Hazel Bruce

Overview

Originally from Leeds, Hazel moved to Belfast in 1992 via a degree in Textiles from Manchester Polytechnic to study on MA Applied Art at Ulster University. Since the early 90’s, she has worked in further and higher education, in the community arts sector and in museum education, gaining a PGDip in Museum Studies and an MEd in Higher Education practice along the way. Hazel has maintained an art practice since graduating, exhibiting nationally and internationally. She is a member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists, has been a full-time lecturer in Textile Art and Embroidery at Ulster since 2004 and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Teaching and Learning

Hazel leads embroidery and textile art, for BA (hons) Textile Art, Design and Fashion and is responsible for year 2 studies and admissions.

She previously held course lead roles for BA(hons) Textile Art, Design and Fashion and for BA(hons) Fine and Applied Art, was Learning and Teaching lead for Belfast School of Art for 6 years and was responsible for revalidation for the TADF. She is an internal panel member for Ulster revalidations and is a mentor for Senior Fellow applications to ENHANCE Professional Development and Recognition Scheme,  PGCHEP and First Steps to Teaching and has been a reviewer for the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme.

In 2021 ‘The Envelope Project’ originated and led by Hazel was awarded an Ulster Distinguished Education Excellence Award (collaborative excellence).  This long-term project flipped the traditional academic role of the expert, creating a space where academics and technicians became students , responding to a brief, presenting to students, demonstrating a willingness to be the focus, to be critiqued. Hazel presented this project at the 2016 HEA Arts and Humanities Conference, in 2019 at the FTC conference at the University of Bolton.

She was joint lead (with Prof Alison Gault) on Cloth, Colour and Communities of Practice: embedding cocurricular learning in Textile Art, Design and Fashion for What Works? Student Retention and Success Change Programme funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, coordinated by the HEA and Action on Access. This project led to the Envelope Project, which in turn inspired Hazel’s current pedagogical work focusing on radical pedagogies in response to time and financial constraints in art and design education, supporting the student experience by engaging with and understanding the changing landscape of HE, with a focus on working with students and leading by example.

Her approach to learning and teaching is driven by a desire to ensure students graduate as skilled, thoughtful, confident and adaptable people, proud of their subject understanding both its and their value.

Encouraging problem-based learning, setting challenging, open-ended problems with no ‘right’ answer in an environment of experimentation and active and inquiry- based learning, Her goal is to spark independence and encourage students to have high expectations for their own progress.

Research and Creative Practice

Hazel’s work explores the impact of constraints on creative practice. Those constraints could be time, materials, techniques, physical restrictions or creative decisions. Recent work interrogated process to understand what is important, what might have been lost and what must be rediscovered. Major influences include post war approaches to education, abstraction and stylization in drawing, painting and textiles. Marks and patterns in the landscape, memory, textile history and industry and colour theory are also important.

She has exhibited her work widely since 1990 most recently in 2026 with the 62 Group at Sunny Bank Mills in Leeds, last year a solo show ‘Commit to the Process, at the Knit and Stitch Show. In the same year, with the 62 group at the Craft Study Centre at Farnham and in 2023 at the Embroiderers Guild 30-year Retrospective Exhibition for scholarship holders. ‘Irish Sampler’ was selected for the British Textile Biennale in Lancashire and was subsequently purchased by NMNI for the Folk Museum collection.

Civic and Cultural Leadership

Hazel has continued to develop relationships and projects with community groups, charities, schools and museums throughout her career at Ulster, understanding the importance of our wider communities of practice.

She was awarded Community Outreach Funding in 2023 to work with the charity Quilts for Care leavers, together with Heather Burgess and Sarah Cathers have just completed the 3rd year of this project.

In 2018 and 2019 she was awarded Civic Outreach Ambassador funding for work with Breda Academy on 2 projects, Deeds not Words, a celebration of the female voice and emancipation, and Material Matters, a sustainability project.

She has also supported the Association of Art and Design Educators group for over 10 years, designing summer school projects, building new relationships, encouraging access to Belfast School of Art spaces supporting skills development.