Emma Bennett

Growing up in Birmingham a creative family inspired an early love of carpentry, drawing, painting and collage. After studying archaeology at university Emma trained as a teacher and spent two years working in China. A dream job as an Exhibition Developer at The Science Museum in London began a career of over fifteen years working in exhibition design and project management, with challenges including working with researchers from The Titanic too creating a travelling exhibition on energy use in the home.

It was a move to the beautiful city of Cambridge (UK) in 2005 (With husband Craig Bennett; CEO of The Wildlife Trusts) that re-ignited a love of all things art. Surrounded by the history, grandeur, creativity and vibrancy of Cambridge, Emma began to create pictures using her favourite technique of hand-cut collage. Using only recycled papers her creations range from nature and animals to large-scale intricate architectural cityscapes. Her work can be seen in a major Cambridge Art Gallery and in exhibitions in the city.

A trained Teacher Emma enjoys leading collage workshops and has, for the past three years run a voluntary art group for local elderly residents.

The idea for The Cambridge Art Book (The first in The City Art Book series) came in 2016, with a desire to show the city through the eyes of its artists and to get people walking around Cambridge to see how different buildings and sites can represented in different forms and media. Cambridge artists were quick to come on board (As was local based publishes UIT Cambridge) and Emma was assisted in selecting images for publication by a panel of city and art experts - an essential part of the editing process, which is used for every book.

Following the success of The Cambridge Art Book, which shows the city through the eyes (and using a wide variety of different techniques) by over 50 artists, The Oxford Art Book, The Edinburgh Art Book, The Liverpool Art Book and The Dublin Art Book have been published. In 2021, all being well with global events The Bristol and Bath Art Book will be published, followed by The Birmingham Art Book. In February 2021 Emma launched her first Children's book 'Finn and the Five Flies' (www.finnandthefiveflies.co.uk).

Emma has a studio in central Cambridge where she works - when her two children and Labrador have not taken it over and where she juggles creating the City Art Books with producing her own art and exhibition pieces whilst being a Mom and professional coffee drinker.