Category Archives: news

SMFA and CMAT now members of the Music Academic Partnership

The School of Music and Fine Art and new Centre for Music and Audio Technology are members of the Music Academic Partnership (MAP) – a ground breaking collaboration between a select number of educational institutions and the membership of UK Music, a campaigning and lobbying group which represents every part of the recorded and live music industry from artists, musicians, songwriters, composers, record labels, publishers, producers and music licensing groups. Its aim is to prepare individuals who want to build their careers in music.

Academic members, who have to be invited to become part of MAP, will benefit from this membership from a number of initiatives that include exclusive networking, collaborative research, a parliamentary programme, rehearsal spaces, and a range of student opportunities, including the BBC Introducing Pilot, MAP Music Technology Prize, access to exclusive Production Days and industry showcases.

 

More info https://www.ukmusic.org/  and https://www.ukmusic.org/skills-academy/music-academic-partnership/

SMFA EED alumnus Chris Carr’s company Lucid Illusions chosen to create new area for 2018 Parklife Festival

 

SMFA BA (Hons) Event and Experience Design (2010) alumnus Chris Carr’s design, fabrication and production company, Lucid Illusions, were chosen to create an amazing new area for the recent 2018 Parklife Festival called The Valley, which took place on 9-10 June at Heaton Park.  They designed an enormous immersive stage set, influenced by brutalist architecture, dystopian film and Carnival, with integrated video and lighting.  See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqeGwRn3ubo&feature=youtu.be

Based in Kent near Sittingbourne, Lucid Illusions are making some groundbreaking projects, with clients who include Adidas, Austrian Tourist Board, Oxford Street Christmas Lights and Max Factor.

 

More here http://lucidcreates.co.uk/about/

SMFA Music Lecturers win University of Kent Teaching Prize

 

SMFA’s Dr Ruth Herbert and Dr Rich Perks have been awarded a first prize of £3000 Humanities Faculty Teaching Prize 2018 for their innovations regarding music performance teaching at Kent.  The award will constitute extra budget for the teaching on the programmes at SMFA.

The Panel considering the applications comprised Dr Simon Kirchin (Dean), Dr Montserrat Roser-i-Puig (Associate Dean, Education), Fran Beaton (UELT), Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid (previous prize winner) and Rebecca Bailey (student representative).

In their feedback, the Panel referred to, “Sound pedagogical grounding and evidence of student improvement and engagement” with a “strong use of student feedback” and “particularly liked the reflective element of both the teaching strategy and the application”.

A music psychologist and performer, Dr Herbert is SMFA’s Lecturer in Contemporary and 20th Century Music Performance. Also a Lecturer in Music Performance at SMFA, Dr Perks has extensive live, studio and theatre experience in the commercial industry and has toured internationally with many accomplished artists.

 

Related post: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2862

SMFA’s Dr Blanca Regina, Associate Lecturer in Event and Experience Design, performing in London on Friday 22nd June at Iklectik

 

On Friday 22nd June, as part of the ‘Unpredictable Series’  SMFA’s Dr Blanca Regina, Associate Lecturer in Event and Experience Design performs in an evening of audiovisual concerts at IKLECTIK in London, with internationally acclaimed artists Sculpture, Zan Lyons, and Noriko Okaku with special guest Steve Beresford.

Blanca Regina is an artist, curator, and tutor based in London who is currently involved in creating audiovisual performances, sound works, installations, and film. She has performed with numerous artists, including Leafcutter John, Steve Beresford, David Toop and Matthias Kispert, and curated a number of events and installations internationally.

A visiting research fellow at University of the Arts London, her research and practice encompass expanded cinema, free improvisation, moving image, photography and audiovisual performance.  In 2010, she received a doctorate in Humanities from University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, with the thesis The VJ and audiovisual performance: towards a radical aesthetic of postmodernism.

She is curator at the London-based Music Hackspace, Live Cinema Foundation and Strange Umbrellas. With Matthias Kispert she founded the Material Studies Group, developing a series of workshops and performances around the production of sound with everyday objects.

To get tickets for the event – £8 advance or £10 on the door –  go to https://www.tickettailor.com/events/iklectik/171614

Doors open at 7pm for 8pm start.

 

Related post: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2761

Work by SMFA Fine Art alumna Nadia Perrotta selected by UNESCO for Human Rights Contemporary Art Exhibition

 

A moving image installation about art and children called Because I am, written and directed by SMFA alumni Nadia Perrotta (BA, 2015, and MA Fine Art, 2017) and featuring Lalita Bailey, (BA Fine Art 2017) and the children of Squirrel Lodge and The Rabbit on the Moon nurseries, has been selected for a major UNESCO event in Italy about art and education.

Presented by Associazione Internazionale Arti Plastiche Italia, Spazio-Tempo Arte and Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti, Human Rights? #EDU 2018 is an International Exhibition of Contemporary Art from 23 June – 23 September at the Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti, Rovereto, Trento, Italy which features 161 artists from 37 countries defending the human right to education.

The event asks the artists to represent and tell, with their own artistic language, a personal vision of the problem of the right to education representing a story, a concept, a complaint, or showing a future perspective as message of hope or as a concrete proposal on the opportunities to be pursued to achieve this fundamental goal for the construction of a fair and right society.

More about the event here: http://aiapi.it/hr-edu-en

Nadia’s film Because I Am was created during her artist residency since September 2016, at The Rabbit on The Moon Nursery in Sittingbourne, and there will be an exhibition – Because I am: A children’s journey across self recognition and discovery of the world around them through the arts  – on Saturday 23rd June, 12-3pm at Kemsley Community Centre, The Square, Ridham Ave, Kemsley, Sittingbourne showing the works the children created with her throughout the past year.

