Brilliant Christmas Fair success

The staff and students created a festive bonanza of gifts over the last term that were successfully sold over two days here in the Creative Arts Centre.

We had contributing Associate Artists and Artists in Residence also providing beautiful items for sale alongside our students work.  The event was a great success raising lots of funds for other enterprise activities.

The students not only created the work but sold their creations as each student was involved in running a part of the day.

A special thanks to Annie, Judith and Charlie who were the driving force behind the event.

Fashion students gear up for Enterprise week

The ED Fashion students have been using their creative skills to make products to sell at the Christmas Fair.  The students, along with Kathy Johnston the Course Leader, have been screen printing and creating handbags to sell at the Fair, which runs from 11th-12th December.

The students will sell the handbags to their peers, parents and staff hopefully making a profit that we can pass onto charity.

HND Graphic Design student wins competition

A competition was set by a local printing company, Hunts, to design and produce an advent calendar for their customers.  Each HND Graphic Design student came up with an idea and then pitched to the clients.  Alison Reed was the winner with a creative 3-D model (see image below). 

See comments below from Timon Colegrove, Managing Director:

'Mark and I were delighted with every idea submitted; we were very impressed with the hard work you have put into this project and by the professional approach that you have all demonstrated in your presentations to us. There is but one winner and that is Alison. Not only did we thoroughly enjoy the presentation including the story of your thinking process on this project, the design is one that is truly going to make an impact – we are really looking forward to producing your advent calendar – Congratulations.'

Level Two students get ready for Christmas Fair

Amy Harris, the Course Leader for Level Art and Design, has been using enterprise week for her students to create Christmas cards to sell at the upcoming Christmas Fair.

They have made some brilliant hand printed cards that will be for sale in December for a very reasonable price!

Foundation student lends expertise to catering dept.

As part of our enterprise activities across the college one of our Foundation Art and Design students, Claudia Collett, spent some time with the catering department helping them design their blackboards to make them more attractive for potential customers.

See comments below from the lecturer, Peter Harvey:

She was confident and showed great maturity throughout the time she spent with the group. After she had worked and encouraged the best out of the students they produced a themed board for a 70’s night being held in the restaurant. It looked fantastic!  The feedback from the catering students was very positive and they really appreciated the fact that Claudia had volunteered her time for their benefit. Thank you Claudia you were a great ambassador to your area and I hope that we can use the art department again for similar activities in the future.

Lee runs workshop at National Theatre

Lee Jamieson, ED Performing Arts course leader, is working with young people across the country on his specialist subject of 'Artaud'.  Lee, his students and the technicians have created some great videos to support the workshops....see links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSJS738c71Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CiHFHMIMPg&feature=youtu.be

See information below from the National Theatre's website:

Katie Mitchell’s 5 Truths films present Ophelia’s ‘mad’ speech, directed in the style of five key theatre practitioners: Artaud, Brecht, Brook, Grotowski and Stanislavski. Timed to coincide with the 5 Truths installation (Olivier Theatre foyer, 24 September – 6 October), this full day event examines their work and theory through on-stage workshops.

(images and text courtesy of http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/discover/learning-events/five-truths-6th-form-conference)

Photography lecturer exhibits work

Part of the forthcoming MERL Ladybird exhibition will be a series of banners featuring responses to Ladybird images by University of Reading academics. We asked these academics ‘what do you look for when you look at one of the “What to Look For  in Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter” Ladybird books.

Wig Sayell has a longstanding interest in offering complex engagements with landscape and rural history. Her response to our commission was to produce four images, each reflecting one of the four ‘What To Look For…’ books.

Here is the image for ‘Autumn’. 

Link to Foundation Art and Design

Martin and his team have been blogging all the latest work the students have been achieving on the Foundation course...see link below:

http://inventoryofeverything.wordpress.com/

Graphics course professional brief, Play DNA, features in Oxford Times

The recent professional brief undertaken by Extended Diploma Graphic Design students has had regional coverage in the Oxford Times.

