We are delighted to announce the winners of our first ever SMFA student Instagram competition.

The brief was to celebrate the unique setting of The School of Music and Fine Art in the  breathtaking Historic Dockyard Chatham by calling for images of our campus created by SMFA students posted on our @UniKentMFA Instagram page with our hashtag #smfacreative.

We were delighted that Vicky Price, Community Engagement Officer of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, agreed to select the winning entries and her comments are below:

“They’re a great bunch of photographs!  I’ve decided on a winner and 2 runners up, and there is a fourth photograph I wanted to ‘highly commend’.

Winner: (£20 Amazon voucher) Dave Perry , 1^st Year Music Technology – “Because it really brings out the power and scale of HMS Cavalier.”

Runners up: (£10 Amazon vouchers) Dave Perry – “A view not often considered, and beautifully lit to reveal the brickwork.  Also great because it puts Kent University’s presence and the historic nature of The Historic Dockyard’s architecture together so well.”

Emma Greenwood, 1^st Year Event and Experience Design – “A really pleasing composition of a view, again, not often considered.  Lovely play with light and shadows.”

Highly commended: Dave Perry – “The colours, contrast and wide reach of the lens in this image is striking.  I felt that, on a large scale, printed, this would be a fantastic image – it just isn’t done justice on Instagram.”

Thanks to everyone who took part.  Don’t forget to check our @UniKentMFA Instagram account, enjoy the pics, post your own – and watch out for our next competition!

#smfacreative

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 9^th May until Tuesday 17^th May, with a range of innovative live events from EED 3^rd 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 21^st 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 21^st 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 24^th May – Tuesday 31^st 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 24^h May and Wednesday 25^th 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/

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.