I am excited to present the programme for the newly established research seminars in art history in Fine Art, taking place fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.15, with refreshments available after each event, from 18.30.
This new seminar series offers a platform for engagement with research in history of art at a time when the discipline is undergoing change in response to issues of urgent significance, including intergenerational justice, colonial legacies, and environmental breakdown.
‘Art and Ecology’ is the topic for the inaugural series of seminars. This is a great opportunity to hear leading international and UK-based scholars present on subjects as diverse as the colours of the Anthropocene and art made by bowerbirds. The full schedule is attached below; further information for each talk will be circulated a week in advance.
Most of the seminars are in-person events. Please note, however, that two of the events will use a hybrid format, as a virtual presentation presented the most sustainable option due to the distance of the speakers’ travel.
Wednesday 13 December from 17:30 (after open studios).Please join us for a drink to launch our exhibitions across the department in the Project Space, Life Room, Long Gallery, TIC Space, XL Gallery and Atrium. We’d love it if you’d come and see our work.
Caitlin Kelly, Gaynor Voice, Alasdair Cook, India Arkin, Isabelle Emmerton, Thulsi Mathes Hewage, Annice Weatherley, Samuel Shams, Rachel Herriott, Francesca Arlett, Beatrice Barker, Emily Davis, Octavia Hands, Ella du Gay, Manako Maddison, Amber-Rose Isherwood, Melanie Colbey, Saskia Mcwilliam-Bagley, Cerys Organ,Katherine Hunter, Phoebe Scott, Eliana McHugh, Keira Wilson, Darnesh Dadgostar, Joseph Brady, Lucy Turner, Madeline Lewis, Ksenija Cvetkova, Megan Nolan, Molly Mae Davisson, William Wistow, Ella Rhodes, Kub Bradley, Meriel Morris-McHarry, and Shula Rush Glew
Student access to the Fine Art, King Edward VII Building, during the Winter holidays:
Fri 15 Dec: Out of hours will operate up to and including Friday.
Mon 18 Dec – Fri 22 Dec: 8AM – 6PM the building will be open during normal hours.
22 Dec – 3 Jan: University is closed and buildings will not be accessible to UG/PGT students. Staff/PGRs will have access if essential but heating will be turned down and bins not being emptied etc.
3 Jan to 5 Jan 2024: the building will be open during normal hours (8-6).
Sat 6 and Sun 7 Jan 2024: buildings will be closed to UG/PGT students.
3:00- 5:30 pm 14-16 Windsor Terrace – Studio Tour with MFA & PhD’s
4.00 – 5.30pm KEVII Fine Art Studios – BA 1-3Year
Followed by ….5.30 – 8.00pm Interim PV/ FESTIVE PARTY for ALL Fine Art students in KEVII Café
If you have not been involved in OPEN STUDIOS before this is when we tidy up ALL of the studiosand you present work in progress in your studio space. We then have a fun afternoon where everyone gets involved with looking around the different studios in Windsor terrace and then KEVII – seeing everyone else’s work , chatting and having conversations with each other in the studio. .
Open studios is a social event – not an assessment event – it is entirely up to you what you present in your space. This might include sketchbooks, documentation, work in progress or completed pieces . For BA students it will also mean we have lovely tidy spaces ready for the Jan asessment!
This year will be a bit different. We will be kicking things Off at 3pm with studio tour/refreshments at Windsor Terrace, followed by a staggered 4pm start in KEVII to give all the BA’s a chance to get to immersed in the MFA and PhD studios .
Open studios is an opportunity to come together socially and see what is going on is all the Fine Art Studios & locations (King Edward & Windsor terrace) Its also a chance to get to know each others practice, share expertise, create opportunities and make connections. New this year – We will give out post-it notes at Open Studios and encourage all student and staff to use them at the event to make introductions, give feedback about work, share an encouraging opinion or helpful suggestion. Post- Its available from Nigel!
OS is taking place in the regular teaching day so it will be a “dry” event and there won’t be a bar. But… Final Year Interim Preview and the FINE ART FESTIVE PARTY for all students kicks off directly after Open Studios 5.30 -8.00pm. All WELCOME !
Health & Safety and Security: You must have your space ready by 12am on Wed 13th Dec 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.
STUDIOS HAVE TO BE VACATED AND EVERYTHING SWITCHED OFF BY 5.30 PM!
