Matt Ashdown is one of the busiest artists in the Fish Factory. An arts and fundraising consultant and director, Matt has organised and overseen lots of vivacious events and exhibitions across Cornwall.
He studied Fine Art at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, graduating in 2005. It was there that he discovered he wanted people to participate in his work, explaining how he “let everyone touch my artwork, even if it meant it fell over.”
This led him to attend the University of Leeds in 2014, to study Arts Fundraising and Leadership. Since then he has worked with the Tate, the Polytechnic Society, Newlyn Art Gallery, the Eden Project, Hall for Cornwall, Source FM Radio and of course has his own studio at the Fish Factory. An enthusiastic volunteer and hard worker, he enjoys creating and managing events. His main aim is to inspire people of all abilities to interact with art and music.
Matt is the founder of Moogie Wonderland, which delivers art and music projects to the community. He has directed events such as “co:noise,” where instruments were arranged for the audience to experiment in a sonic collaboration and “Bearhaus,” where everyone wore bear hats in an improvised one-night performance.
Matt is certainly a very busy bear and a valued member of the Fish Factory studio.