As part of our long-term partnership with Spike Island, artists and staff teach into Fine Art programmes and collaborate on events. Here’s what we got up to together this term!
Many year groups, from Foundation through to the MA Fine Art enjoyed visits to the Ofelia Roderíguez Exhibition at Spike Island. We also connected with Place Portrait – a new engagement commission responding to Spike Island’s neighbourhood, developed in collaboration with emerging artists including former UWE student Holly Humphries. Lead artist for Place Portrait and Creative Youth Network Engagement Fellow Anna Haydock-Wilson ran a seminar for L5 Fine Art students on socially engaged practice titled: ‘Build the relationship before you build the thing’.
Future exhibiting artist Olu Ogunnaike, who will show newly commissioned work at Spike Island in February, opened our Watershed Wednesday lecture series with a talk for Fine Art students and staff. We heard about how Olu built his art career and how he creates environments for people to activate.
As part of their induction, Level four students had gallery and building tours with Saphia Abrahamovitch-Venner, Assistant Curator: Artist Development and Engagement, and Operations team members Ben Shillabeer and Rebecca Bertin. For their Professional Practice module, Level four also had careers talks from Saphia and Nicky Sim, Research Fellow: Art Partnerships, and they went behind the scenes to meet this year’s UWE Graduate Fellows Lolly Deazley, Harry Judge and Max Silliton in their studio, to hear about life as an artist post-graduation. The seminar ended with a visit to SHOP – a design and direction studio focused on creating content for the likes of Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Taylor Swift!
Studio holders Natasha MacVoy and Harriet Bowman led seminars, workshops and tutorials for Level 5 students this term. The same year group also benefitted from a seminar on organising and installing exhibitions led by Spike Island staff Diana Lage, Curatorial Assistant, and Olivia Jones, Senior Technician. Students also had sessions with Spike Island Associate members including Alice Shepard-Fidler. For their Professional Practice Work Experience module, some Level 5 students will also be volunteering with Spike Island artists on socially engaged projects and exhibition preparation.
Level 6 met with Spike Island Curator Carmen Julia who took part in crits with students for the opening of their exhibition ‘We are Not Drowning’. Level 6 also worked with studio holders Bryony Gillard, El Duffin and Esther Hesketh, and Spike Island Associate Jack Young on workshops this term. Next term L5 and L6 students will meet several arts professionals and artists connected to the West of England Visual Art Alliance and Visual Arts South West, as part of their Graduate Symposium.
Alongside the rolling programme of events at Spike Island, Fine Art students and staff also had access to monthly Open Sandwich events, which bring the Spike Island community together for informal presentations over lunch.
After introducing their practices at The Night of the Fellows, UWE Graduate Fellows settled well into their studio space at Spike Island and they are currently selecting studio holders as paid mentors – a new benefit to the Fellowship scheme this year. Next term we are planning joint crits and events with the MA Fine Art and soon we will be thinking about developing work to show at Spike Island Open Studios, which takes place from 3-5 May 2024.
Beyond Fine Art, Nicky Sim ran a session on Creative Evaluation for MA Curating students and Spike Island Associates. Plans are also underway to launch a series called ‘Making Connections’, which will be open to students from across the School of Arts and involve informal networking around food and workshops with artists and arts professionals at Spike Island and Arnolfini.
Look out for many more events and collaborations next term!
