Author: Christian

Petra Szemán <Petra.Szeman@newcastle.ac.uk>

Hello everyone,

This is your belated invitation to the first iteration of the ANIMATION FORUM this year, which will be a special SCREENING EVENT on Friday 11 October, 3-5pm in the Fine Art Lecture Theatre.

We have a very special double bill of the early works of Shinkai Makoto, the short film ‘Voices of a distant star’ (2002) & the short-ish film ‘5 Centimetres Per Second’ (2007). The combined length of the films in 1 hr 20 min, and the rest of the time afterwards will be taken up with an informal discussion. Poster attached.

No particular trigger warnings apply to any of the films. The first one is sci-fi, while the second one is more rooted in real life – both are solid cornerstones for the sekai-kei genre, and deal with themes of disconnect.

Those who dabble in Japanese animation may be familiar with Shinkai’s name through his massive success works in recent years such as Your Name and Suzume. This is a great opportunity to watch his early stuff on a relatively large projection!

The goal of the Animation Forum (in no particular order) is to enjoy animation, think about animation and artists’ moving image in a very expanded sense and critically, and to spread technical skills that let you incorporate animated/video elements into your artistic practice.

This screening session + discussion is a good opportunity to think about how pop culture and “high art” may feed into and interact with eachother, and where we can go from there as artists.

I hope to see many of you there !!

All the best,

Petra

ballroom24

World Cinema on Wednesdays @ Culture Lab

We will be screening Elem Klimov’s stunning masterpiece COME and SEE (1985).  

5pm   Opening reception

6-9 pm      Screening + Discussion

All are welcome!

***new poster with time change, 11 Oct 2-7pm*** £1 entry fee***

GREEN FINGER FORUM IS BACK!
Spend an autumn evening with us making pumpkin and chickpea curry (veggie and vegan friendly!)

We will also be having ‘using spices in art’ and henna workshops!

I have attached a map for anyone who is confused as to where to find us! 

See you there for some delicious food!

Next week US artist Clifford Owens is a guest in the department as a visiting professor. On the evening of Wednesday 9 October at 18:00 he will be showing a performance in the Robert Boyle Lecture Theatre, room G42 in the Armstrong building (University map ref:22). This is a rare opportunity to see performance art live and thoroughly recommended for all students. 

Clifford’s work brings the significance of liveness and presence into dialogue with the photograph. It acknowledges the complexities that come with a compulsion to record events and asks questions about the existential anxieties that accompany the camera. His own body is a crucial player in this. His practice takes the legacies of emergent performance art making from the ‘60s and ‘70s in which we see the artist’s body as the site of the work and pulls it into a conceptual dynamic with themes of race, masculinity, class and the fragility of social structures.

His project Anthology features performances scores—written or graphical instructions for actions—that Owens solicited from a multigenerational group of African-American artists. Twenty-six major artists have contributed scores — including Pope.l, Kara Walker and Senga Nengudi — many of whom composed new works specifically for Owens and his project.

TALKER is a self-published interview zine about performance by Giles Bailey. Each issue features a long-form interview with an artist who works in an innovative way with live practice. 

We hope to see you there,

Giles.

To all third and final year BA and MfA students

Two-week fully-funded placement with Alwan wa Awtar, Cairo
(25 January – 9 February 2025)

In this fully-funded internship with Alwan wa Awtar you will be working alongside Alwan wa Awtar’s staff with young people delivering art workshops and art projects.

Established in 2005, Alwan wa Awtar (A&A) is a non-governmental organisation based in Cairo, Egypt that offers artistic and non-formal educational services to children and youth in different community settings, both urban and rural.  A&A’s goal is to enrich children and youth social and cultural wellbeing as well as awaken them to their full potential as dignified, authentic and skilled individuals, who actively engage with their own development and that of their communities.

Across the years, A&A has developed a unique experience in operating highly participatory learning spaces in multiple communities (namely Mokattam, Ezbet El-Nasr, & Kafr Hamza) adopting “arts for development” as its core methodology. Today, A&A runs three service units: the Mokattam community space, the Montessori child corner, as well as the Knowledge Hub which brings A&A’s know-how to various entities active in the cultural, educational and developmental field across Egypt.
Since its inception, A&A has worked with more than 10000 children and youth, 250 mothers and 50 partners.

