Inspired Festival 2023

See the work of final year Arts, Design and Media students from our Inspired Festival Stories showcase 2023. 

These artists, actors, designers, writers and musicians have responded positively and creatively to unprecedented challenges. They have demonstrated outstanding ingenuity and adopted new ways of working, with inventive ideas evolving from a range of disciplines. Nurtured in the region, the Inspired Festival now brings our graduates to a global audience. We are proud to offer this platform to share their inspiring work.

Inspired Journeys

Follow the journeys of our students as they create their projects through these video diaries, from the first day up until showcasing at the festival.

Charlotte Blazier

Charlotte Blazier is a final year Textile Design student. Her sensory and mindfulness based project, Tactile Bliss, aims to evoke comforting, nature-like feelings.

Follow their journey

Paul-Romulus Penciu

Paul-Romulus Penciu is a third year Photography student. His striking work stems from sexuality and taboo within religion, and his project uses bold imagery to depict this.

Follow their journey

Libby Hudson

Libby Hudson is a final year Fashion Business and Promotion Student. Her project combines innovative technology with environment-conscious fashion.

Follow their journey

Gabriella Broadley

Gabriella Broadley, a final year Jewellery and Objects student, explores the connection between memories and physical objects in her heartwarming project.

Follow their journey

Emily Teague

Reading Between the Words

Emily Teague is a third year Fashion Design student specialising in menswear. Her project is inspired by artist Lucus Dupuy and her own experience with dyslexia.

Louisa Cherry

Evanescence

Louisa Cherry is a final year Fine Art student. Her inspiring project attempts to visualise the feeling of memories through a combination of different art mediums. 

Beth Carroll

FEMME

Beth Carroll is a third year Photography student who specialises in fashion portraiture. Her project encompasses empowerment through the use of mythology.

Anna Blanke

George Saunders Reimagined

For the George Saunders Reimagined Exhibition, Anna Blanke, a fashion design student from Germany who studied textile design at BCU during her semester abroad, embarked on a project to create a wallpaper reflecting the life of George Saunders and his profession.

Lydia Pierce-Brown

George Saunders Reimagined

For the George Saunders Reimagined Exhibition, Lydia created a captivating wallpaper design that reflects both cultures and showcases Saunders' journey and successful career, her project draws on her acquired skills and support from her Textiles course, enabling her to experiment and bring her vision to life.

Gregory Simpson

TBC

Gregory Simpson is a third year Fine Art student whose final project has been created using multiple art forms and sustainably sourced or secondhand materials.

Charlotte Blazier

Tactile Bliss

Charlotte Blazier is a final year Textile Design student. Her sensory and mindfulness based project aims to evoke comfort to those who need it, including her grandad, who recently had a stroke.

Alisha Khan

Structural Iridescences Inspired by Insect Surfaces

Alisha Khan is a final year Textile Design student aiming to portray the brilliantly iridescence and structural elements of a butterflies wings through her project.

Chloe Jones

Repertoire

Chloe Jones is a final year Photography student that aspires to work within music photography. This is something she has captured through her final project, where she has created a portfolio of her music-related work.

Emily John

Human Communication

Emily John is a final year Illustration student whose final project portrays human communication through several different illustrative art forms.

Zuzana Kodajova

Rave your Pain Away

Zuzana Kodajova is a third year Fashion Design student using the power of the rave community to create a sustainable clothing collection.

Rebecca Evans

Actor

Rebecca Evans is a final year Acting student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham City University. For her final project, she performed in three large-scale productions across various venues.

Katherine Millward

ReRooted Beauty: New Business Award winner - Graduate Fashion Week 2023

Katherine Millward is a final year Fashion Business and Promotion student whose final year project, beauty brand ReRooted Beauty, won the New Business Award at Graduate Fashion Week 2023. The brand's concept revolves around using waste from the fruit industry and using it within cosmetics – considering packing – production and marketing.

Hannah Pincher

The Unseen Black Country

Hannah Pincher is a third year Textile Design student whose project celebrates her Black Country heritage and pays homage to the industrialism of the area.

Paul-Romulus Penciu

Electric Chapel

Paul-Romulus Penciu is a third year Photography student. His striking work stems from sexuality and taboo within religion, and his project uses bold imagery to depict this.

