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School of Music and Fine Art hosts event in Medway for Arts Fundraisers

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Organised by Fundraising UK Ltd and hosted by the University of Kent’s School of Music & Fine Art, this event for Arts Fundraisers on Thursday, 14 July, 2016 is a fantastic opportunity for local and regional arts professionals and fundraisers to learn, share good practice and network. Despite the name, there are no tents involved!  A Fundraising Camp is a one-day ‘unconference’-style event for fundraisers: there are no set speakers and no set topics. Each participant is invited to suggest a topic at the beginning of the day. Local fundraising, business, philanthropy or grant making experts are invited to share practical fundraising knowledge and experience.

Find more info here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/events.html?eid=18365&view_by=month&date=20160724&category=&tag=

There will be a limited number of FREE places for University of Kent staff, students and alumni. Please contact j.seaman@kent.ac.uk for details.

Venue: The Historic Dockyard Chatham. 
Times: 9.30am-4pm

Booking link:http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fundraising-camp-arts-registration-21486231898

Early bird tickets are just £30+VAT for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.

Stories in the Dark and Magic Lanterns: Beaney Exhibition features work by Adam Chodzko

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Photo by Adam Chodzko.

 

Whitstable artist and School of Music and Fine Art Lecturer, Adam Chodzko, has stunning work featured in the exhibition Stories in the Dark, curated by artist Ben Judd. The exhibition is a co-commission by The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge and Whitstable Biennale, a festival of contemporary art.  (The exhibition is also part of the programme of the University of Kent’s International Festival of Projections, which ran 18 to 20 March 2016.)

Using rare, original magic lantern machines, projection devices invented in the 17th century that used the light of candles and oil lamps to produce shows that projected moving images for the very first time, and beautiful Victorian slides, this unique exhibition by artists Ben Judd, Jordan Baseman, Benedict Drew, Louisa Fairclough, Dryden Goodwin, Haroon Mirza, Lindsay Seers and Guy Sherwin, creates new work especially for The Beaney.

Mask Filter Arc and sea sponge in case

Adam Chodzko stuns us with images of dust ‘explosions’ in his work Ask The Dust, whilst his second work Mask Filter Arc he then combines the Beaney’s Venus Flower Basket with two magic lantern slides, creating a lantern whose intense flashes of light remind us of the process of inspiration and expiration, ugliness and beauty.

Says Adam about Ask the Dust: “A slide projector back-projects ‘images’ of dust ‘explosions’ onto a blind in the Explorers and Collectors gallery,sharing this ‘screen’ with moving patches of sunlight, channelled by a large arched window. The dust silhouettes are formed by tiny particles of debris, decay collected from the barrel of a cannon (captured from the Chinese during the Second Opium War, 1860) stored in the Beaney’s archives. Their apparently random arrangements, suspended in 35mm film slide mounts, now magnified, offer the possibility of being decoded and read, like tea leaves, as premonitions. Or perhaps as the animated frames from a recording of Chinese shadow puppet performance.”

The exhibition runs until Sunday 19 June.

Location: Special Exhibitions Room, The Beaney, 18 High Street, Canterbury, CT1 2BD

More info here: http://canterburymuseums.co.uk/events/stories-in-the-dark/

Historic Dockyard exhibition makes waves

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Launching at 6pm on Friday 6th May, visitors to The Historic Dockyard Chatham will see how emerging and professional artists have explored the controversial ‘freedom of the seas’ principle through a diverse range of artistic media as part of a new thought-provoking gallery show at No.1 Smithery. Of the Sea is a project in partnership with the University of Kent’s School of Music and Fine Art and is sponsored by Hatten Wyatt Solicitors and Advocates.  It represents the culmination of The Historic Dockyard’s biennial open art competition (Art in the Dockyard) which this year received a record number of submissions from across Europe. All works in the gallery show are competition finalists eligible for two prizes; The Dockyard Prize, sponsored by Hatten Wyatt Solicitors and Advocates, which will be judged on its contextual relevance to the Dockyard’s historical legacy; and The Curators’ Choice, which will be awarded to a work which expresses global, social and political significance. The winning artists in both of the categories will each receive a £750 cash prize.

The works were selected by a distinguished and specially invited judging panel comprising Adam Chodzko, international award winning artist and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art in the School of Music and Fine Art; Exhibition Curator Hannah Conroy from the Artist Pension Trust (formerly Folkestone Artworks Curator); Kathleen Palmer, Head of Art at Imperial War Museums; Victoria Pomery OBE, Director of Turner Contemporary, Margate; and artist Island Projects Director Nicole Mollet.