I am the Sustainability Representative for the Art Department. Since the last SSC Meeting, I have met up with the Head of the Department Christian Mieves to discuss the creation of a swap space for materials, and he is currently looking for a suitable place for this within the department building.
Please message send an email to me if you have any other sustainability issues you would like me to raise.
BA, MFA, PHD Students & staff all welcome – We hope to see you there
What is Breakfast Club?
Hosted by the Head of Fine and Deputy Head (Christian & Nick), Breakfast Club is an informal space for conversation, and community. You can pop in for a coffee and chat about anything that comes to mind. We can listen, answer questions you might have and resolve concerns or just chat about whatever is the hot topic that week. Let us know your ideas ! Breakfast Club continues every teaching week on Tuesdays 9.30-10.00 am in the FA Café
Have you always wanted to learn how to grow your own food? Know how but have nowhere to garden? Are you
interested in organic gardening, green issues or working with natural materials in your practice? Are you interested in alternative approaches to creating opportunities for discussion and collaboration ? – Then come and work with the Green Finger Forum at 14-15 Windsor Terrace!
The GFF is a student run forum based on creating opportunities for creative social events through gardening, cooking, eating, foraging and making. We will hold approximately 2-3 events per semester. This often takes the form of a little light gardening (depending on the season) and making and eat a vegan/vegetarian lunch together. This year we are also intending to run workshops in other plant related subjects such as pickling and preserving , natural dyes and using natural materials in making artworks .
This year we are trying out an international recipe theme – so if you have a dish that you would like to take the lead in showing others how to prepare and cook then please get in touch by responding to the emails we will send out. We are also looking for ideas from you for other workshops and projects we can run or help facilitate.
In 2022 the GGF cleared the overgrown gardens at the back of 14-15 Windsor Terrace near the Robinson Library. We also built compost bins, raised beds, and a small greenhouse, and planted a herb bed and a vegetable garden. Everything has bloomed over the last two years and we have been eating salads, micro-greens, courgettes, potatoes and beans for sunny lunchtime snacks over the summer. There are still lots of lovely veggies left to harvest and eat or to pickle, preserve or perhaps use for dying or making inks etc.
We would love to have you come join us . You do not need to have any experience in gardening or to have been involved last year – just bring an open mind and generous approach to working with others. If you are intending to help in the garden please wear clothes and footwear that you do not mind getting a bit dirty. If we have bad weather we will have indoor activities.
Our first meeting of the new academic year 23-24 on Monday 13th November (see poster attached)and will be a whole day event with pierogi making, talks and workshops. You can pop in when you feel like but it would be great to have some collaboration in making the food in the morning for lunch around 1pm. The food w e prepare is vegan and we also try to have gluten free alternatives when possible. Contributions welcome.
Chilean artist Constanza Mendoza will be visiting the department from Berlin. Constanza’s work studies games and play as critical tools to examine power structures, ethic-politics and new strategies for collaboration. She will be giving a talk as part of the visiting speakers programme, but we will also be running a session to play Game of Kin, a collaborative card game designed by Constanza’s collective, Laboratorio de Pensamiento Lúdico. The game works from a scenario in which the climate crisis has caused the collapse of life on Earth. The objective is to generate relationships between non-human species in order to survive in their habitats.
This will take place on Thursday 5 October between 14:00 and 17:00 in 14 Windsor Terrace.
We have ten spaces for students to join and play the game. If games are important for you, you would like to explore how they might become part of your practice or you’re interested in creative responses to the climate crisis, I encourage you to sign up here.
More details about the game are included below. Also if you would like to meet and speak with Constanza about your work, tutorial slots are available on Friday 6 October. Please add your name and info here to book one. All the best, Giles.
GAME OF KIN Can you imagine what life on Earth will be like in four hundred years when the Anthropocene is over? Game of Kin is a speculative game about the species that survived the global collapse to fabulate a new era of cooperation and relationality. Game of Kin changes the perspectives on what is happening, because by modifying the questions we will be able to propose new answers. As long as we imagine it, we will have already started a new era. Game of Kin is designed for up to 24 people to participate. It does not require any specific skill or knowledge. Game of Kin consists of a deck of cards with which groups are formed that are defined as ecological niches. That is, each group is determined by a territory with differentiated climatic conditions and inhabited by interdependent organisms adapted to those conditions and territory. The possibilities of each game are infinite and never repeated, but always imply responsibilities.
Game of Kin is a game designed by Laboratorio de Pensamiento Lúdico (LPL) and it will be facilitated by Constanza Mendoza.
