Degree Shows 2017: This week’s openings, 1-3 June

This week sees 12 degree shows selected from the listings section of the a-n Degree Shows Guide 2017, while many shows that opened last week also continue well into June.

The variety of shows on offer and the breadth of new work available to see continues to grow as art schools across the UK open their end- of-year exhibitions.

Talking in this year’s Degree Shows Guide, the artist Elizabeth Price says: “One of the perspectives that working with students preparing for their degree show has given me is that it’s a really difficult proposition that students are faced with.

“At one and the same time you’re asking the candidate to respond to the idea of an academic examination as well as present themselves professionally as a prospect. That’s really difficult for anyone at the start of their career.”

Now’s the time to see how the class of 2017 has responded to the challenge.

University of the West of England, Bristol
UWE’s ‘Creative Industries Degree Show’ takes place across Bristol locations at Arnolfini, Bower Ashton and Spike Island, with work from  more than 500 new graduates from art, design, film and journalism programmes.
2-8 June, www.uwe.ac.uk/theshow @UWEBristol

University of Cumbria
The University of Cumbria’s ‘Art and Design Degree Show’ presents work from 11 different courses, including Fine Art, Photography, Illustration, and Digital Arts.
3-9 June, www.cumbria.ac.uk/degreeshow, @CumbriaUni

Belfast School of Art
Opening Friday 2 June (6-9pm), the Art and Design degree show includes work in contemporary applied arts including ceramics and silversmithing, as well as animation, illustration, photography and fine art painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and more.
2-10 June, www.ulster.ac.uk, @BelfastSchArt

Staffordshire University
This year’s ‘Show & Tell’ takes place on the College Road campus in Stoke-on-Trent with a preview on Friday 2 June (6.30-8.30pm) and includes work from students studying Fine Art, Illustration, 3D Design, Photography, Cartoon and Comic Arts, and many more subjects.
2-10 June, www.staffs.ac.uk, @StaffsUni

Hull School of Art and Design
Hull’s BA Fine Art students have titled their degree show, ‘Behind White Walls’, a reference, explains student Jennifer Hewson in this year’s a-n Degree Shows Guide, to the transformation of their studios into exhibition spaces. Hewson describes her own work as “considering different modes of perception through explorative drawing”.
2-16 June www.instagram.com/behind_ white_walls_2017/

University of Suffolk
Suffolk final year BA Fine Art student Hannah Cook says in the a-n Degree Shows Guide 2017 that her degree show “should be my best work yet but it should also put a smile on my face and those of the people who attend”. The show previews Thursday 1 June.
2-19 June, www.uos.ac.uk, @UniofSuffolk

Nottingham Trent University
NTU’s Art and Design Degree Show is one of the largest in the UK. Among the 1,200 graduating artists and designers is BA Fine Art graduate Wendy Asumadu, whose work is featured in this year’s a-n Degree Shows Guide: “For my degree show I plan to have television monitors with videos of me questioning and attempting to speak my family’s native language,” says Asumadu.
BA, 3-10 June; MA, 19-27 June, www4.ntu.ac.uk, @NTUArtandDesign

Newcastle University
Newcastle University’s Fine Art BA degree show takes place in the Fine Art department and at Great North Museum: Hancock, with a preview on Friday 2 June (6-9pm).
3-17 June, www.ncl.ac.uk, @ncldegreeshow

Leeds School of Art, Architecture & Design, Leeds Beckett University
Leeds School of Art, Architecture & Design presents ‘Do’, its degree show featuring work from 10 courses including Fine Art, Graphic Arts and Design, and Interior Architecture & Design.
3-9 June, www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk, @LeedsSchoolAAD

Kingston School of Art, Kingston University
Celebrating the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture’s return to its original name of Kingston School of Art, the degree show features work from 10 courses including Fine Art, 3D Design and Film & Photography.
3-9 June, fada.kingston.ac.uk, @KingstonUniFADA

University of Brighton
Taking place at the University Grand Parade and Edward Street galleries, Brighton’s degree show includes architecture and interior architecture, fashion and textiles, film, fine art, photography, graphics and illustration, design, craft, media, history of art and design.
3-11 June, arts.brighton.ac.uk, @artsbrighton

Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
BA (Hons) Sculpture graduate Chloe Milner describes in the a-n Degree Shows Guide 2017 that her show will feature “an installation made up of papier maché casts of stones”. She adds: “For me, there are allusions to impermanence, absence, and memory, the mind’s idealisation of things or people left behind. But I’d like people to make their own inferences.” Milner will be exhibiting alongside graduates from Painting, Photography, Intermedia, Architecture, and design and applied arts courses.
3-11 June, www.degreeshow.eca.ed.ac.uk, @eca_edinburgh

For details of shows that opened last week and are still continuing, click here

Images:
1. Imogen Potter, Gymnasium, 2017, still, UWE Bristol, BA Fine Art, 2017
2. Jennifer Hewson, 2017, Hull School of Art and Design, BA Fine Art, 2017
3. Wendy Asumadu, ‘Me? (Me?)’, 2017, moving image still, Nottingham Trent University, BA Fine Art, 2017

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