The variety of work includes lens based media, sculpture and performance art and explores powerful topics such as conflict, ecology, territory, migration, piracy, border disputes and the ebb and flow of oceans. Showing until 24 July.

 

For more info: http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/plan/events/art-dockyard/

Discover the emerging artists of the future

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The amazing quality, diversity and range of student work from School of Music & Fine Art graduating students is showcased throughout May.

 

BA Event & Experience Design

BA Event & Experience Design is celebrated from Monday 9th May until Tuesday 17th May, with a range of innovative live events from EED 3rd Year projects in our production studios, performance space and in sites off the campus – ambitious projects, which creatively explore a broad range of formats and subjects, questioning what constitutes an event? This includes:

Huh – an interactive multilingual cultural experience by Nian Earn Ooi.
My Diary – an experiential journey via Taiwanese beauty products and treatments by Chien-Yi Yang.
K2, the Kreating Kindness Laboratory – an interactive opportunity to generate and receive a small act of kindness by Sophie Cawsey.
Tides of Misfortune, a circus of lost souls – an interactive performance by Jade Alcock.
Gothic Butterfly – an artist launch event by Jade Wildes.
5 Minutes – a physical and immersive game environment by Garrick Chan.
The Secret Garden Project – an immersive walk in Chatham by Charlotte Harding.

From 21st May, there will be a showcase of past EED student projects presented in Room 101. This will take the form of documentation.

 

BA and MA Fine Art

Continuing a tradition of showcasing bold, exploratory exhibitions, framed by the stunning backdrop of one of the country’s most iconic locations, the Historic Dockyard Chatham, visitors will encounter a broad range of artistic styles and media from our 26 graduating BA and MA Fine Art students – an explosion of imagination and a celebration of art’s potential for society.  The Degree Show preview is on Saturday 21st May, 1-5pm, after which work will be available for the public to view until 31 May as follows:

Sunday 22nd May, (10am-5pm):    
Tuesday 24th May – Tuesday 31st May inclusive (10am-5pm):    
This exhibition offers the public a fascinating insight into contemporary art’s most recent practices and processes such as a ‘Grand Design’ home evolved by a hoarder, an oozing conversation with the earth, a system of tunnels, angry letters about Gillingham’s Samurai sent to Medway council, a Dockyard worker’s fall down a well as sculpture, personal Facebook data becomes food, a dream-like exploration of the car industry, hand movements translated into Fibonacci sound, an autobiographical feature length film made on a mobile phone and a performance where the rules of tennis are applied to an exam.

The Degree Show’s aim is to encourage audiences to explore the potential of Medway as a dynamic hub for art, with the School of Music and Fine Art as a major conduit for these activities, positively impacting on the community and offering imaginative suggestions and visionary strategies for cultural regeneration. As well as involving students from Kent, and across the UK, this year’s Degree Show exhibitors include student artists from Iran, Thailand, China, Russia, Italy, Cyprus, Mexico, Hong Kong, Isle of Man and Ghana.

The Fine Art Degree Show exhibition catalogue features essays by academics across University of Kent’ Schools: Emily Rosamond, Grant Pooke, Simon Smith and Howard Griffin.

Degree Show visitors can attend a wide range of exciting educational activities.  Young people attending can also participate in workshops with some of the exhibiting artists. On Tuesday 24h May and Wednesday 25th May, Education Days will be held for local schools and colleges.  Attendees will be able to view the Show and hear talks from the artists; they will also be encouraged to produce their own artwork in response to their experience of the Show.  If you would like to bring a school, college or university group to this event (all ages welcome) please email: mfaadmissions@kent.ac.uk

Visitors to the Degree Show will also be able to visit the Historic Dockyard’s thematic exhibition of international contemporary art works, “Of the Sea,” a competition (in collaboration with the School of Music and Fine Art) whose jury panel includes Kathleen Palmer (Head of Art, Imperial War Museum), and Victoria Pomery (Director of Turner Contemporary, Margate).
http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/plan/events/art-dockyard/

During this period there will other exciting events, including concerts performed by SMFA music students as follows:

Tuesday 17th May to Friday 20th May, 9am – 6pm
School of Music & Fine Art music student solo recitals.

Friday 20th May, 12 noon, Galvanising Shop Performance Space
MA Music Student Lunchtime Recitals

Check our webpage for updates and regular bulletins! https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/

All events are open to all and FREE to attend. Click here to get your special Visitor Pass!