Canaan Brown

The Fantastic Memoir of the Life of Lucius Alexander, A Haint

Canaan Brown is a final year Art and Design student. His final project encapsulates the supernatural within nineteenth century London.

Nadine Burke

Legacies and Opportunities: Resilient Communities

Nadine Burke is a final year Architecture student. Her project focuses on the area of Duddeston, Birmingham, and aims to bring new life to the area.

Maisy Neale

The Role of Education Departments in Orchestras and Opera Companies

Maisy Neale is a final year BMus student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Her final project focuses on music education within orchestras and opera companies in England.

Sarah Mills

Hidden in the Wetlands: New Designers Award Winner - Prestigious Textiles Award

Sarah Mills is a final year Textile Design student with a passion for the Great British countryside. Her love of this has influenced her final project, where she has created designs based on the lost beauty of the great outdoors.

Ava-Daniera McDonald

Both Sides Now

Ava-Daniera Mcdonald is an Applied Theatre student. Her project is a play called Both Sides Now, which explores the relationship between an elderly care home patient and her carer. 

Tanya Shah

Open Doors Open Curtains

Tanya Shah is a final year Architecture student aiming her final project at tackling social injustice for women. 

Wilson McDowell

Actor

Wilson McDowell is a final year Acting student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham City University. Wilson tells us about his final and upcoming performances.

Michael Man Lin

FU(NA)TURE

Michael Man Lin is a final year Jewellery and Objects student taking inspiration from Japanese nature.

Amy Bradley

TBC

Amy Bradley is a third year Art and Design student. Her untitled project is inspired by her passion for life and nature.

Libby Hudson

Aecora

Libby Hudson is a final year Fashion Business and Promotion Student. Her project combines innovative technology with environment-conscious fashion. 

Joshua Howes

Stage Manager for Brontë

Joshua Howes is a final year Stage Management student at Birmingham City University and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His final project entails acting as stage manager for a performance of Brontë. 

Natalie Matthews

George Saunders Reimagined

For the George Saunders Reimagined Exhibition, Natalie aimed to develop menswear tailoring by incorporating the story of a master tailor, George Saunders and his original 1970s blocks.

Samuel Hearne

(Re)making a Community: Bordesley Green

Samuel Hearne is a third year Architecture student whose project aims to raise awareness and help those locally who are victims of domestic abuse. 

Toby Hawkins

Furniture for a Small Space

Toby Hawkins is a final year Art and Design student. His project aims to solve a problem in his every day life by creating unique but affordable furniture. 

Immy Haskey

Urban Impermanence

Imogen Haskey is a final year Fine Art student. Her project takes a unique approach to showcasing the negative sides of a cityscape.

Hollie Aston-Baugh

A Serpent's Gaze

For Hollie's final project, she formed a company and created a 30-minute performance called "A Serpent's Gaze" for The Applied Theatre Festival.

Ifrah Sagheer

The Abject Desire

Ifrah Sagheer is a final year Fine Art student at Birmingham City University, studying within the School of Art. Their project boldly showcases ideas of abjection through several sculpted artworks. 

Gabriella Broadley

Piece of Mind: An Exploration of How Objects Embody Memory

Gabriella Broadley is a final-year Jewellery and Objects student at our School of Jewellery. Her heartwarming project looks at the relationship between memories and physical objects.

Faith Chavez

EBLA

Faith Chavez is a final year Textile Design student whose project encapsulates the warm feeling of her grandmother's home in Ecuador and evokes memories from her distant home.

Eduard-Dumitru Popescu

Urban Regeneration Through Learning

Eduard-Dumitru Popescu is third year Architecture student trying to combat social injustice through his community hub design proposal.

Natasha Holt

Fashion and Editorial

Natasha Holt is a final year Photography student who executed six fashion photoshoots for her final major project, encompassing her self development.

More Information

Inspired 2024

See the wonderful work of last year's Arts, Design and Media students, and find out how they made their creations.

Read the stories

Official website

Check out the official Inspired Festival website and view the work of the Arts, Design and Media students.

bcuinspired.com

Open Days

When possible, the best way to explore what's on offer is to come and see us in person, and we host a number of Open Days throughout the year. 

Come to an Open Day