Deirdre Macleod’s artistic practice explores how we experience cities. Much of her work responds to urban site and combines expanded forms of drawing and movement. She starts from the premise that movement-based research methods, including walking, weaving and running, are forms of enquiry which can help make sense of lived experience and create new forms of knowledge.

Deirdre’s artistic practice draws on her original academic training in Human Geography.  She holds honours degrees in Geography from the University of Cambridge and Painting from the University of Edinburgh, where she also obtained a Master’s degree in European and International Politics.  She is currently a PhD candidate in Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh. She has exhibited and performed her work within the UK and Europe including a series of participatory walking and performance-based works at: The Urban Emptiness Festival, Nicosia, Cyprus (2016); The First Night of Experimental Boredom, Dordrecht, Netherlands (2017); Walking as a Question, Prespa, Greece (2021) and Artwalk Porty, Edinburgh (2020 and 2021).

Deirdre is a Lecturer in Art and Senior Personal Tutor at the Centre for Open Learning, University of Edinburgh, where she teaches painting and contemporary art practices.   She is passionate about community access to art and design and is lead art and design tutor on the University of Edinburgh’s Adult Access programme. She also taught for a number of years on the City of Edinburgh’s Adult Education Programme and developed and taught on the Scottish Government-funded Access to Creative Education in Scotland (ACES) programme, which is designed to support high school students from deprived areas across East Central Scotland with their applications to undergraduate courses at Art and Design Schools and Universities.