Over the weekend of Saturday 3^rd and Sunday 4th October, staff and students from the School of Music and Fine Art are collaborating on two exciting community engagement projects with Kent Fun Palaces.

The 3^rd and 4^th October, from 10.30am to 3.30pm, sees a project with Gravesend Fun Palace and on Sunday 4th October 9.00am to 4.00pm, a collaboration with Whitstable Fun Palace

SMFA initiated an interdisciplinary Student Success EDI project in collaboration with Gravesend community group, the Fun Palace. Led by Dave Thomas, Student Success (EDI) Project Officer, students from BAs in Fine Art, Music and Event & Experience Design will have the opportunity to work with a broad range of participants, children, teens and adults on a Community Engagement event. This will incorporate Peer Mentoring, peer/vertical learning, and interdisciplinary working and will be run by students along with artists and volunteers from the local community.

Says Dave, “I am excited by the prospects of our students collaborating with volunteers, professionals and people from the local community to use the arts as a therapeutic agent to promote community engagement. I feel this event can be a change catalyst which may provide our students with knowledge of the dynamic use of their repertoire of skills to promote health and wellbeing”

The event will be run over two days. Day 1 will be run at the Gravesend library, with Day 2 to be held at the St Andrew’s Arts Centre, with two workshops which are themed “Environmental Art”. The concept is the brainchild of Emma Griffiths and Ayda Majid Ardekani, two final year BA (Hons) Fine Art students who have established an Environmental Art group. This explores the use of recycled products to create art. The workshop activities will be run by students under the supervision of staff.

The event in Whitstable comprises a building/structure that can be developed during workshops.

Says Peter Hatton, Director of the BA Hons Event & Experience Design, “We have discussed using trikes and making two travelling structures – which may be towers of memories, built onto the trikes, with sounds (sound words and actual recordings) that can be cycled from the Seawall to the Umbrella Centre, where most of the activities are taking place. We are delighted to be invited to be part of the Fun Palaces and participation in this event will serve to build a collaborative relationship with the School of Architecture and the local community”

The workshop activities will be run by students under the supervision of staff and there are plans for a web link/live video feed from the Seawall to the Umbrella Centre.

About the Fun Palaces

In the early 1960s, Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price conceived the Fun Palace as a ‘laboratory of fun’ and ‘a university of the streets’. It was to be a temporary and movable home to the arts and sciences, open and welcoming to all. For various reasons, wasn’t possible in 1961 and the Fun Palace never came to fruition as a building. The idea however, of a space welcoming and open to all, bringing arts and sciences together, where everyone is an artist and everyone a scientist, remained.

Links

This is the link to the Gravesend Fun Palace site, which has tabs for further information about the Fun Palace concept.

http://funpalaces.co.uk/discover/gravesend-fun-palace-d1/

http://funpalaces.co.uk/discover/gravesend-fun-palace-d2

This is the link to the Whitstable site, which has tabs for further information about the Fun Palace concept.

http://funpalaces.co.uk/discover/whitstable-museum-of-fun-2/

A chance to explore the fantastic facilities in a unique environment and explore our exciting courses in Music, Fine Art and Event and Experience Design.   See the library and student accommodation and the NEW academic facilities and social spaces due to open in September 2015.

Talk to tutors and students and find out more about what we have to offer. Due to the popularity of our open days, we ask that you book a place online. Online booking will open approximately four weeks’ before the event. Please use the link here:  http://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/visit/openday/essentials-medway.html

Our courses:

Music:

• BMus Music
• BSc (Hons) Music Technology
• BMus Popular Music
• BSc (Hons) Music Technology and Computing
• BA (Hons) Music Technology with English and American Literature

Fine Art:

• BA (Hons) Fine Art

 Event and Experience Design:

• BA (Hons) Events and Experience Design

We offer:

• Award winning facilities, studios, equipment and workshops
• Inspiring, supportive and award winning tutors
• Great waterfront location on historic site with easy access to London in under an hour
• An intellectual culture that provides the basis of cutting-edge practice, research and scholarship
• Excellent career and professional outcomes
• The chance to spend a year in industry or a year abroad
• Flexible course structure, with full and part time options
• Outstanding professional links and international work placements
• Many opportunities for collaborative and autonomous practices
• Financial assistance, fee waivers and scholarships available

For more details contact e.dhiman@kent.ac.uk

The School of Music and Fine Art looks forward to welcoming Kent Business School (KBS) at Medway to the Chatham Historic Dockyard, with new academic facilities and social spaces due to open in September 2015. This exciting venture has been achieved through significant success in student and staff numbers, creating a need for space to grow further.

