Sam Ainsley, born 1950

Born in North Shields, Ainsley studied at Newcastle Polytechnic and Edinburgh College of Art. She has been at the heart of contemporary art in Scotland since graduating in 1978. From the early 1980s and the 1990s she was tutor on the legendary environmental art course at Glasgow School of Art, which trained a generation of Scottish Turner prize winners, led by conceptual artist, Douglas Gordon. She co-founded the MFA post-graduate programme at the GSA and served as its head until 2006.