The exciting live brief was set by Dr Samantha Decombel (see picture below), in conjunction with Dave Thornhill the Course Leader for ED Graphic Design.

The company picked a winner in their logo competition and gave a prize to the winner, Tom Lynes.  All the students second year students worked hard on the project for several months culiminating in a presented to the students in June.

Pictures courtesy of Oxford Times

Exhibition showcases top emerging arts talent

An Oxford and Cherwell Valley College art graduate is to have her work showcased in a celebration of the region’s top emerging talent.

Lucy Garnett, who graduated last summer with a BA Hons in Fine Art from the Oxfordshire School of Creative Arts in Banbury, will feature in an exhibition at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art from September 29.

Her installation, entitled From East to Western High Street, explores the issues of high street clothing production. It celebrates the skills of Indian textile workers while raising questions about fair wages and working conditions. The installation combines elements of a shop changing room with sweat-shop conditions and includes a video projection and soundtrack which echoes the sounds of factory life.

Chris Muir, lecturer at Oxfordshire School of Creative Arts, said: “This is a fantastic accolade and will help Lucy to achieve public recognition as she starts out on her career. We are delighted that the quality of her work has been recognised and look forward to seeing it on show at the Museum of Modern Art.”

The first part of the Platform exhibition, featuring Lucy’s work, will run from September 29 until October 28.

Summer School success

In the last two weeks of August the Creative Arts team hosted a summer school for 8-13 year olds.

The school children came from a range of local schools to work in our fabulous new building.  As you can see from the pictures below the students created some really creative work and improved their skills.

Foundation Diploma go to Aberystwyth!

Neil, Amy, Cat and Su took 47 students to Aberystwyth for a week long residential.  Great weather and brilliant educational experience for all.  See images below:

BA Graphics student secures excellent work placement

As a result of seeing her work at the recent New Blood Show, level 6 student Juliet Eccles has been offered a paid work experience placement at Landor who are one of the leading Brand specialist in London.

Asked by her tutor Neil Mabbs how the opportunity came about Juliet replied ..."I participated in a brand workshop at New Blood where I had a great time and learnt all about branding and pitching. The highlight was having to pitch myself in a lift to a camera for 30 seconds. Can you believe it, a company is offering me a paid placement, I am rather speechless."

Professional Masterclasses Success

On Tuesday 10 July The School of Creative Arts hosted a professional masterclass which provided the opportunity to meet practicing artists, view their work and watch demonstrations of specialist techniques and processes within Book Binding, Fused Glass, Drawing with Stitch and Ceramics. 

Students attending were then able to explore the practical process for themselves with 1:1 guidance and support from the artists.  We received excellent feedback about the workshop facilities and the high level of professional instruction and were delighted with the final outcomes produced across all four workshops.

Drawing Workshop @ OCVC Banbury Campus

Creative arts staff at OCVC's Banbury Campus enjoyed a brilliant session on drawing led by Martin Carrolchick.

See the link below for details of the session and PowerPoint

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=9DEAF481F47830F5!136

New Graduate Opportunity: The Platform Graduate Award, a new regional project that Modern Art Oxford is introducing summer 2012

The project involves four visual arts organisations in the South East (Milton Keynes Gallery, Aspex, MAO and Turner Contemporary) working with Higher Education Institutions in their geographical area to showcase the work of six to eight graduates selected from this summer's BA Fine Art degree shows. A further shortlist will be put forward from each organisation's presentation for the Platform Award. The successful artist will receive a bursary of £2,500, mentoring and access to Directors and curatorial teams, and the possibility of a one-month residency at MAO.  The initiative also has the support of Turning Point South East.

The objective of the project is to develop a closer working relationship between galleries in the South East and their local Higher Education institutions, to enhance opportunities for professional development, training and graduate retention in the region, and to showcase and highlight the work of emerging artists in the region. This year will be a pilot to launch the initiative and with the aim of developing it further.

