AA2A artists' newsletter
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AA2A ARTISTS' EMAIL NEWSLETTER No.1 Year 9
Dear AA2A Artist
I am delighted to welcome you on to the AA2A
scheme. Most of you will now be working on your projects and are
probably well informed about how AA2A works, but I thought this would be
a good opportunity to remind you of the basics and pass on some news. I
do hope you enjoy your AA2A experience and are able to make the most of
your access hours. We will aim to send another newsletter in February.
Project background
AA2A is now in its ninth full year as a national project with 22 colleges across the country taking part. This year we are welcoming Hull back onto our AA2A list, in the shape of Hull School of Art and Design. Again this year's funding is routed through the Arts Council, England from the Grants for Arts scheme. The project continues to be managed by the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design.
Artists Access Agreement
Your college AA2A scheme should have allowed you access from 1st November. Please let me know if this didn't happen so we can negotiate extended access beyond April to make up for this. They also should have provided you with a copy of the Artists Access Agreement (which you should have agreed and signed). This outlines what you can expect from the scheme and what the scheme requires from you. Should you find you have any questions about your entitlements this document should be your first port of call as it covers most eventualities! A general version of this Agreement is available on the website for reference in the artists/downloads section.
Contact with students
As you know, you can use the college facilities for at least 100 hours. Your college may be recording your hours but it might also be worth keeping a record yourself, so you can keep track. As AA2A is both for the artists' and students' benefit, we hope that you will use as many of the 100 hours as possible so that students have the best chance of seeing you and your work before the scheme officially ends in April. Although we understand that some circumstances may arise which may affect your original plans, there is an expectation that you will try to use at least half of the hours available to ensure students benefit from your presence.
You may have been asked to do some form of talk for the students. This is not compulsory and will probably take the form of an informal meeting with students/staff with an opportunity to show your work and talk about it, or answer questions. Staff time is often very limited to arrange these type of 'events' so do approach them if you or your fellow AA2A artists would like to arrange something to benefit students.
When you applied you were asked for a non-returnable photo of your work and a short statement about your project. The idea was that this and a photo of yourself should be displayed somewhere prominent within the department so that students and staff know who you are. If this has yet to be done, please chase up your Coordinator or ask if you can put up something similar as it makes the communication with students easier. You may even find that there's an AA2A noticeboard you can use.
The website and your AA2A webpage
Your image, statement and limited contact details will be on the AA2A website as soon as we receive them. This will allow you and the students to see who the other artists are both in your college and in the rest of the AA2A colleges around the country. This improves the schemes' benefit for students, particularly those who may not have an artist working in their area of interest at their college. If possible please be open to enquires from students, but also let me know if this becomes a problem or you want your contact email removed from the site. We would be interested to hear from you if you are contacted by students or if you find any ways to encourage them to use the website for artist information.
While we are developing a more student friendly area of the website. We would also welcome information about how your AA2A projects affect students, any quotes, anecdotes etc. We could also do with the names of students you work with so we could contact them directly.
You may have already visited the website for the project, but if you haven't please do. Do let us know if you have any exhibitions using work produced either during AA2A or as a result of the scheme and we will try to add this to your page. Each college also has its own 'page' which shows the work and the contact details of the artists from that AA2A scheme over the years.
AA2A logos
We are always pleased to see the AA2A logo emblazoned on publicity you may produce. This helps our profile with funders. If any of you have the opportunity to display our logo alongside work produced during the scheme, please do download the digital logo from the artists/dowloads area and use the Arts Council Englands Lottery logo as well. You can also help AA2A's profile by adding the wording "Selected for the Artists Access to Art Colleges Scheme (hosted by ........University)" on your CV's etc.
Evaluation
At the end of your AA2A scheme I will send out a detailed evaluation questionnaire which you will need to complete. This will be sent directly to the address we hold for you. If any of your contact details change during the year please let the your college AND myself know asap.
Finally if ever you have any problems with AA2A which cannot be answered by your college AA2A Coordinator contact me by email on AA2A@wendymason.biz and, with the limited time I have available I will do my best to help.
Many thanks
Wendy Mason National Coordinator AA2A
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