See Nadia’s film here: https://youtu.be/L7y0d5U20oM

Nadia is a film maker and visual artist with experience in exhibiting and organizing events, art writing and curating.  She works mostly with time based, installations, digital work, creative writing and performances. An experienced curator and art director, she was Project Leader for Wetlands Medway.  More info about Nadia here https://nadiaperrotta.jimdo.com/

 

Related posts: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2856 and https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2859

SMFA’s Dr Ruth Herbert a trustee for National Youth Jazz Collective

Dr. Ruth Herbert, 2018.

 

Music Psychologist and performer, Dr Ruth Herbert, SMFA’s Lecturer in Contemporary and 20th Century Music Performance, has been invited to become a trustee of the National Youth Jazz Collective.

Founded in 2007, The NYJC supports the creative & educational needs of the young jazz musician, focusing on small group improvisation within a pathway of progression from beginners to young professionals, supporting music education to increase the ability of 8 – 18 year -olds to play by ear in small groups: to learn, improvise, compose, arrange and lead bands.

Commented Dr Herbert: “I am delighted to have been invited to be a trustee for National Youth Jazz Collective. At a time when arts provision (including music) is being sidelined to the point of extinction in schools, the roles of organisations like NYJC are a lifeline & incredibly important in sustaining music provision. NYJC are doing an amazing job of reaching out- through regional workshops across the UK, through their Summer School, and other initiatives – e.g. inclusivity, particularly getting more young women into jazz. Simply giving young people the time and space to connect/experience/understand loads of different musics and have a good time!”

More info http://nationalyouthjazz.co.uk/

 

Related posts: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2703
And https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2675

SMFA Fine Art alumni create art intervention for Whitstable Biennale

 

SMFA alumni Nadia Perrotta (BA Fine Art, 2015, and MA Fine Art, 2017) and Fiona Townend  (MA Fine Art, 2017) together created an art intervention involving photography and creative writing for Whitstable Biennale. The project, called Cuttlefish Bones, ran from 2-10 June, and was an artistic and poetic treasure trail winding through the streets of Whitstable suitable for adults and children alike, a fusion of poetic text, domestic mini tales and photographs of the unnoticed.

More info http://satellite.whitstablebiennale.com/project/cuttlefish-bones-a-treasure-trail/

 

About the artists:
www.fionatownend.com
nadiaperrotta.jimdo.com

SMFA Fine Art Alumna Nadia Perrotta Artist in Residence Exhibition in Kent

 

Since September 2016, SMFA alumna Nadia Perrotta (BA, 2015,  and MA Fine Art, 2017) has been artist in residence at The Rabbit on The Moon Nursery in Sittingbourne, and there will be an exhibition showing the works the children created with her throughout the past year.

Because I am: A children’s journey across self recognition and discovery of the world around them through the arts takes place on Saturday 23rd June, 12-3pm at Kemsley Community Centre, The Square, Ridham Ave, Kemsley, Sittingbourne.

Nadia is a film maker, visual artist, art writer and event organiser who works mostly with time based, installations, digital work, creative writing and performances. An experienced curator and art director, she was Project Leader for Wetlands Medway.

More info about Nadia here: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nadia-perrotta-082a537

SMFA Fine Art students take part in Revolutions festival at University of Kent Paris centre

Eiffel Tower, Photo by Constanza Marques Guedes

 

At the invitation of Peter Brown, director of the University of Kent Paris centre, SMFA Fine Art students recently spent a week in Paris taking part in the Revolutions festival held at the University Centre, which celebrates 50 years of protest and featuring a huge range of artwork and events. https://www.kent.ac.uk/news/culture/18290/paris-centre-celebrates-50-years-of-protest-with-revolutions-ma-festival

The SMFA students from the remaining two undergraduate years and the final MA year worked collaboratively as a group together with students and staff at the Paris Centre to make and exhibit new work in response to theme and site. This has included a performance involving cheese and a derivé exploring the city around the centre.

Peter Brown commented: “It has all been going exceptionally well. There was an excellent turn-out for the Menteur launch and Medway students did the event proud with their own ‘set’ that was very well received. Thank you for enhancing our activities with your excellent students! “

The students recorded their visit via Instagram https://www.instagram.com/smfa_paris_2018/

Commented Year 2 BA Fine Art student Kevin Hadimadja: “The Paris trip was an amazing and enjoyable experience! Thank you very much for giving this opportunity to present my artwork as well as surrounding myself with great people. It has opened my eyes in the sense of interaction and collaborative thinking into not just the art but the journey through it.”

It is planned to stage a return visit next year.

 

More info:
https://revolutionsmafest.wixsite.com/revolutions/le-menteur-magasine-launch
https://www.instagram.com/smfa_paris_2018/

SMFA students and alumni feature in international festival of moving image

 

On Saturday 2nd June, SMFA students featured in a large-scale, outdoor screening of artists’ films and video projected on the exterior wall of The Old Neptune Pub, Marine Terrace, Whitstable, facing the seafront. Presented by 51zero/voyager at Whitstable Biennale as part of the Decreation international festival of moving image and digital arts Touring Programme. The event ran from 9.30pm – 11.30pm.

Many of the participating artists have taken part in international art Biennials, and were showcased alongside emerging talent selected from open calls and SMFA Fine Art students, including graduates Rose Sizer and Nicola Baxter, and Alfie Killick (Little-Blood) (3rd Year), Jordan Colbert (3rd Year), Constanza Marques Guedes (3rd Year), Olu Taiwo (MA)

 

More here https://www.facebook.com/events/611085545925717/