Cate Watkinson

Social media Links:
Instagram @catewatkinson

Dr Cate Watkinson is a glass artist, academic, and researcher whose practice spans architectural glass, stained glass, public sculpture, and material-led research. She holds a PhD by Existing Created Works from the University of Sunderland and has worked as a self-employed artist since 1988. From 2006 to 2025, she served as Senior Lecturer in Architectural Glass at the University of Sunderland. Her work is widely commissioned for ecclesiastical and civic settings across the UK and has been exhibited at venues such as the National Glass Centre, as well as internationally in Europe, the USA, China, and the Middle East. Cate’s research, explores the intersection of glass, colour, light, and geology. In 2023, she was made a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers and sits on their Glass Committee, contributing strategic oversight and direction to their educational initiatives.

My work resides in the space between 2 and 3 dimensions. Working with glass is my passion in its hot form or cut and fused for architectural settings. Either installed in an aperture of a building or wall mounted, panels of low relief glass explore the light and darkness, celebrating the formation of the earth. I am currently working on several private commissions including a stained glass window for the newly refurbished Cullercoats Watch House, a building made famous by the paintings of Winslow Homer in the late nineteenth century.