Biography
Upbringing & Education, 1945-1968
Born 1945 in Chatteris, a small market town in Cambridgeshire, where he spent his early childhood.
Secondary Education:
The King's School Peterborough, 1956-1961
Hastings Grammar School, East Sussex, 1961-63.
Art Education:
Hastings Art School, 1963-64
Hornsey College of Art (London), 1964-68.
Teaching & Academic Experience, 1968-2002
Graduating from Art College in 1968, Andrew Yates was resident in London for the next three decades. He began to lecture or tutor part-time in various Art Colleges. This teaching activity evolved into a second vocation, running parallel with his studio art practice, and prompted an enduring interest in the welfare of higher education provision in fine art.
Between 1968 and 1989 he was a regular sessional tutor or a part-time visiting lecturer in several UK art colleges & universities; he also taught as a Visiting Artist in the USA & Canada.
After 1989, he held full-time appointments and course-leadership posts, culminating the five years (1997-2002) he spent as Dean of the School of Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design (CCAD). . From 1994-98, he served for two periods as a Staff Governor of The London Institute (since retitled The University of the Arts London), and sat on numerous other senior academic boards and sub-commitees.
Work & Life, 2002 to the present
In 2002 Andrew Yates gave up his academic post; this freed him to pursue his personal interests and re-engage with studio art practice. At this time, he moved away from London to live in St Leonards-on-sea, on the East Sussex coast. His time was mainly given to making art-works and photography. He undertook occasional freelance academic work.
In parallel with the use of more traditional art media and practices - oil or acylic paintings on canvas or wood supporting-surfaces - the computer became an increasingly important studio tool for him. Computer drawing software was employed for image-origination and idea-visualisation processes. It was an essential tool for the post-processing and manipulation of digital photographic images.
Professional Consultancy
Andrew Yates remained interested in the well-being and condition of Art & Design Education, and from time to time worked as a specialist consultant on Further and Higher Education. Since 2009, he worked as an Inspector for the British Accreditation Council (BAC).
In 2010, as one of a two-person team of invited experts working for the Kosovo Accreditation Council, he visited and reported on two colleges in Pristina, Kosovo.
In 2007-07, for one academic session, Andrew Yates was engaged as an independant external subject-advisor by Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, UK. The brief entailed substantial and wide-ranging responsibilities including curriculum review and redesign, writing new programmes, senior management support and 'change management'.
