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AD6110- Professional Practice Lectures
Term One
30.09.19 - Introduction to the Module with lecturer Jeremy Turner.
07.10.19 - After discussing the module aims and objectives during the first half of the session, the second half was spent split into 3 different groups to discuss the possible fundraising ideas for our degree show. Although the exhibition space had been allocated to us, the university wants to produce a Degree Show Catalogue of each students work and exhibition. This is done each year and the students are given the task of not only the branding and advertising for the show but also to raise money to help produce the catalogue. Around 1000 copies of the catalogue are produced, allowing one copy for each exhibiting student, with the remaining copies distributed throughout the duration of the exhibition for visitors to help themselves. Any remaining catalogues are then used as promotional material at places like London and Manchester UCAS fairs or open days at Chester. After the fundraising discussions, we got back together to share what we had come up with, some ideas were obviously repeated but there were quite a few that may work quite well. Some did raise issues in terms of how much of our own time we would have to set aside to be able to make enough products to sell, and whether or not there would be any issues regarding location and restrictions on what we could do in the available space.
14.10.19 - We discussed further the ideas we had put forward the previous week and planned further things like costings and locations. One of the ideas that came up was bake sales, which are quite easy to organize, advertise and people seem to always want to get involved with them. Another idea was that we could since Christmas was approaching, create Christmas cards to sell on the main campus. Since we are all artists and designers we reckon it could be quite an interesting route to take and they would obviously look good enough to sell and hopefully sell well too. Make's Winter Arkade event was also a possibility as suggested by Cian on our Moodle page. The Arkade event is put on in Liverpool every year and hosts a variety of market stalls, craft stalls, food, drink and workshops. Anyone can apply to become a stallholder and they have put a call out for any independent artists who want to showcase their work. A trestle table costs just £20 and it would be, not just an opportunity to raise some funds for the catalog, but also to sell our work, get our names and brands out there and gain experience in selling our own work.
28.10.19 - Collaborations week – No lectures
04.11.19 - Development Week – No Lectures
11.11.19 - Wendy Mason, National Director of AA2A, (Artists Access to Art Colleges) gave a talk to all courses taking part in this module which concerned self-employment, how to direct your future and it included some really helpful things like how to copyright and protect your work and your ideas when working for yourself.
During some other lectures that week, a group from my photography course had the idea that we could host a university version of the Channel 4 show 'Hunted'. The concept of the program is that a handful of people sign up to go 'on the run' from the government and the aim is to survive without being caught for 21 days. They can go anywhere in the country that they please to evade capture but are given only a certain amount of cash to live off during this period. If they make it to the extraction point on day 21 then they win a large sum of money. With this concept in mind, the fundraising idea was that our lecturers go on the run around Chester and, if caught by the students, have to donate money to our degree show. A Facebook and Instagram page was set up to advertise the idea/event that week. The problem with this, however, is that it would be very hard to control if it meant having to go anywhere and everywhere within the city. The idea was to broadcast the hunt live on Instagram and Facebook but then you also need to have a big enough audience for there to be any point to it. So far, quite a few lecturers have agreed to do it. One of the students from the photography department also managed to organize a press release for local newspapers. It contained information about the different fundraising ideas we were putting together which was a really good idea as it lets local people know about what's going on and will hopefully draw more business to these fundraising events.
18.11.19 - Craig Easton came to give a lecture on his project called ‘Sixteen’. I have had some experience with Craig and this project in the past when I was working as a mentor in the Whitby High School in Ellesmere Port. We took the children, who were taking the Photography GCSE course I was assisting on, to Manchester to view Craig’s work which formed the basis of their projects in 2019.
25.11.19 - Seminar Session focusing on Career Trajectories and future aspirations. See 'Career Trajectory' on the blog homepage.
16.12.19 - Christmas – No Lectures. On the previous Friday, we received an email from Jeremy with the news that we had already raised £420.00 to put towards the production of the degree show catalogue.
Term Two
06.01.20 - We began to consider degree show titles and themes. These will feature in the branding, advertising, catalogue, invites and promotional material. The task was put to us to either individually or in small groups generate some initial proposals.
What must be included was a;
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Clear Title
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Brief Rationale
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Visuals
These ideas will be put to the group on January 20th following the guest lecturer.
13.01.20 - The guest lectures this morning were 2 people from the BBC who had both graduated from the University of Chester. This was a very interesting lecture as they both seemed quite young, enthusiastic about the unconventional route into their current roles and both had very different paths towards working with the BBC. They spoke primarily about all the different jobs they had had to work through to get where they are now and how it was not just okay, but the norm too that the job you want doesn’t occur straight after university. They ended the session with a factual game based on BBC employment and art graduate statistics which was really motivating.
20.01.20 - Guest lecturer Denise Courcoux gave a talk this morning on her employment and employment history which was really interesting because she is based around Chester and the North West, so it was an insight into things like how curators and galleries work in the area. She is currently Assistant Exhibitions Registrar at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool. Previously Denise has held curatorial and gallery roles at Port Sunlight Village, Manchester Museum of Science & Industry, Wired Aerial Theatre, Nantwich Museum, and the Bluecoat. Denise herself graduated from the University of Chester in Fine Art and English Literature and writes for the Double Negative and recently Art Monthly. Following Denise's lecture, we looked at degree show branding proposals. The following images are the designs that a few students have created as initial branding ideas.
A vote was opened on our Moodle page where each student was able to cast one vote towards the design that they preferred so that everyone could have a say even if they weren’t in the lecture on that day. Originally the vote was due to close at 5 pm on February 7th but has been extended to 4 pm, February 24th. The results of the vote will be announced in the first session following the development week coming up.
17.02.20 - Development Week – No Lectures
24.02.20 - Sian Bonnell visited us to give a lecture this week which was very interesting as she is a photographer, artist, curator and publisher. She recently curated Jump at Liverpool as part of the Look 19 Liverpool International Photography Festival. She spoke about how she was always worried about taking risks because of what other people might think of her photographs but by 40 she just decided to go with every instinct she had and has taken a very wide variety of photographs that have been incredibly popular. She also works at the Manchester School of Art.
There are now no more lectures following Sian's in the lead up to the Easter break as the Professional Practice Interviews are taking place.
Term Three
23.03.20
Due to the unforeseen circumstances of Covid-19, the decision was taken for the university to remain closed following the Easter break and for the foreseeable future. There will be no face to face lectures, only meetings over Microsoft Teams. There were, however, only four more scheduled lectures during the remainder of the year.
14.04.20 - In the third term, beginning April 14th, admittedly I wasn't able to make it to the first couple of sessions as I was having problems with Microsoft Teams. I was getting on to the site fine and could view the different team's groups that I was part of however, I could not access ongoing meetings. I could access the page whenever there was not a call in progress, but not during. In order to join a call, you need to head into that specific group's page and click 'join call'. I could not, for whatever reason, access the groups' page when there was a call in progress. Later that week I spoke to my PAT and she gave me a different link to try and redownload the program which seemed to solve the problem.
21.05.20 - Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances in the following weeks, I could not attend the last two lectures of the year which is really disappointing as I feel I have missed out on the module summary or round up, the last few checks before everything is handed in and the last few opportunities to talk amongst classmates regarding the degree show. I have still been receiving emails from both Jeremy and Cian and have caught up on the guest speakers and what was talked about in each session. There are quite a few helpful links in these emails regarding branding, designing and imagery, but also networking which I have been looking through in my two weeks off ill.