Pam Briggs is based at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland where she recently graduated with a 1st class BA (Hons) Artist Designer Maker: Glass and Ceramics.

Exhibited Work:

  • Trumpland (Glass, handbuilt ceramics, printed with deflocculated slip and degraded with sodium silicate). Shown at Penultimate, 2025 Degree Show, National Glass Centre
  • Unwelcome (Recycled and fused glass cullet) shown at ‘Ordinary to Extraordinary‘ a virtual exhibition curated by the Contemporary Glass Society (7th march – 22nd April 2022).
  • No Money To Burn (Saggar-fired earthenware and stoneware clay) shown at Dry Run 2023, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, 26th May – 10th June, 2023.
  • Cold Comfort (Saggar fired earthenware and stoneware clay) shown at Python Gallery, Middlesbrough as part of the Northern Potters Association Summer Exhibition.

Participatory Art Projects:

Clay Connections A collaboration between Northumbria University, Chili Studios and Beamish Museum, exploring the power of making for others with with mental health struggles and dementia.

Additional Training:

Sgraffito Techniques (a 4 week programme at Hintenburg Pottery, Ottawa, Canada)

Overseas studio membership at Studio Fundamentals and Cafe au Clay Studios, Vancouver.

Mokuhanga Printmaking and Hard and Soft Ground Etching at Northern Print Studios, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Pam is a member of the Contemporary Glass Society, The Northern Potters Association, The Potters Guild of British Columbia and the Artists Network UK.

Alongside her artistic practice Pam is a researcher and designer, exploring the presentation of self in digital life and co-directing the Centre for Digital Citizens. To know more about Pam’s experience curating and commissioning digital art as part of her large-scale, collaborative research projects, check out her CV here.

Artist’s Statement

Pam works in both clay and glass, typically using recycled materials. In ceramics, she tries to connect directly with the clay in a relatively unthinking way and allowing forms to emerge naturally. She loves textured surfaces and is drawn to techniques that erode the clay in natural ways, allowing a narrative to emerge, often without the need for glaze or colour.

In her glass work she uses simple cutting, fusing and sandblasting techniques as a means to tell a story. Again, her preference is to work with recycled or float glass, sometimes using advanced waterjet cutting techniques to create a monochrome pattern.

Across both media, her work explores themes of urban decay and renewal, social injustice and the erosion of social values. Her most recent work, Trumpland, shown below, comprised a series of dystopian architectural forms, made in response to recent events in the USA,