OK... just five minutes to opening time. Brighton 2008. Courtesy University of Brighton
Compiling this top ten degree shows for 2008 has provoked several memories but the most unforgettable involves helping a friend put up her final show.
Her experience will be replicated this year in hundreds of venues across the country as students spend long anguished hours getting their stuff together and hanging/installing/organising their work.
From my experience this often involves the student having a soothing, softly spoken companion (with previously undiscovered carpentry skills) to ensure it is all done on time.
The students will finish, glassy-eyed, a plastic cup of warm white wine in hand as the private view opens. Exhausted, they will watch as friends, family and the general public survey their work - crammed tenement-like into every nook and cranny of the college.
These shows may be lovely for us to look at but we should remember the students have given their all to them. And crucially, they are judged by them – by tutors and by the world at large.
So let’s not forget to congratulate these final year students making their mark on the world in 2008 and enjoy what they have already achieved.
Sydnie Whitely - exhibiting at Liverpool School of Art and Design. © the artist
School of Art and Design, Liverpool www.jmu.ac.uk
While the year one and two fine art students at Liverpool’s School of Art and Design are anticipating a move into a brilliant new building, the final year students are moving their degree show exhibitions out into the city in celebration of its status as European Capital of Culture.
Venues for this year’s fine art student showcase include: Arena House (Duke Street), Duke Street Car Park (near Arena), top floor and basement of the Mello Mello Café Bar (corner of Parr Street/Slater Street), Tito's (Slater Street), International Gallery (Slater Street) and the Wolstenholme Building (opposite Cream).
It all begins on Thursday June 19 and continues until Thursday June 26. See the JMU website for full details.
And once the City of Culture banners are down at the end of the year, Art School director, Martin Downie intends for their new home to continue the vibe: “From drinking a cup of coffee in the café to looking at emerging and more established artists, we want the Academy to be located right in the heart of Liverpool's creative and cultural life." John Lennon would be proud!
University of the Arts, London www.arts.ac.uk
The talent and innovation that pours out of the studios to fill the exhibition spaces during UAL’s degree show month is always breathtaking, consistently provocative and never dull.
Students from Central St Martins, Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon and the London Colleges of Fashion and Communication are all set to prove that the standard just keeps getting better and better in terms of what the capital can contribute to the creative arts.
What will be on show may yet be under wraps but no doubt once seen, it will prove the boundary between ‘student’ and ‘professional’ is a blurry one indeed
For the full details of dates and to see the range of shows visit the UAL website. And remember, Sarah Lucas, John Galliano, Gilbert and George and Antony Gormley were all undergraduates once at the colleges that now make up UAL. Will you spot the name of 2008?
Tate Modern? White Cube? Turner Prize? Dreaming of the future at Brighton. Courtesy University of Brighton
University of Brighton www.brighton.ac.uk
The Brighton Festival month of May extends into the early days of June with the Burt, Brill and Cardens Graduate Show. Despite the sponsors’ headline, once the 500 graduates take over the Faculty of Art Building on Grand Parade, you are sure to find some soon to be star names, like those of years gone by – such as Keith Tyson and Rachel Whiteread.
Not only can Brighton students pack out the galleries, but they also pack in thousands of punters.
The show opens on May 31 and finishes on June 5 when Brighton’s population will finally get the chance to have a sit down and a nice cup of tea after nearly 40 days of festivity and cultural celebration. Phew.
School of Art, Media and Design, Bristol www.uwe.ac.uk
Students graduating this year from UWE’s Bristol School of Art, Media and Design invite everyone to see their work in SHOW 2008. Two venues will host the SHOW – in its various forms and this year punters get the chance to experience how Spike Island really is becoming a space for culture with the BA and MA Fine Art shows. This old warehouse and new creative centre is one of two venues used to show off and show case student work 2008 style.
The other venue is the Ashton Bower campus, which will be hosting fashion, design textiles and just about everything else
See the Degree Show 2008 website for full details of what’s on where.
Untitled by Kayleigh Hilsdon, University of the Arts London BA Illustration graduate. © the artist
Edinburgh College of Art www.eca.ac.uk
The work of 400 students and a few thousand e-coli bacteria will be on show during Degrees Of Excellence, Edinburgh’s graduate shows. Art and Design runs from June 14 to June 24. Then architecture takes over between June 21 and July 4.
Whilst the students from 21 disciplines will be filling the four venues – the Main Building, the Hunter Building, the Architecture Building and Evolution House – the E. coli bacteria will be confined to a Petri dish (graphic designer Ross Colquhoun has been commissioned by MTV to redesign their logo using E. coli bacteria).
In addition to this we are promised the gloriously practical 'obesity chair' that grows with you, a fairytale donkey, 500 Bantu inspired glass vessels and some designer nipple tassels, which all gives the impression that Degrees of Excellence is one show not to miss!
Ulster School of Art and Design www.ulster.ac.uk
Ulster never keeps its art and design students’ achievements hidden until the last minute – an exhibition of their work is always on display around the campuses of Coleraine and Belfast.
You can’t be an art or design student however without the rite of passage of a final degree show so Ulster’s students don’t escape it. Having already had their work on show for all to enjoy these last three years, it is no surprise that their finale is always typified by confidence and professionalism.
Go to the York Street (Belfast campus) building between June 10 and June 14. Doors are open from 10am – 7pm and until 10pm on Thursday.
There's something for everybody at Birmingham Institute Of Art and Design.
Grays School of Art, Aberdeen www.rgu.ac.uk/degreeshow
It’s already been quite a year for the final year students at Grays. Seven of them walked off with Scottish Royal Academy student awards.
The final degree show is therefore the icing on the cake for Aberdeen’s ‘professional’ art school, which has built a reputation for its hard working and talented intake. Graft is one thing however and clearly there will be masses of inspiration and creative ability backing this up.
Stuart MacDonald, head of the school, says of the process of putting on a final degree show: “It’s hugely important for students; it allows them to go beyond the production of work and think about its presentation, installation and interpretation with a real audience.”
This year’s real audiences can visit the Garthdee Road campus from June 14 to June 21 to visit the show and chat with students about their work. Times can be found on the Grays School of Art Website
Birmingham Institute Of Art and Design www.biad.uce.ac.uk
‘Degree show’ doesn’t quite sum up what is lined up by BIAD in June when it comes to showcasing student work from the largest centre for art and design higher education outside London.
It should come as no surprise to learn then that their degree show, Pick Of The Crop, will be Europe’s largest exhibition of graduate work.
Birmingham residents and visitors will give Brighton a run for their money when it comes to stamina. Taking in this harvest however will prove more than worth it.
Clear your diary for June and check out the dates and venues on the BIAD website
Lori Flannigan, showing at Goldmsiths. © the artist
Cardiff School of Art and Design www.csad.uwic.ac.uk
A broad sweep around the creative landscape is essentially what Cardiff students will bring to their degree show in this wonderful city – inspired no doubt from the incredible views on offer from the faculty building.
Fine to applied arts with a few computer games in between will demonstrate that Cardiff’s art school’s watchword, innovation, sticks in our minds as we take in the range of what is on display across two venues.
Take up their open invitation for details of dates and venues, then go along and take in the panorama of what Cardiff students have to offer as future art and design practitioners. And if you can’t make it, check out their YouTube clips – just search for ‘CSAD’.
Goldsmiths www.goldsmsiths.ac.uk
It’s hard being an individual in a big city. London’s Goldsmith College have always strived to not let their students forget their unique artistic identities. As a result, their degree shows are always evidence of individual discernment, have impact and a fair dose of humour too.
Catch all of this throughout June and July across various London venues and a multitude of disciplines.
