Finn Dobson

Services & CV

Dobson offers workshops in visual and fibre arts (embroidery, fabric painting, banner making, etc.) and creative writing (poetry and creative non-fiction) . They have many years of experience in workshop facilitation within creative and community settings, health services, schools and more.

Whilst their workshops aim to give participants a chance to experiment with the arts, they also focus on creative wellbeing, fostering community, and trying something new in a safe environment.

a workshop participant is holding up their embroidery work to the camera. It features a face in a cubist style similar to Picasso's portraits. It is on pink fabric, with details stitched in pink, red, brown and blue.
An image of thread bobbins, with a quote in the middle that reads: "Finn was helpful, kind, non-judgemental. Willing to explain and treated everybody as an equal."

Throughout Dobson’s experience of workshop facilitation, they have worked with diverse communities with varying levels of experience and support needs. This has included adapting workshops for neurodivergent and disabled people, LGBTQIA+ communities, older people, refugees, and those from a Global Majority background. Finn’s Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills has aided them in their ability to hold space for people, actively listening and adapting
to peoples’ needs. Accessibility is always built into workshop design from the outset.

Examples of workshops Finn has offered include:

  • Embodied Writing (Simply the Zest, 2026)
  • Sewing patches with The Hangout (2026)
  • Embroidering Left Bank Leeds (Older Wiser Leeds Seniors art group, 2024)
  • Creative wellbeing workshops for migrants and refugees with Connecting Opportunities (2022), e.g:
    • Finding your strengths with collage
    • Mindfulness in nature
  • Advocating for ourselves in healthcare settings
  • Looking after our physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing (peer support, health management, streamlining your life, sleep hygiene, etc.)
  • Supporting trans patients in art therapy (for MA Art Therapy students, 2021)
An image of tangled threads with a quote in the middle that reads: "They were great at assessing levels and adapting to everyone's previous experience. They're supporting and encouraging at all levels."
a selection of embroidery hoops showing various designs created in a workshop

As well as working in community centres and health services, Finn is keen to work with galleries, museums, libraries and heritage sites, offering bespoke workshops that use the history of buildings, collections and other artists’ work as a starting point for engagement with the public. They believe that art and culture are transformative experiences that should be accessible to all, and work hard to ensure that others can participate in these landscapes.

Please use the contact form to enquire about prices, suggest collaborations and book Finn for workshop facilitation. You can read more and find examples of their work in their portfolio.

On a mahogany coloured table sit some workshop materials and glasses of water. The materials include workshop sheets on white and yellow paper, pens, and 3 books. These are, Trust Fall by Willam Gee, Slugs by Abi Palmer, and Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
Four adults, all with pale skin and brown hair in various lengths are sat round a long pub table. In the background are large windows, thick curtains, and ornate lamps. On the table, spread out are drinks, phones and other detritus. The workshop participants are all holding pens poised over paper and looking towards Finn, sat at the top left corner. They are looking back at the participants and smiling warmly.
The camera looks over the shoulder of a workshop participant, who has pale skin and is wearing a black and white plaid dress and gothic accessories. The picture captures their hands in motion as they stitch red cut out letters onto a black and white polka dot patch. In the background is a plastic faux-wood table with scissors, threads and fabric.
A workshop participant, their face out of frame, holds up their stitched patch to the camera. They are wearing a pink, yellow and blue Hawaiian shift and black trousers, and standing in a car park next to a field. The patch they are holding up is made of black fabric, with red ribbon stitched around all four sides, and a large red rose in the middle.

Finn is available for creative writing and visual art commissions. These can make great gifts for your loved ones, commemorate your favourite place, act as a personal affirmation, or draw attention to an important issue. Dobson has a wealth of experience in creating work on challenging subjects.

Whether it is a poem, an embroidery piece, a blog or a crocheted animal, there is something available for everyone! Rates vary depending on the craft and size of work.

hand embroidery of a tromboncino squash, a purple sprouting broccoli and tomatoes on old maps.
The collar of a blue and white plaid shirt has been repaired with oblongs of dark blue and white squares. These have been stitched over in a 'boro' style of repair, with long lines of running stitch in a blue and white variegated thread.

Finn also offers services in upcycling and visible mending, using a combination of traditional English darning, applique, patchwork, and Boro- and Sashiko-inspired mending.

For mending they offer a sliding scale payment service depending on your income. This ranges from £10-£25 per hour + materials.

Please use the contact form to enquire about prices. Please give as much detail as possible when requesting commissions, as this helps Finn give you an accurate quote for the work, thanks!

You can find examples of Dobson’s work and pieces for sale here.

After teaching themselves to use WordPress for their own freelancing endeavours, Finn has been making websites for others and assisting with web design questions.

A recent example of this can be found at www.margibryant.com.