Sarah Mossop, head of learning & partnerships  and two curators from MAO visited the BA Fine Art degree show and met with staff teaching on the course in order to make their selection.  An initial shortlist of 3 was decided upon and then a final winner – Lucy Garnett.  Sarah was very impressed with Lucy’s work and commented:  'I'm very pleased to announce that we have selected Lucy Garnett from the BA Fine Art course at OCVC, Banbury for the Platform Graduate exhibition at Modern Art Oxford. We were impressed with the clarity in which her ideas were presented through her installation, and especially liked her animated film with its subtle soundtrack.'

Oxfordshire School of Creative Arts External Project 2011/12

Forge 2 is a collaboration of 3 local artists:  Clare Eguchi, Chris Wiggins and Debbie McCullough. Their idea was to create an open studio where each of them could work in the company of like-minded artists.  After a period of renovation the Culworth gallery was opened to other artists, both local and from across the UK creating a venue where people could experience new and different art, design and craft including: paintings, automata, ceramics, glass, textiles, sculpture, wooden toys, jewellery and mixed media. 

Forge 2 enjoy supporting new artists and have agreed to showcase the work of at least 3 students from The Oxfordshire School of Creative Arts within their Christmas Exhibition. This call for entries is open to BA (Hons) Design Craft, Fine Art and Graphic Design & Illustration students plus students studying on the FdA in Creative Art & Design Practice and Foundation Diploma in Art and Design.

Brief:

To produce a gift for men which can be sold at Forge2 Christmas Exhibition

The Winners: 

Anne Hobbs – FdA in Creative Arts & Design Practice

Isobel Knowland – BA Fine Art

Annie Payne – BA Fine Art

New Designers - Graduating students exhibit in London

BA (Hons) Design Crafts students have been exhibiting their work in London, it has given them an excellent opportunity to share their outstanding work with a variety of other graduates, employers and artists from a range of workplaces, universities and colleges throughout the country. 

As their website demonstrates it is an excellent event which gives brilliant exposure to the individuals and the college:

'As the only design event to bring together over 3,500 graduates from across all major disciplines, New Designers will bring you face to face with the next generation of design leaders.

Every summer, New Designers helps thousands of graduates to launch their career at the spectacular Business Design Centre in London, the world’s capital of design.'

http://www.newdesigners.com/

Shine - launch of our new building!

The Creative Arts Centre at our Banbury Campus was officially opened on 20th June 2012.  It coincided with our exhibition of graduating student work.  We had students from Level 1 to Level 6 showing their outstanding work using all the spaces within the new building.

Opening our building was Michael Kenna who also awarded one of our students a prize of £500 and a limited edition print, in what will now be a yearly competition.    

The event was extremely successful and was attended by over 1000 people all basked in the glorious sunshine.

See link below for press story.

http://www.banburycake.co.uk/news/headlines/9789022.Oxford___Cherwell_Valley_College_opens___3_4m_arts_unit/ 

Research in Practice - Performing Arts

Audience Research Commission

Performing Arts undertook a commission from the Mill Arts Centre to research their 16-18 audience across its programming. The Yr2 students conducted a survey with over 100 young people from across Oxfordshire and South Warwickshire and produced a report with the data. They also presented their findings and launched the report to senior managers at the Mill Arts Centre.

See link below for the report:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=9DEAF481F47830F5!136

Also in partnership with the Mill, Performing Arts Banbury ran a series of professional actor training workshops in the Mill’s theatre space for local schools. The project will be repeated in 2013 and will be facilited by Yr2 Directing students.

New Blood success

Congratulations to all the staff team involved in the D & AD show New Blood that was successful again last night.  They won Best New Blood for the 2nd time in 3 years (& we didn't show last year!!).

Each year, a panel of journalists and industry heavyweights judge all the stands and award 'Best New Blood' to the work that impresses them the most.

