UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 10 MAY 2017
A key element of your second year on BA (Hons) Art and Design is the opportunity to take part in one of a wide variety of live projects with members of industry. This year the six available projects ranged from ceramics to unique fine dining experiences and current students recently had the chance to work with our partner institutions and practicing artists.
Hear directly from students who have documented each project, inside and outside of the School, below. The following is written by second year student Keren Meads who worked on the documentation team:
Semester two of our second year at Margaret Street provided us with the opportunity to take part in one of a wide variety of live projects, ranging from ceramics based work to curating a unique fine dining experience. All projects, taking place both inside and outside of the School, enabled us to attend site visits, studio sessions and exciting visiting artist lectures, with the final outcome being the creation of new work in response to the specific conditions of our chosen project. Alongside these projects, we were given the choice to either continue to develop and extend our personal studio practice, or to organise and partake in a work experience placement.
Our chosen documentation project, gives us the unique experience to be involved across all projects, gaining valuable insight into all of the experiences and opportunities offered to us as students. We have been given the pleasure of meeting and interviewing practising artists, partners and institutions working across the projects, which is incredibly beneficial in adding to our knowledge and understanding of the art world.
One project allows a group of students to work with artist and Wheatley Fellow, Bridget O’Gorman to investigate the School of Art archives. Here, students hunted for interesting and inspiring historical information and materials that then became the basis of an ongoing body of work, tailored to their personal practice.
Another group of students are working with artist Mark Essen, attending ceramic workshops and studio sessions in order to learn about ceramics and how they are used in Mark’s practice, before using this as the basis and inspiration for a series of work tailored to their interests.
In partnership with Grand Union and artist Kaye Winwood, a group of our fellow students are curating, designing and performing in a one of a kind fine dining experience. They are also whilst also making work around what we hope will be the School of Art’s first annual dinner.
With an artist called Laurie Ramsell, who is currently exhibiting at Birmingham Open Media, students are working with living bacterial cellulose to make work collaboratively around ideas of what it means to be human. Their work will accumulate to create the ‘perfect human’, bringing together both art and science.
We have a project in Tipton in partnership with Public Artist Limited who are working on a long term scheme to develop the gauging house. Students have been on numerous site visits with property developer, John Andrews and artist Jo Capper, in order to pitch their ideas for the gauging house development. The group are creating a collaborative piece, whilst also working on their own personal practice, inspired by the site and the partners they are working with.
Another group of students are working in Milton Keynes with lecturer and practising artist, Stuart Whipps, to create responsive work to the town. The students have been on several site visits to Milton Keynes Discovery Centre and archives, the gallery and the City Club in order to find something that interests them, to inspire their own body of work.
From our perspective, having been involved in all of the available projects as we document them, this module stands out to us. We have been given a variety ofexperiences from working in new groups to meeting and networking with practising artists, institutions and organisations. Most importantly, we have been given the tools and opportunities to think about our personal practices from a new and fresh perspective, whilst learning a new set of skills that we are confident will help us to further and progress our own practices.
You can follow the documentation team on Instagram - www.instagram.com/ip_bsa