Friday 8 July – Friday 2 September 2016

In this exhibition, students from our Canterbury and Medway campuses reflect on their university life in images and words.

Curator Irina Lapushinskaya, a student in the School of Arts, explains the ideas behind the exhibition:

The University of Kent is a second home for many of us. Here, students not only earn a degree but also find new friends, make professional connections and make key decisions in life. The University will always be in our  hearts, no matter how much time we spend here – two semesters or several years.

Medway is sometimes considered the “arty” campus, but this exhibition shows that there are talented creative students in Canterbury as well. They don’t even have to be art students: they may study science or law, but they still can create wonderful drawings.

Two of the artists presenting their work are Canterbury-based students, and the other two are School of Music and Fine Art (Medway) graduates. Thus, it is a mix of works by professional artists and students for whom art is a hobby.

To complete the students’ narrative, they have written some thoughts on how the University affected them as individuals (rather than professionals). Images and text work together, each helping to explain the other.

The words and drawings hanging next to each other help viewers to understand the art and the artists’ life at university. They may also lead viewers to reflect on their own university experiences.

The University of Kent in Students’ Drawings was on display in the Templeman Gallery from Friday 8 July – Friday 2 September.

Artwork by Emma Griffiths