Mrs Chantelle Baistow

Chantelle Baistow is a Lecturer and Ceramic Discipline Lead in the School of Art & Design at UNSW Sydney, with an established research and teaching practice focused on socially engaged design, material innovation, and post‑extractivist futures. Her work brings together ceramic practice, digital fabrication, and co‑design methodologies to address environmental and social challenges emerging from extractive industries.

Chantelle’s research centres on collaboration with communities, cultural organisations, and industry stakeholders in coal‑affected regions of New South Wales. Through material-led research, she investigates how industrial byproducts, such as coal ash, can be reimagined as resources for ceramic practice, environmental communication, and public engagement around energy transition. Her projects are realised through participatory workshops, 3D-printed ceramic processes, exhibitions, and public‑facing research, foregrounding care, collaboration, and place-based knowledge.

She has facilitated co-design workshops and exhibitions with partners including the Coal Ash Community Alliance (2024), the Sydney Design Festival (2019), and the Country Women’s Association (2018), across the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie and Sydney Regions. Her work has been presented at national and international forums, including the Australian Ceramics Triennial (2025), the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools conferences (2024 & 2025), and the International Environmental Communication Association, where she received the Resistance, Revolution and Care Award for outstanding practice‑led research.

As Ceramic Discipline Lead, Chantelle provides curriculum leadership across ceramics and contributes to course coordination, studio development, and research‑led teaching at undergraduate and Honours levels. She has extensive experience teaching design research methods, interdisciplinary studios, and practice‑based research, and has contributed to pedagogical research on inclusive and neurodiversity‑affirming education in higher education in Neurodiversity and Opportunity in Tertiary Education at Honours Level (Moline, Baistow & Brown, 2025).

Chantelle is actively engaged in collaborative research and welcomes partnerships with community groups, cultural institutions, industry, and government organisations interested in socially engaged design, material innovation, environmental communication, and sustainable transitions.