Finn’s rates for web design are:

Independent freelancers (low income), and community groups without funding£20 per hour
Charities, community groups with funding, independent freelancers (regular income) and small organisations £27 per hour
Independent freelancers (regular income and savings), medium to large organisations and institutions£35 per hour

Web design with Finn includes a pre-design chat to understand your needs (up to 1 hour), up to 3 rounds of edits, and post-design tutorials for how to use and edit your website independently. This is usually around 1-3 hours depending on the level of understanding needed, and can be topped up at any time by request.

The minimum number of hours required for a basic website with 3 main pages is 6 hours. This includes 2 hours for pre- and post-design chats and 1 round of edits.

Please use the contact form to enquire about commissioning Finn to design your website.

Finn produces marketing materials with accessibility in mind. This might look like considerations for colour and spacing, or producing a specific access document such as a visual story.

Having developed their interest in accessible design whilst volunteering for the Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Finn went on to do a placement with Leeds Museums and Galleries. There they worked on designing a social enterprise cafe, which included understanding neuro-inclusive design for the built environment, sourcing soft furnishings, and advising on accessibility improvements for current and future budgets. They also produced marketing materials and design collateral such as press release, social media marketing plan, menus, etc.

Finn can produce designs for physical and digital marketing collateral, advise on marketing strategies that have people and brand story at their heart, advise on accessibility for built environments and marketing, and produce accessibility resources such as visual stories and creative audio description.

To discuss your project with Finn, please use their contact form.

Since Dobson was a teenager they have been using their lived experience to inform the work they do. This has included:

  • being one of the youngest people to be employed by a university in the UK for their work as an Associate Research Assistant with De Montfort University
  • advising junior doctors on treating young people with mental health difficulties
  • training MA Art Therapy students on working with transgender patients
  • working with Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service as a Peer Support Worker
  • producing art and writing informed by lived experiences such as disability, queerness, and sexual assault
  • working with National Voices as a Lived Experience Advisor, including co-chairing the Expert Advisory Board for the Future of Patient Feedback

Dobson is particularly interested in:

  • how lived and living experience can inform and improve health and care provisions, particularly for those experiencing health inequalities
  • how creative practices can aid in wellbeing, expression and activism for those experiencing oppressions
  • what meaningful involvement looks like in systems change (e.g. coproduction, codesign, consultation, etc.)

If you would like advice on how to use lived and living experience within your service, or would like to use Finn’s extensive experience in this area in another way, please use their contact form to get in touch.

  • Metamorphosis Textile Competition (Farfield Mill, Sedbergh, 2026)
  • Fables (The Mill Gallery, Leeds, 2026)
  • Pride & Protest (The Mill Gallery, Leeds, 2025)
  • Leeds Summer Group Show (Leeds Playhouse, 2025)
  • Pose (Undercroft Gallery, Norwich, 2025)
  • NSUN Virtual Exhibition (online, 2024)
  • Trans Pride (The Actors, Brighton, 2024)
  • Touchstone Loves the Arts (Leeds, 2023)

  • Resilient Roots (The Mill Gallery, Leeds, 2025-6)
  • Mentoring with Jennifer Gilbert (Arts & Health Support Hub, 2025-6)

  • Our Right to Thrive (Disability Arts Online, 2026)
  • Hope, Joy, Light, Meaning anthology (The Hope Collective, University of Huddersfield Press, 2025)
  • Haus-a-Rest zine (Issue 54 – Movement and the Kinetic, 2024)
  • Moving Beyond the Binaries of Sex and Gender (University of Leeds, 2016)
  • Unity Day (Leeds, 2016)
  • Can Ruins Arts Festival (Leeds, 2015)

  • Freelance artist (2019-ongoing)
  • Project Placement, Leeds Industrial Museum (2026, Leeds Museums and Galleries)
  • Lived Experience Partner (2025-ongoing, National Voices)
  • Access and Inclusion Volunteer, (2024-2025, Leeds Palestinian Solidarity Campaign) 
  • Peer Support Worker (2019-2024, Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service/Touchstone)
  • Mental Health Support Worker (2022-2023, Connecting Opportunities/Touchstone)
  • Peer Support Worker (2021, Leeds Community Pain Service/Touchstone)
  • Administrator (2019, Leeds City Council)
  • Volunteer manual labourer (2019, Canopy Housing)
  • Volunteer archivist (2018, Local & Family Histories Department at Leeds Central Library)
  • Volunteer gardener (2018-2019, Hyde Park Source at Bedford Fields Community Forest Garden)
  • Volunteer artist (2017, House of Flava)
  • Freelancer (2017-2019, Inkpact Marketing Ltd.)
  • Associate Research Assistant (2009-2012, Centre for Social Action, School of Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University)

  • Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills (2023, Training Qualifications UK)
  • PG Dip Gender, Sexuality and the Body (2016-2019, University of Leeds) 
  • BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance (2012-2016, University of Leeds)
  • Level 2 Developing Researcher Interview Skills and Techniques (2012, OCN)

Finn Dobson

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