For more information see also A&A’s website: https://alwan-awtar.org

Online applications here: https://forms.office.com/e/kngAuxQLt1Deadline: 10 November 2024

For more information about this opportunity please contact Wolfgang:
wolfgang.weileder@ncl.ac.uk

The aim of the Bartlett Sustainable Practice Award is to inspire students to explore practice-led approaches to climate conscious and sustainable making. There will be several prizes available which will be awarded through open submission to UG and MFA students for practices that reflect critically on materials use, repurposed material, longevity and the articulation of ideas in relation to sustainable making.

For more information Click here

Off Season Gardening 

Call out to all Fine Art students (who plan to stay in Newcastle over the summer)
First Meeting: Friday 17th May 2024, from 1pm
Where:  Windsor Terrace Fine Art Garden  / 14-15 Windsor Terrace NE2 4HE
Contact: Sean Rodrigues E-mail: seanrodrigues99@gmail.com

Although the academic year is nearing the end for many people, the growing season is only really just starting to kick into gear. This is a call out to anyone in the school of arts and cultures who’d be interested in doing regular garden activities as part of a group, and is planning on being up in newcastle over the summer, even if its only for part of it. This would take place in the back yard of Windsor Terrace, which is currently the building that houses studio spaces for Fine art MA and PHD students. The aim is to have somewhat regular sessions where people can meet up and do some gardening or just enjoy the space, and should hopefully be a way to stay connected with colleagues in the university over the summer off – season.

First meetup will be this Friday 17th May from 1pm. Lunch will be involved, which may already include some produce from the garden itself – additional contributions to the lunch are also welcome. Weather permitting we can even get outside and do some jobs in there, but if you just want to be in a green space away from computer screens and white walls for a bit then that is absolutely fine too.

Everybody welcome!

Sean

OPEN STUDIOS 
Thursday 9 May 2024 (4-8pm) in the Fine Art studios!

If you have not been involved in OPEN STUDIOS before this is when we tidy up ALL of the studios and you present work in progress in your studio space. Those of you sharing studios with Year 4 students please be mindful of the fact that final year students will stay in the studios in preparation for the degree show until all Year 1-3 have moved out.

Open studios is a social event – not assessment– it is entirely up to you what you present in your space. This might include sketchbooks, documentation, work in progress or completed pieces .  As you know,  the Year 1-3 assessments take place the week after (w/c 13 May), so it will also mean we have tidy spaces ready to present work for assessment. 

Health & Safety and Security: You need to have your space ready by 3.30pm on Thursday  9^th May  for a Health and Safety walk around by Joe – so think carefully about any equipment you may need and any health & safety checks and risk assessments you may need to organise. If you are not sure then speak to your tutor or module leader.  Be especially careful of running electric cables across walkways and blocking fire corridors and exits. 

You are responsible individually for your own work, so you need to consider ethics, & check any electrical equipment you are using and – very importantly – turn it off at the end of the event. You may want to discuss Open Studios (health & safety, signage, security etc) with other members of your studio and work collaboratively. 

Open Studios 2024  

Start 4 PM, Windsor Terrace, 
See MFA studio and meet MFA students 
join us for drinks in the garden/ Windsor Terrace

5-8 PM King Edward VII Building Fine Art BA studios
STUDIOS HAVE TO BE VACATED AND EVERYTHING SWITCHED OFF BY 8PM!

If you have any questions, please contact Christian.Mieves@newcastle.ac.uk

You are cordially invited to a student-led exhibition event concluding the project ‘Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Ancient Technologies – Bloomery Iron Smelting’. The event will be taking place on

Thursday 25^th April, 5.30-7.30pm, The Long Gallery, Fine Art Department, King Edward VII Building.

Refreshments will be served.

Archie Ogus  |  Ardra Nair  |  Brandon Pearce  |  Elizabeth Oughton  |  Frank Pretorius  |  Kitty McKay

Preview: Thursday 24 April, 6 – 9pm

25 April– 4 May 2024

Some Assembly Required brings together the work of six Newcastle University MFA students at Slugtown, Newcastle upon Tyne.  Featuring new works by Ardra Nair, Frank Pretorius, Elizabeth Oughton, Brandon Pearce, Archie Ogus and Kitty McKay the show makes visible the collaborative nature of group exhibitions, and considers what might be achieved when artists embrace their differences and produce work in divergence. 

Eschewing tight thematics, Some Assembly Required explores contrasting relationships towards the purpose of exhibition building and meaning making.  The works in this exhibition span a range of media and references; including painting, urban cartographies, and class and queer politics.  Through bringing these diverse practices together in this exhibition, the show aims to both flatten the hierarchies of prescribed value, and to adopt the position of a playful experiment into the messiness of curation as creative practice.  

More info