Alice Fox’s work integrates arts research and practice with educational research, developing projects that provide exemplars and research evidence on social arts practices. She develops appropriate and meaningful inclusive arts practice between artists with and without learning disabilities, and has a long history of work as Artistic Director of the learning disabled Rockets Artists Group, a post she took up in 2003.

She is a member of the steering committee for the new Tate Research Centre: Learning, which will openly and collaboratively support high quality and innovative research in diverse fields relevant to learning in galleries and provide a platform for dialogue and debate. She is also a Trustee for the Stay Up Late charity: promoting the right of people with learning disabilities to have a choice about how they live their lives. In 2017 she won the Times Higher Education Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts in recognition for her development of educational and community practice.

For the purposes of her own creative explorations Fox has, over the years, used a wide variety of mediums. She was the singer in the Marine Girls, recording two albums and two John Peel sessions and was also a dancer in High Spin Dance Company (integrated dance company for dancers with and without learning disabilities) performing in two national tours. She has also continued her visual arts practice with painting, embroidery, photography, animation and film-making.

Previously she was a Commercial Fellow working for the University of Brighton in the field of social enterprise and communities of practice. Since the early 1990s she has worked with people with complex learning disabilities and challenging behaviour, both in the context of arts practice and the advocacy of human rights. Fox’s connection with the University of Brighton goes back to the late 1980s where, as a student, she obtained her BA Hons in Fine Art.

As co-researcher Alice Fox was awarded Arts and Humanities Research Council money to support the Community Gardening, creativity and everyday culture: food growing and embedded researchers in the community project. Fox’s role is to support the research team and community partners to develop an arts-based research approach.

She was awarded a Commercial Fellowship to carry out research in partnership with Prof Angie Hart from the Institute of Nursing and Midwifery. There Alice developed a series of films exploring Resilient Therapy working with children and families experiencing constellated disadvantage.