About Dock

Hello! I'm Maxine Davies, a writer and journalist based in the north east of England. A recent graduate of Newcastle University with an MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature, I'm interested in the intersections between visual art and the written word. I like handmade things, quizzes and car boot sales.

Hey, I’m Jess Bentley and I’m proud to call myself founder of DOCK.

As an art student myself, I understand how much of a struggle it can be to get your work seen by the wider world, and that many opportunities can seem too limiting, too selective or just not quite the right fit for you.

Whilst trawling through the internet looking high and low for any and all opportunities, I often caught myself wishing there was somewhere out there where I could showcase my work, capabilities, progression and events, as well as having the freedom to just 'be myself' about it.

What’s more, I was sure I couldn’t be alone in my frustration. Surely my peers are in the same boat? And surely they're pining for just the same thing? Wasn’t there somewhere out there that wanted to show off our hard work just as much as we did?

Then an idea struck me, and what are we creative types for if it’s not to bring our farfetched ideas into the real world? So I sat my friend Chris down with a pint, poured out my ideas, and voilà! My little dream became a reality, and that reality is DOCK.

You may be a hard working artist or designer trying to get your voice heard and your work shown. You may be someone who wants to be in the know about the freshest creativity out there. Whoever you are, DOCK will do all we can to make that happen.

Because, well, we want to show off what we young things can do!

I’m Chris Vasey and I am the person who makes the technical stuff run at Dock. I have always had an interest in developing websites that are functional, beautiful and interesting so when Jess and I started talking about the possibility of building a portfolio to host some awesome people's work I couldn’t say no.
In terms of art; I can’t draw, paint or make crazy looking patterns but I can throw together some half decent code that looks pretty if I spend enough time looking at it.
I have been extremely impressed by the work I have seen so far by members of the Dock community and I look foreword to working with the team to showcase even more talent that we discover or somehow find us.