Kate Sellar
Creative Industries Lecturer
Art, creating, and education have been central to Kate Sellar’s life for more than four decades. As a textile and fibre artist, researcher, and educator, Kate brings together diverse experience across galleries, schools, tertiary education, and her own creative practice in New Zealand and previously England.
Since 2018, Kate has been a lecturer in Creative Industries at UCOL Whanganui, teaching across Levels 3–7 in visual arts, art lab, fashion, drawing, and art history. While her own practice is grounded in textiles and fibre, her teaching extends across a wide range of media, encouraging students to experiment, take risks, and discover ideas through materials and processes.
“Techniques and materials are important in my own work, so I encourage students to explore a range of materials and processes. It’s about discovering potential, and you often get there through play and experimentation.”
Born in Lincoln, England, Kate moved to Doncaster at the age of 5 and knew early on that art was going to be central in her life. “I was a shy child, and whenever the teacher wanted to show my work to the class, they would send me out on an errand to save me from feeling deeply embarrassed.”
Kate left school at 16 to study art and design at Doncaster College. “Further study at degree level had never been a consideration until a lecturer asked me which university I was going to apply to. Nobody had studied at that level in my family, so I hadn’t considered it as an option. Having somebody believe in you is really important, plus tertiary education was free in the UK from the early 60’s until 1989”.
Accepted on the Art and Design course at Bradford University as part of their new ceramics intake, a chance book discovery on historical 17th-century embroidery changed those pottery plans. “I was fascinated by the book and couldn’t put it down; I decided then and there to be a textile artist.”
The first day at Bradford University saw all the art students assembled in one room. “When the ceramic students were directed to their studios, I didn’t go - I went with the textile students, and nobody noticed. I spent three years in the textile and print departments and gained a degree in art and design, specialising in textiles and printmaking.”
After graduating in 1993, Kate began her career working in several major London cultural institutions, including the Tate Gallery, the HMS Belfast Imperial War Museum, and the Natural History Museum. These early experiences developed her interest in collections and material culture. “My time in London was hugely inspirational; I saw many significant exhibitions during the 1990’s.”
After moving to New Zealand in 1998, Kate continued her involvement in the arts, working at the Warwick Henderson Gallery in Auckland before moving into education. She completed a Graduate Diploma in Primary Education at the Auckland College of Education in 2002, which led to roles in primary school teaching and art education at Auckland Art Gallery.
Kate later returned to tertiary study, completing a Bachelor of Arts and Design (Honours) at AUT in 2013, followed by a Master of Design in 2020. Her postgraduate research explored the relationship between walking, place, perception, and material responses.
Kate’s textile works are responses to place rather than direct depictions of it. Her Master of Design exhibition, exhibited at UCOL Whanganui’s Edith Gallery in 2021, explored the experience of walking through the Castlecliff landscape. Through a multi-sensory approach involving sound recordings, drawing and photography, Kate investigated how everyday environments can be experienced through close observation and attention.
“I would go out walking around Castlecliff recording the everyday patterns in the sand, ambient noise, just taking the time to notice. Covid-19 provided an opportunity to pause and engage with our surroundings in a more intimate way.”
This approach to noticing and observing has become an important part of Kate’s teaching practice. Early in her courses, she takes students on walks around the block, encouraging them to look carefully at their surroundings and photograph what interests them.
“At first, I point things out, the small incidental moments that we usually ignore. After a while, students begin to see differently, and that can be a huge turning point. We are asking them to shift their perception.”
Kate believes experimentation is an essential part of creative development and encourages students to move beyond preconceived ideas about what art and design should be.
“We have students from different stages in their lives; they bring their own experiences and ideas about art and design. It can take time to settle into a new way of working but watching that shift happen is incredibly rewarding.”
Supporting students in exhibiting their work and engaging with the wider creative community is an important part of Kate’s role. She has guided students in developing exhibitions and entering external competitions, and she enjoys seeing graduates continue into creative careers or develop their own practices.
“Teaching and learning are reciprocal; we learn from each other.”
Alongside teaching, Kate continues to develop her own textile practice, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Her work has received recognition through awards including the 2025 Dalgleish Architects Excellence Award at the Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review, the 2024 UCOL Research Excellence Award in Bio textiles, and the 2023 Supreme Award at the Nelson Arts Council’s national contemporary textile and fibre art exhibition Changing Threads.
Previous awards include the Bernina National Award (2014), Highly Commended in the Tamaki Estuary Art Award (2012), and first prize in the Waitakere Trust Lincoln Green Sculpture Awards (2009).
For Kate, the most rewarding part of teaching is seeing students develop confidence, curiosity, and their own creative voice.
“We have had many students go on to work locally or continue with their own art practice, and then they become friends and colleagues. That is one of the great privileges of teaching.”