 

The Degree Show Address:
The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TY
Entry is at The Historic Dockyard Chatham Visitor Entrance, via The Galvanising Shop (next to the Dockyard’s visitors’ car park on the East Road).
http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/plan/how-find-us

Contact Details:
For further press information and images of the works on display please contact School Reception:

MFAReception@kent.ac.uk
or telephone 01634 888 980.
www.kent.ac.uk/smfa
Twitter: @unikentmfa #smfacreative #smfashows16

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UoKDegreeShow
Tumblr: http://www.degreeshow2016.tumblr.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/degreeshow2016/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Uokdegreeshow/

Tribute to Janet Hodgson: Artist and Teacher

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Janet Hodgson

 

We are sorry to have to announce that Janet Hodgson, Associate Lecturer in Event and Experience Design, died on 16 March 2016, aged 56. Janet was a highly regarded artist and teacher who is remembered with much affection and respect by those who had the good fortune to work and collaborate with her and by those who were taught by her.

Training originally as a theatre designer at Wimbledon School of Art, Janet’s extraordinary multifaceted career also saw her work with archeologists and historians, and her art has been exhibited internationally. Joining the University of Kent in 2006, Janet made a huge contribution to the BA Event and Experience Design course, working as an Associate Lecturer on a range of modules across all three stages. A moving tribute to Janet’s legacy can be seen here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/campusonline/news.html?view=5984

Janet will be very greatly missed.

3 Concerts in 3 Days!

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Photo by Stacey Cooper

 

Don’t miss the incredibly varied programme for our Easter Concert on Weds 6th April at 7.30pm in the Galvanising Workshop when music students perform a lively array of scored and improvised music that encompasses Elgar, Adele, Bowie, Duke Ellington and drumming from Senegal.

In addition to the University Orchestra (Medway) performing the first movement of Edward Elgar’s Serenade in E minor in an orchestral arrangement prepared for this concert, the Chamber Ensemble perform works by Maurice Emmanuel and Luigi Boccherini.

The Chamber Choir will sing a range of songs that include Adele’s Skyfall Bond Theme, and Life on Mars, by David Bowie who sadly died earlier this year.  The Little Big Band play work that includes George Shearing and Duke Ellington, whilst the Jazz Improvisation Ensembles perform Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Sidney Bechet and a Handel arrangement.

And the World Percussion Ensemble presents Kumpo, traditional djembe drumming from Senegal in our own concert version.

So there is definitely something for everyone – a feast for the ears!

And the day before, Tuesday April 5th at 12 noon, there is another popular Ensemble Performance Lunchtime Concert when you can hear our students studying band and ensemble playing.

Both events take place in the Galvanising Workshop, Chatham Historic Dockyard.

And don’t forget the Popular Music Gig on April 7th, 8pm until late, takes place at Cargo Bar, Liberty Quays, showcasing bands from the School of Music & Fine Art who will perform sets of original material and covers. These are exciting evenings with a fantastic atmosphere and always draw a crowd!

ALL 3 CONCERTS ARE FREE.
EVERYONE WELCOME.

No booking required for the lunchtime concert but for the Easter Concert, please book via https://alumni.kent.ac.uk/events/easter-concert-2016

 

For info on all 3 concerts and full programme for the Easter Concert go to http://bit.ly/1UYwGbj

To keep in touch with our upcoming events, please check https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/events.html

Art Installations from MA Fine Art students in Medway Thursday 31 March!

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At 6.30pm on Thursday 31 March don’t miss the opportunity to experience art installations from MA Fine Art students Sophie Brown and Mandeep Mangat at Medway Adult & Community Learning Service  in Rochester.

Stretching across the space, lying under a ceiling of stretched fabric and linking the entrances of the room with a fabric tunnel, Brown and Mangat explore the way in which the viewer can move through the space by inviting the participant to squeeze through the tunnel to encounter projections of slugs crossing over the meridian line. 

Sitting at eye level the viewer will find the perception of surface between floor and ceiling to be altered through the fabric.

Under and Over is FREE and everyone is welcome!

Instagram Photo Competition for #smfacreatives!

What is the competition?
The School of Music and Fine Art is located in the unique setting of the breathtaking Historic Dockyard Chatham, so we want you to get creative! Take a photo of our campus, the facilities, you and your mates jamming in a practice room. The choice is yours! Post it on Instagram, tag us (@UniKentMFA) and remember to use the hashtag: #smfacreative.

Up for grabs is a £20 Amazon voucher for the winner, and two £10 Amazon vouchers for two runners up. We’ll also post the winning images on all of our social media. So, #getsnapping!

We’ve just got a few terms and conditions that you must agree to in order to enter this competition.

