareth established a student focussed publishing house (BAAAD Press) and set up ‘Duplicate Publishing Fair’. The book fair was organised in collaboration with Sofia Niazi, and took place at Eastside Projects, attracting more than 500 visitors over two days. This project helped to establish a culture of self-publishing within the School of Art, creating an alternative space for students to make their work public. It also led to Gareth taking a group of students to Tate Liverpool to deliver a public ‘Zine Making Workshop’ as part of ‘The Three-Day Workout’ in collaboration with other staff at the school. 

Gareth has also worked with at Royal College of Art, teaching into the MA Visual Communication programme as a Visiting Tutor with responsiblity for a tutor group and a school wide elective (Visual Forensics), overseeing the development and delivery of teaching as well as first-year assessments. Visual Forensics introduced a series of fundamental ideas around the representation, description and documentation of the contemporary world. Responding to found and given materials, locations and objects, this elective enabled students to develop their adaptability and establish a critical position as a visual communicator.