Skip to main content
Search

Henry Moore Studios & Gardens is currently closed for winter, reopening in April 2026.

What We Do

Roger Ackling: Work and Teaching 1969-2014

Research and travel grant
£3,000 awarded

Amanda Geitner’s research project involved interviewing former students of artist Roger Ackling, in support of her PhD by practice Roger Ackling: Work and Teaching.

A large, wall-mounted TV screen in a gallery space, showing a man sat on a red sofa talking to camera.

Jump to:

A woman in a black dress looking at a wooden bird hung high up on a white gallery wall.
Two visitors looking at the work of Roger Ackling.
Two planks of wood, joined together in a cross, with the silhouette of a hawk-like bird drawn on top in black marker pen.
A collection of wooden objects that have all been 'decorated' with different patterns of black lines, burnt by the sun.
Black and white photo of a man in a forest. He is holding a magnifying lens in one hand, pointed at a twig held in the other.
A large, wall-mounted TV screen in a gallery space, showing a man sat on a red sofa talking to camera.

About the project

Between August 2022 and October 2023, curator and researcher Amanda Geitner conducted twenty interviews with Ackling’s students, friends and curators: Andrew Bick, Eric Butcher, Thomas A Clark, Tony Cragg, Neil Firth, Neil Gillespie, Hamish Fulton, Maggi Hambling, Katrine Herian, Dean Hughes, Richard Long, David Nash, Louis Nixon, John Riddy, Carol Robertson, Gordon Senior, Damian Taylor, Trevor Sutton, Eleanor Wood and Jo Volley.

The interviews were in support of her PhD by practice, Roger Ackling: Work and Teaching, which was submitted in September 2025. The intention was to find out more about Ackling’s teaching methods, and to evidence the ongoing significance of Ackling’s practice for artists working today. These conversations form a lasting record of Ackling as a highly networked, socially active and engaged artist, teacher and exhibitor.

The interviews were turned into a 62-minute film, which was shown in the exhibition SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling at Norwich Castle 2024, and then Henry Moore Institute and the Pier Arts Centre in 2025. Across the three venues, the exhibition was visited by over 70,000 visitors.

“I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks for the support of the Henry Moore Institute. The interviews and resulting film became an integral element of both my PhD study and the exhibition. An immensely rewarding project, I am very proud of the lasting legacy of the film.”

Amanda Geitner

Watch: Interviews with Roger Ackling’s peers

Related exhibition

SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling
Fourteen everyday wooden objects, including a plug, chip fork, lolly stick, and a peg, are arranged in a line on a wall. They have all been 'decorated' with different patterns of black lines, burnt by the sun using a magnifying glass.

SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling

4 April – 22 June 2025
Sculpture Galleries

SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling is the first survey and most comprehensive exhibition of the work of artist Roger Ackling (1947-2014), one of the most quietly influential artists of the late twentieth century.