Mary Pullen Deacon is founder and owner of Line and Language and a multilingual, multidisciplinary artist, linguist and education specialist. She explores, preserves and shares national heritage language and craft skills through her creative and education practices.

Mary is an award winning artist and her professional and creative practice has been supported by bursary awards and grant funding from Essex County Council, Arts Council England, The Artist Information Company, The Minories and Firstsite Collectors’ Group.

A fully qualified, highly experienced educator, Mary’s career spans over three decades and includes teaching and tutoring LANGUAGES and ART in primary and secondary schools, and HE and FE, in the UK and overseas. She has lived and worked in both France and Spain, and regularly returns to fine tune her language skills, visit museums and galleries and acquire knowledge and materials to inform her education practice. She is fluent in English (mother tongue), French and Spanish, with conversational knowledge of German and Catalan, and very good recollection of school days’ beginner level Latin.

Mary gained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Modern Foreign Languages) from the highly reputed education department at the University of Nottingham. She trained in teaching French and Spanish, selecting to engage in specialist research and mentoring in methods of differentiation and teaching languages through drama. Mary’s holds a Trinity College London Certificate in TESOL and this training sparked her career long interest in teaching pronunciation skills. She graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BA Honours degree in Modern & Medieval French and from the University of the Arts London with a BA Honours degree in Book Arts & Crafts.

Mary delivers presentations at global conferences, speaking about her language, art and education practice.

In 2009, following 15 years dedicated to teaching in schools, Mary took the leap and launched her career as a freelance practitioner, with the goal, in her own words, to ‘meet your needs and maximise your potential’. Mary consolidated the strong strands of her practice in 2020 with the founding of Line and Language.

At Line and Language, Mary tutors and teaches children, adults and intergenerational groups. In addition to bespoke one to one sessions and tailor made group sessions, Mary devises and leads inspiring workshops and runs inclusive events for educational establishments, community organisations, museums, galleries and festivals.

Mary has training in and in-depth experience of identifying and meeting the needs of learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, including hearing impairment, ASD, ADHD and anxiety. She has worked with students from the school and home education communities.