They look for the most outstanding creative ideas that are well executed, relevent and presented to the highest standard.

Winning work is identified with the Best New Blood rosette (see pics), and is a surefire way to get attention not just for the individual, but the whole course.

This year's 2012 Judges were; representation from: Contagious, DLKW, BBH, Computer Arts, Zolmo, SomeOne, JohnsonBanks, Stylist Magazine, Wallpaper*, VentureThree, Jack Loves Stuff, Design Council, David Pearson Design, Design Week, MagCulture, AMV BBDO, Adrian Johnson and Matt Rudd Studio.

A good night was had by all.

[text from Neil Mabbs - CL BA (Hons) Graphic Design and Illustration]

see video below for some of the highlights

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewh-WNfeEU&list=UUbcYrjQKRseUXgptm00LtRw&index=1&feature=plcp

Performing Arts working at the local theatre

The performing arts students have taken their production 'The Hangman' to The Mill.  The event has been extremely successful and the Extended Diploma students got a real taste of working in a professional working environment.

Not only did they include the first years on the programme, but also devised, scripted and performed an original piece of drama.  The play made good use of mixed media and traditional theatre and was very well attended.

British Red Cross Fashion Show

Kathy and her ED Fashion Students were down at Abingdon School last night (13/06/12) getting involved in a prestigious fashion show which had several top judges including the Managers of clothes shops Reiss and Coast, Head of Fashion at Oxford Brookes University and a local fashion designer. 

They did really well and enjoyed the evening.

Sweet FE - an introduction

Lee has been getting involved with the Sweet FE programme the college is running and has launched a site http://sweetfelearning.com/

Here is a bit more about the site:

'SweetFE Learning is a resource written by students, for students in Further Education.
Our team of writers is drawn from all subject areas in Further Education and they write from their own perspective. Better than anyone, they know exactly what a student needs to know about their subject.
The editorial direction of each subject area is led by a dedicated editor – carefully chosen from current students at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College in the UK. This strategy ensures that our readers can trust the quality of content published on SweetFE Learning.
Our target readership is students aged 16-19 engaged in Further Education in the UK. Our learning resources are written by bright, hand-chosen students actively engaged with FE study to ensure synergy between our published content and the needs of our target readership.
We have dedicated journalists and editors working in every FE subject areas – from Psychology to Motor Sport! – so each of our editorial channels can be highly targeted by subject and interest.'


if you'd like your students to get involved in writing articles or you becoming an editor then contact ljamieson@ocvc.ac.uk

Brilliant professional development @ OCVC!

This is an excellent opportunity to work in the fanastic Creative Arts Centre within staff development weeks:

'Come and learn, buy, and enjoy listening to practitioners demonstrate their skills and discuss their work.  Then explore the process yourself and take part in an open workshop experimenting with specialist techniques with guidance and support from the artists themselves.  To enrol call Annie Broe on 01865 551682.

Football Association works with Creative Arts students on professional project

Extended Diploma Media students in Banbury have been working in conjunction with Football Association to create four videos that will be used across the country for marketing, recruitment and training purposes. 

Vicky Bonham from the Oxfordshire Football Association said:

'Many thanks for all your hard work making in this project; everyone is really pleased with the films’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKuVA61RNT8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYaV_JP6Zew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9YIj2-29DQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG33uRbuoo0

Performing Arts students out on location

The woodlands in the grounds of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon were alive with drama, music and magic this May. Extended Diploma in Performing Arts students from Banbury retold the love story between William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway in one of the last remaining corners of the Forest of Arden; the original place where the couple would have met some 400 years ago.

Combining historical accounts of their love story and elements from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, OCVC students performed their devised production to a combined audience of more than 100 guests.

Staff create a new video for HND Creative Media Production/Graphic Design

Members of the media team have created a new, professional looking video that combines advertising, marketing, presentation skills and the obvious video, sound, lighting, editing...check it out as an example of good practice, and all made in a day....