In her degree acceptance speech, Cammock spoke up powerfully to support the importance of creative arts study: "I feel lucky - and privileged - to be able to work as an artist - not because I think it’s an easy option but because I believe it is important that society has artists. We are vital not only in bringing pleasure, expanding imagination, sharing knowledge, bringing challenge to many norms in society and giving voice to those often left unheard.
"As individuals who have studied in art and design schools, we also provide people with plates to eat from, cutlery to eat with, furniture to sit on, the clothes we wear, plays we watch, books we read, different car designs, architectural design, the inspiration for a massive advertising industry, paints to paint our homes, illustrations in our children’s books, greetings cards, computer games, the films, cartoons and animations we watch, road signs and billboards, dance (contemporary and traditional), images that we see in magazines and news agencies and those of course who teach…anything that needs to consider aesthetics and form in our world, benefits from a training in the arts.
"And we push the boundaries of thought - as well as aesthetics. So although sometimes you may feel as though you’re walking against the wind I ask you to remember that you are needed and your ideas are valuable. Artists often shift fashions, trends, thinking, understandings and are often inherent in political movements for change - many academic researchers work with artists now because of their lateral thinking and different approaches.
"I came to art as a second career, from ten years working in the social work setting, and have managed to find a language to say what I need to say in the world. And as I accept this prestigious award I want to ask you all to remember that it is always important to think about yourself in relation to others - none of us live in isolation. If we want to be valued it is important to value others."
Helen Cammock has exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad at galleries including TATE Britain, Serpentine Galleries and Whitechapel Gallery in the UK, plus Alfa Nova Galerie Berlin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, and Maramotti Foundation Italy. In 2018, Cammock won the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, and she was a winner of the Turner Prize in 2019, when the award was shared between all the finalists. She has also run the highly successful 欧美性爱片 Photo Fringe, and continues to live in 欧美性爱片.
: @cammockhelen