The project comprises of three distinct developments:

• Sail and Colour Loft: Originally built in 1723, the Sail and Colour Loft will be the home of Kent Business School at Medway. It will feature: six seminar rooms, a group learning room, a computer suite, quiet study areas, student social spaces and a special reference collection of core text books.
• Royal Dockyard Church: A new 316 seat lecture theatre for the University of Kent at Medway with embedded technology for lecture recording, interactivity and in-class voting.
• Galvanising Shop: Reception to the University of Kent at Chatham Historic Dockyard with: a bistro, bar and student performance area.

The University of Kent, working with the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, have secured a new £3.8m home for Kent Business School from September 2015. A teaching and learning centre will be created, specifically designed to meet the needs of KBS students.

Students have played an important part in the planning of teaching space design, transport, hospitality and social areas.

The School of Music and Fine Art has limited places available for the following programmes in Clearing 2015:

BA Fine Art

BA Event and Experience Design

BMus Music

BMus Popular Music

BSc Music Technology

Study at a top 20 UK university in an historic, waterfront location with inspiring tutors in a dynamic creative environment!

(The Guardian University Guide 2015 and 2016, National Student Survey 2014, all academic schools – REF 2014)

There will be a Clearing Open Day at both the Canterbury and Medway campuses on Saturday 15 August.

For more information about this, the courses, and how to apply go to: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/events/clearing-2015.html

The School of Music and Fine Art is excited at embarking on a new partnership – as one of the main sponsors and education partners for the 2015 Rye International Jazz and Blues Festival.

“Creativity and passion is at the heart of music which has a very tangible association with our exciting partnership with the University. We are delighted to be collaborating with the University this year and into the future,” says Ian Bowden, Producer and Director of the Festival.

Now in its 4th year, the Rye International Jazz and Blues Festival is established as one of the leading intimate, high quality boutique music festivals in the UK.

The initial impetus for the partnership with the University of Kent School of Music and Fine Art came from Kyla Wight, a student on the BA (Hons) Event & Experience Design programme (the only degree of its kind in the UK) in the School of Music and Fine Art at the Chatham Historic Dockyard campus. Having just completed her first year of the programme, Kyla was appointed Creative Director for the Rye International Jazz & Blues Festival, with directorship of a section of the festival entitled Chapter & Lyric, a unique and inspirational live music performance and educational project that encompasses both live performances and educational music master classes, encompassing Jazz, Swing, Blues, Soul, Latin, Funk and World music.

“Kyla is the creative driving force behind Chapter & Lyric and I and my team supply the blank canvas for Kyla to apply the many colours that will become Chapter & Lyric,” says Ian Bowden, Festival Director.

This event will take place at the stunning and beautiful National Trust property Lamb House which is situated within the heart of Rye. Lamb House has strong literary connections with both writers Henry James and E. F. Benson residing at Lamb House. Kyla is developing this connection between literature and music to hold masterclasses in composition and song writing as part of the festival, with a mix of established and upcoming musicians. One of the festival’s core values is to provide the opportunity for new music talent from across the region to perform to a wider audience. Chapter & Lyric will provide musicians with the opportunity to both perform as part of the festival programme and to also gain invaluable experience through participation within the scheduled Masterclasses.

Racheal Lawrence, 2015 graduate from BMus Music in the School of Music and Fine Art, will be one of the one of the headline performers, and 3 more BA (Hons) Event & Experience Design graduates are also working on the event – Beth Tabeart as Event Manager and Ross Martin & Sophie Sprowell as designers. The stage is being designed as a stack of books, with open books providing the proscenium arch, with Lamb House as backdrop.

The festival, which runs from 27 – 31 August, will create an-going legacy of education, inspiration, immersive and transferable work experience, International bonds, nurturing of talent and create the opportunity to be part of the on-going development of the annual festival.

For more info go to https://ryejazz.com/