The School of Music and Fine Art’s  Event & Experience Design BA programme has two students taking the Year in Industry during the academic year 2015/16, before they return to take their final year on this innovative programme.

This is particularly exciting as these are our first BA Event & Experience Design students to do this and both achieved highly competitive placements.

Leah Stewart has been accepted on a national paid internship scheme at L’Oreal and will work on visual merchandising, design and branding, important elements within our course. For more information: http://www.loreal.com/careers/students—graduates/internships

Kirsten Short underwent a rigorous recruitment process at Hels Angels in Covent Garden, London, to achieve a paid internship, beating competition from students on the event management courses at Sheffield Hallam and Greenwich.  For more information: http://www.helsangels.net/

“These are two fabulous opportunities for our students to experience two completely different high-level work environments in London, which will provide them with contacts for their future employability and a deep understanding of the events and marketing industries. They will return to their studies with a wealth of knowledge,” says Peter Hatton, Director of Events &Experience Design.

As part of the Fuse Festival in Medway this weekend, the Welcome Home Art Trail has been designed by students from Event & Experience Design at the School of Music & Fine Art in partnership with Emergency Exit Arts and associate artist Cristina Ottonello. Together they have delivered a programme of free arts workshops across Gillingham, enabling residents to learn new creative skills as part of the festival.

In the Spring Term 2015, as part of the 2nd Year module CR523 Celebratory Performance, students worked on a project with Emergency Exit Arts, designing artworks based on research on the region and site visits to go in the streets of Gillingham during the Fuse Festival. The project, Welcome Home, is a celebration of multicultural Gillingham and is a positive response to migration and movement, historically with the Dockyard, and contemporary multiculturalism.

Based on their research and designs, students then created workshops for different age groups at Gillingham Library.

The workshop titles and creators were:

Making Your Mark – Chien-Yi Yang, Garrick Chan, Krunal Tailor

Home Sweet Home – Sophie Cawsey & Leah Stewart

Cargo – Itse Ayonmike, Janice Ooi, Ying The

Nest – Jade Alcock & Emily Lloyd

Magic Moments – Kirsten Short, Jade Wildes & Ginny Brennan

Website Design and Marketing – Charles Bernacki

Welcome Video – Garrick Chan

Emergency Exit Arts ran further workshops, which Jade Wildes participated in, and together they produced the fixtures and fittings and made the larger artworks waterproof and structurally safe to be displayed outside. Director of Emergency Exit Arts, Deb Mullins, reviewed their research and designs with lead artist for Emergency Exit Arts, Cristina Ottenello, and the entire project was overseen by module convenor Janet Hodgson.

Peter Hatton, Director of Studies Event & Experience Design, said, “Working with Emergency Exit Arts and the Fuse Festival director Megan Donnolley has been an invaluable opportunity for our students. They have worked with an arts company with 25 years of experience on large scale outdoor performances and a long term commitment to working with communities in the south east. Fuse Director Megan is an international festival programmer and artistic director. Working with these professionals inside and outside of the studio has been a tremendous learning opportunity for the students and they have risen to the challenges with creativity and energy and have had the chance to take an idea from the sketchbook to the streets, getting to know the community through their research and sitting down with them in workshops – not forgetting that their work will be presented within a nationally renowned festival alongside an impressive range of international acts and performers.”

Links:

Emergency Exit Arts www.eea.org.uk/

Fuse Festival: http://fusefestival.org.uk/

http://welcomehomeuniproject.weebly.com

MA: Event & Experience Design from September 2016! (subject to validation)

This exciting new practice based MA, to be offered at the School of Music and Fine Art, covers contemporary culture delivered through live and mediated events that may include live streaming, interactive networks and traditional terrestrial broadcast. The experience may be interactive, participatory or immersive or combinations of any of these.

This programme is ideal for Art, Design, Digital Arts, Performance and Drama (and other related subjects) undergraduate students who wish to study in an interdisciplinary environment. It is also aimed at professionals in the industry who wish to study part time(over 2 years) for personal and professional development.

Modules are assessed on coursework and practical project outcomes with supporting research portfolios. The dissertation is 8,000 words or 5,000 words plus a publicly-presented element.

To find out more, contact: mfaadmissions@kent.ac.uk and visit our website: http://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/eventandexperiencedesign/index.html