news
(updated May 2006)
(for participating artists' newsletter click here)
General News
The eighth full year of schemes will begin in October 2006 with 21 colleges hosting AA2A schemes and a further 82 artists taking part. This brings the total number of artists and designer makers' places on AA2A to date to over 650. This year we welcome Liverpool Community College and Camberwell College of Arts onto the project. Suffolk College and the University for the Creative Arts at Canterbury have been accepted to run full schemes this year and we also welcome the University of Sunderland who will host an AA2A 'mini' scheme.
AA2A's funding for the next two years has been secured through the Arts Council, England's Grants for the Arts programme.
External Evaluation of AA2A
From July-December 2005 AA2A was independently evaluated by Susan Jones. We were delighted that Su was appointed to do the research and she has commented very favourably on the project. Her strong links with visual arts practise through her role as director of a-n magazine means she was well placed to assess the importance of AA2A nationally. The findings of the report will be available shortly on the website.
Website
We are planning to convert our website to a 'database' model. This will allow visitors to see a different set of artists' images each time they view the general pages on the site. This will greatly increase the chance exposure to artists' work. Because of these changes the uploading of artists images for 2005/06 will be delayed. The new student area of the site, which is currently under development will also go online once these changes are made. The projected timescale for completion is November 2006.
News from our Colleges
Herefordshire College of Art and Design are hosting an exhibition '100 HOURS' (30 May - 8 June) showing the work of their AA2A artists, Ben Gamble, Wally Gilbert, Charlie Hurcombe and Valerie Coffin Price. Click here for more information on the artists.
Cleveland College of Art and Design are hosting an exhibition alongside their degree shows featuring the work of their AA2A artists, Carolyn Corfield, Barbara Haywood, Jean Botwright and Helen Michelle Stevens. Click here for more information on the artists.
News from our Artists
Jacqueline Cullen, AA2A artist at London Metropolitan University showed her award winning contemporary Whitby jet jewellery at the Donna Karen store, Bond Street, London (28 March -28th May 06). For more information visit http://www.jacquelinecullen.com
Emma Bolland, AA2A artist at Leeds College of Art and Design has an installation, 'Rose and Heather' at the Leeds City Art Gallery (22 June - 10 Sept 06)
Hetain Patel, AA2A artist at Derby University 2004-05 and winner of an Arts Council Decibel award has had several successful exhibitions of his work 'Sacred Bodies' . These large scale photographs were printed during his time on AA2A and have since been shown at Waterside Arts Centre, Sale through April and May 2005, Derby Dance Centre Sep - Dec 2005, Wolverhampton Art Gallery Dec 05-Feb 06, and internationally in Poland (The Castle, Cieszyn), Nov 05-Jan 06. One of the prints has also featured in Arts Council, Yorkshire's publication 'Ambitions for the Arts in Yorkshire'. Click here to see Hetain's AA2A work and for more information visit http://www.hetainpatel.com
Philip O'Reilly has work in an exhibition in Glasgow called 'Digital Perceptions - An Exploration of New Technology & Digital Imaging in Contemporary Textile Art & Design' (14 Jan - 18 Feb 06), focusing on the use of new technology and digital imaging in the creation of contemporary textiles. The theme of Philip's work is 'digital recycling'. He has worked from digital prints of felt pieces made during the AA2A scheme at Bolton Institute in 2001. Click here to see his AA2A work. The exhibition will be supported by a publication, DVD documentary, conference and residencies. For more information see http://www.collinsgallery.strath.ac.uk
Donna Carty an artist/ weaver currently on the Norwich School of Art and Design AA2A scheme is keeping a 'blog' (a web based diary) on her experiences during her access period. If you'd like to read more log on to http://www.aa2a.blogspot.com
Shaeron Caton-Rose, an AA2A artist at Leeds College of Art and Design allowed her to produce 'Wayside Shrine' a series of resin cast reliefs placed in wooden box frames. These were displayed, one shrine at every service station along the M62 motorway from Aug to Oct 2005. This was preceded by a leaflet campaign via every tourist stand in Leeds city centre, as part of the 'Situation Leeds', 'Arts in the Public Realm' festival. Click here to see Shaeron's AA2A work
Carolyn Corfield is on the AA2A scheme at Cleveland College for the second time. She has created a body of work being shown at the Dorman Museum Middlesbrough (3 - 31 March 06). 'Body Language' embraces concepts within the evolutionary theories of Elaine Morgan and Alister Hardy. In direct allusion to their 'Aquatic Ape Hypothesis' her goddess sculptures reflect the significance of sea mammal existence in the shaping of human form and represent a return to the elemental natural order of life. Click here to see Carolyn's previous AA2A work
Rachel Cohen travelled from her home in Brighton to the AA2A scheme at Salford University. Since the scheme finished Rachel has been continuing her research closer to home with Sussex University Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics with funding from the Arts Council. During her AA2A scheme she also worked with the North West Regional Language network on the training of community service interpreters where she was commissioned to design a drawing game as part of a textbook to be published shortly. Click here to see Rachel's AA2A work.
Barbara Dean was on the Hertfordshire University's AA2A scheme from 2004-05. As a result of her time there, she developed work which looked at the physically demanding and awkward position of kneeling. She was also invited to appear at the Tulca Festival in Galway, Ireland, for which she devised a piece called 'the foot-wash service' - a one to one performance based on religious ritual and ceremony, washing and drying an audience member's foot with her hair. Click here to see Barbara's previous AA2A work. For information on Tulca visit http://www.tulca.ie
Patricia Townsend is showing her work 'The Circles they Desire' at the Borland Gallery (22 Feb - 3 March 06). The gallery is part of the University of Salford where she is currently on the AA2A scheme. Patricia took Cumbrian stone circles as a starting point for a video installation and two series of photographic works. The central installation - a large stone cairn surrounded by a ring of TV monitors showing leaping flames - draws together the history of the circles and the world of myths and legends. Patricia has also used photographs of the surfaces of stones from the circles to construct haunting images relating to the belief that the stones were aligned with the position of the sun or moon at key times of the year.
Valerie Coffin Price an artist on this year's AA2A scheme at Herefordshire College of Art and Design, has recently finished a large hanging piece in perspex. She describes the collaborative piece made with Mary Husted as "a curtain of faces inspired by a visit to the Toul Sleng museum in Phnom Penh". It will be exhibited in the exhibition 'Residues' at Llantarnam Grange (25 Feb-8 April 06). The Welsh language TV arts show 'Soie Gelf' will be covering the exhibition. Also 'Distant Voices' at Newport Museum & Art Gallery (27 Jan-3 March 07) will feature Valerie's work from the AA2A project. Hereford College of Art and Design will be exhibiting their AA2A artists work during May 06.