The School of Music and Fine Art Visiting is delighted that Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey will be delivering the Visiting Artist Talk on Tuesday December 6^th in the Royal Dockyard Church at 6.15pm.  The talk is free to attend.

The artists will be talking especially about their role in the development of the Ash Project which has been conceived by Kent Downs Area of Outstanding National Beauty, which has been awarded Heritage Lottery and Arts Council funds to help record and raise awareness of ash tree die back.

For 25 years, Ackroyd & Harvey’s work has been exhibited in contemporary art galleries, museums and public spaces worldwide; sculpture, photography, architecture, ecology and biology are disciplines that intersect in their work, revealing an intrinsic bias towards process and event. Often reflecting environmental and scientific concerns, they are acclaimed for large-scale interventions in sites of architectural interest.

The Ash Project is an urgent cultural response to the devastating effects of Ash dieback, and combines a major new commission by Ackroyd and Harvey which will continue their environmental investigations and will result in a large scale public artwork supported by cultural institutions in Kent and in landscape partnerships across the country.

“Processes of growth and decay are integral to our time-based art practice. In the last ten years, living trees have featured significantly in our artwork, from oak trees germinated from acorns collected from Joseph Beuys’s “7000 Oaks” artwork, to a series of ten large trees holding huge engraved rings at the major entrances to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

 When working with plant material we catalyze the growth process by germinating seeds. The Ash presents a distinct challenge given the pervasiveness of the fungal infection affecting millions of ash trees across the country. Landscapes, parks and gardens will be irrevocably changed as landmark canopy trees and copses of ash disappear.

 Our research has revealed a hidden wealth of industries carved from the ash, a myriad of wooden objects and artefacts that occupy historical significance and domestic use. Mythologies address the Ash as the tree at the centre of the world, the ‘cosmic’ tree. Contemporary science is studying genetic traits to understand how to cultivate disease resistant Ash stock. David Nash’s “Ash Dome” is an international recognized artwork. The emotional, social and metaphorical relationship with this tree gives deep-rooted material for our artistic exploration.” Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, November 2016

The commission is complimented by a two year programme of public engagement to include artists’ walks, green wood working, an evolving Ash Archive, public programmes at University of Kent and Folkestone Triennial. These events will involve communities in actively documenting the contemporary and historic importance of the Ash in collaboration with the research and scientific community of the Kent Downs and artists and educators Outdoor Studios, who work with school students to create extraordinary experiences in the outdoors.

For more info go to http://www.ackroydandharvey.com/  and http://www.kentdowns.org.uk/getting-involved/the-ash-project

Preparations for the Interim Degree Show from 3rd Year BA (Hons) Fine Art students in the School of Music and Fine Art are now in full swing – literally.

On Thursday morning, should you have ventured onto Chatham Historic Dockyard, you would have encountered a strong female presence, floating high above your head, suspended from a large industrial crane. Just outside the School of Music and Fine Art studios, artist Luiza Jordan installed her delicate yet immersive artwork Feminine Vessels.  The work is the result of extensive research and discovery into the history of the Dockyard.

Artist Megan Boyle observes, “Jordan’s work is an exploration into materiality, which often manifests itself through sculpture and installation work. She attempts to represent the presence of the female, omitting images of the female nude and without explicitly making reference to the female body.  Rather, she uses materials associated with feminine identity and domesticity, engaging with organic bodily textures and shapes. In terms of the site in which these pieces can be found, Jordan aims to construct particular juxtaposition between the organic, fragility and fluidity of her invented forms, and the virile, masculine and industrial nature of her surroundings, which at the moment, is that of the Historic Dockyard, where the School of Music and Fine Art is located.”

Jordan is now continuing to experiment with size, scale and material to prepare her work for the upcoming BA (Hons) Fine Art interim Degree Show Loading…  but this time within the beautiful historic Georgian building that is Chatham House in Rochester High Street.

The show, which features work by 30 artists, will be open as follows:
Saturday 10 December – Wednesday 14 December, 11am-4pm (closed Tuesday).  
The Private View is Friday 9 December, 6-9pm.  

If you would like to be on the guest list, please book via https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/loading-private-view-for-the-interim-fine-art-degree-show-from-3rd-year-ba-hons-fine-art-students-tickets-29333853345

Show venue: 351 Rochester High Street, Rochester, Kent, ME1 1DA

Further information here:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/mfadegreeshow/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mfadegreeshow/

Article by Megan Boyle.

Dr Andrew Conio, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art was a member of the judging panel for the John Downton Awards for Young Artists, a County-wide school’s art prize sponsored by the University of Kent. The Ceremony was held on the 10^th November at Kent County Hall in Maidstone, where an exhibition of shortlisted work will be shown until 3 January 2017, with selected works on tour at the Turner Contemporary in Margate during January and February 2017.

The John Downton Award for Young Artists is an annual exhibition which encourages and celebrates the creativity of Kent’s young artists. The exhibition commemorates the life and work of John Downton, the celebrated Kent artist, poet and philosopher.

Awards were given for Mixed Media, Painting, Drawing and Photography in 11 to 15 and 16 to 18 age groups and overall Gold, Silver, Bronze and Merit awards.

This is Dr Conio’s second year as judge.  He commented, “The number and range of works submitted shows that art is extremely vibrant in Kent schools.  The range of media, technical skills and willingness to address issues relevant to young people today to was exciting to see, and made judging very difficult.”

The judging panel, comprising the painter Charles Williams from Canterbury, Mike Addison printmaker and illustrator and Head of School of Further Education at the University of the Creative Arts, brought a range of experience and perspectives to the judging process but all they agreed that winning entries were excellent examples of art practice and indicated a promising future for the artists.

For more info go to: http://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure-and-community/arts/john-downton-awards