  • The competition is only open to registered students at the University of Kent. Students on any campus are welcome to enter.
  • The Promoter of the competition is the University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ.
  • Prizes:
    x1 £20 Amazon UK Gift Voucher.
    x2 £10 Amazon UK Gift Vouchers.
    The prizes are as stated, not transferrable to another individual and no cash or other alternatives will be offered.
  • Proof of student status may be required before the handover of the prize.
  • All entries must be made directly by the person entering the competition, and entries made using automated methods will be made void.
  • You must use the hashtag #smfacreative and tag our Instagram account @UniKentMFA otherwise your entry will not count.
  • No responsibility can be accepted for entries lost, delayed, corrupted or due to computer error in transit.
  • The promoters reserve the right to amend or alter the terms of the competition, and reject entries that are not entering into the spirit of the competition.
  • The winners consent to the use of their name, likeness and winning entry, and will co-operate with any other reasonable request by the University of Kent relating to any post-winning publicity. You are granting the Promoter an irrevocable, royalty free worldwide license to use your winning entry in any reasonable way.
  • You must ensure if there are people in the image that you have permission to use them in the photo.
  • The prize will be awarded by a team of judges, selected by the Promoter. Their decision is final, and no discussion will be entered into.
  • Amazon Inc. does not endorse and is not affiliated with this competition.
  • The competition begins at 00:01 GMT on 2nd April 2016 and ends at 12:00 GMT on 31st May 2016, and the winners will be posted on Facebook and Instagram within 7 days.

 

Any queries, contact James Burns, Social Media and Communications Ambassador, School of Music & Fine Art
Email: J.T.Burns@kent.ac.uk

Huge success for innovative Artist Walk programme

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Mike Nelson assists Sophie Brown (MA Fine Art, SMFA) in quagmire problem. Photo by Tim Meacham

 

An innovative collaborative project organised by the School of Music and Fine Art in partnership with Whitstable Biennale has proved to be a huge success. The recent walk on 21 March with artist Mike Nelson quickly became fully booked, attracting over 40 people, including curators from Tate Modern and the Whitechapel, a curator of the Architecture Biennial in Venice, filmmakers, writers, poets, artists and students.

Says Adam Chodzko, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art in The School of Music & Fine Art and one of the organisers: “Mike Nelson is one of the UK’s most important artists. Twice nominated for the Turner Prize and previously representing Britain at the Venice Biennale, it was his dislike of public speaking that led to us developing this different approach (walking) in order to develop a different kind of discourse between students and artists and place.”

The 4 walks aim to test the proposition that a walking journey with an artist is as valuable as hearing them address a lecture theatre, and that sharing a range of sights and sounds would reveal something that slides and video clips do not.  Each route culminates at a point along the Medway estuary or river Swale, forming a string of reference points between which the connections between the walks can be contemplated.

 

For images from the walk go to: http://mikenelsonartistwalk.tumblr.com/

The final walk with Brian Dillon is on 9 April. For more details of the walks go to: www.whitstablebiennale.com

 

School of Music and Fine Art staff and students featured in International Festival of Projections, March 2016

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University of Kent’s International Festival of Projections 2016.

Cultural icon Yoko Ono is one of the artists contributing to the University’s International Festival of Projections, taking place from 18-20 March 2016. Designed to showcase internationally renowned arts together with ground-breaking research at Kent, this major new arts festival, which is free and open to all, features more than 100 artists, filmmakers, poets and musicians, who will fill dozens of spaces on Kent’s Canterbury campus with intriguing, thought-provoking and fun artworks, with additional activities at the University’s Medway campus and in Canterbury City centre.

School of Music and Fine Art staff and students feature significantly. Screenings of work from sonic artist Professor Tim Howle, Lecturer in The School of Music & Fine Art take place on Sunday 20th March, which he follows with an evening talk On making electroacoustic movies.

Artist and Senior Fine Art Lecturer Adam Chodzko’s new film Deep Above, which engages with climate change, can be seen on 19th-20th March, with work from MA Fine Art student Jose Fernandez-Levy featured the same days in Confined Projections.

A group of 6 Fine Art MA students from The School of Music & Fine Art present their work The Cloudbuster – a multi-partnered project with Island Projects, and the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust – from 18-20th March in ROOM on the Medway campus. The students – Tracey Affleck, Val Bolsover, Sophie Brown, Fiona Townend, Jose Fernandez-Levy and Claudia Chiappini – worked with Adam Chodzko on this innovative project.

For the full programme for the University’s Projections festival go to: https://issuu.com/kentdesignstudio/docs/bt_121184_projections_prog_final_we/1?e=11873757/33904657