Meet the team

Rachel Dawson is the course leader for the Foundation in Art and Design course. A specialist tutor in Textiles, Rachel has a textile design background and is currently working towards her PhD. She has exhibited internationally at Mood Brussels, Pall Mall London for Wool Modern week alongside Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, the Platform gallery, Knitting and Stitch show Harrogate and Newhouse in York. More recently she has been commissioned to produce a range of commercial surface pattern designs for Edinburgh Weavers, using her natural dye processes. These designs will be in TK MAXX in next year.

She also has an extensive knowledge of running practical workshops for a public audience and the organisation, marketing and financial implications of this type of creative practice, which many art and design students will practice when they graduate.

She has run workshops across Lancashire for the last 12 years at National trust properties and English Heritage mills, where  a dye garden has been placed after winning bronze at the RHS tattoo in 2014.


Anthony Sebanskis is a film and media lecturer working on both the BA Hons in Media and the Foundation in Art and Design at the University of Bolton.

He has over 10 years experience in the music, film and media industry. Anthony has undertaken commissions producing music, and music videos for some of the UK’s leading artists and record labels. He also specialised in creating short to feature length films and audio dramas for international production companies. 

He holds a 1st class BA Hons in media, writing and production, and a MA in creative thinking.


Oliver East is the Animation and Illustration specialist tutor.

“As a dyslexic with attention deficit disorder I’m forever looking for ways to better myself outside of a classroom or library setting, and quickly. I have created many long walks with arbitrarily imposed restrictions for me to set out on whilst I figure this out. These walks have acted as research for my practice for many years. I’m interested in exploring walking as a creative act and how one might create knowledge from this. I seek out situations that might put myself or a project at risk of total failure and then create work telling you how badly that went. This has mainly been in comic books and illustrations but has expanded over the years to include sculpture and architecture.”


Liam Ainscough is a multidisciplinary artist and teaches drawing, painting, print and sculpture on both the BA (hons) Fine Art the Art and Design Foundation Course at the University of Bolton. 

Liams’ paintings, prints and sculptures are created as a means of investigating surveillance and social control.

He has experimented widely with the manipulation of imagery, scale and viewer participation, gauging whether this alters perceptions of the subject matter and the potential demise of the crafted art object in an age of excessive access to information technology.


Steph Shipley is a part-time tutor on the Art and Design Foundation and BA Fine Art programmes specialising in the conceptual, historical and contemporary theory aspect of creative practice.

Her research driven practice investigates sites of heterotopia through the temporal narrative, embodied encounter and performance of place using still and moving image and print.  

She holds an MA in Fine Art Site & Archive Interventions and received the Artlab Contemporary Print Studios Fellowship Award 2018.


Penny Williams is a tutor of drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture.  

Penny has taught in many different areas including special needs groups and pupil referral units alongside teaching art and design foundation students at the University of Bolton.  

She is also an artist volunteer for Umbrella Arts in Leigh.  Penny’s personal artwork is usually in reaction to political and feminist issues.

She works from home studio which is fondly known as “Unstable Studio”.


Ryan Hamer is the Foundation in Art and Design specialist in Special Effects.

Ryan has worked as a prop maker and SFX artist for television, theatre and advertising for over 20 years.

He is an experienced  sculptor,  mould maker and painter.  He is currently a part time tutor at the University of Bolton teaching the foundation level SFX group and the Make up artistry (SFX) BA course at Manchester college,

Ryan also runs a workshop based at Islington mill arts club in Salford.


Samantha Williams is the lead Graphic Design specialist for the Foundation in Art and Design. Samantha is an Associate Lecturer who has worked within the Graphic Design Department for over five years. With Experience in the designer/maker field and design theory, Samantha teaches Scholarship modules as well as acting as an Enhanced Personal Tutor for the Graphic Design and Animation & Illustration courses.

Samantha worked as a freelance graphic designer following her graduation in 2012, and since starting at the University she has helped to establish the Graphic Design Academic Society and created an editorial group to produce an annual magazine for the course.
Samantha previously worked as a property solicitor before returning to full-time study on the Graphic Design course.

She holds an MA (Oxon) in Jurisprudence, a PGDip in Legal Practice, a BA (Hons) First Class in Graphic Design and a PGCE. She is currently looking to commence studying towards her PhD.


David Digby is a part time lecturer on the Foundation in Art and Design at the University of Bolton.

David worked as a Graphic Designer and Photographer for over 10 years for a small advertising agency completing commissions for FTSE100 and internationally operating companies. He now runs his own photography and design studio since 2006 working for small local and large muti-national companies in the retail and brewing sector. You can visit his website here.

David has also completed personal exhibitions gaining Arts Council and Heritage Lottery funding for his 2017 project based around community cohesion which was exhibited around the wider Yorkshire area.

David holds a BA Hons in Photography & Digital Imaging and a PGCE

Tyanotypes