Falmouth hosts international art and design conference

University College Falmouth (UCF) welcomed delegates from Australia, China, Poland, Japan, Italy and Malaysia to the Association of International Art & Design Schools (AIAS) 2009 annual conference, hosted at various venues around West Cornwall.

AIAS was established in 1990 in the Bauhaus, Dessau in Germany by the Schule fur Gestaltung in Basel and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Its aim is to reinforce and strengthen the contact between participating institutions, all of which are independent, relatively small schools of higher education with strong traditions and high standards of quality, and contribute to the internationalisation of education in the arts.

The theme for this year's conference - the relationship between the visual arts and ecological thinking - meant that Cornwall, which is as famous for its rich industrial heritage as its artist colonies and dramatic coastline, was an ideal location in which to explore concepts of the environment and society's impact on it as a source of creative inspiration.

The week-long event included a series of practical, artist-led workshops situated at sites around Falmouth and West Cornwall, a Symposium at which academic papers were presented, and a meeting of the AIAS General Assembly. Delegates were given the opportunity to contribute to the debate about how art can address practical concerns and provoke new ways of thinking about sustainability.

The workshops took place at UCF's Tremough Campus and Woodlane annexes, as well as at The Poly in Falmouth's Church Street, Trebah Garden in Mawnan Smith, Trewidden Garden at Buryas Bridge near Penzance and Newlyn Art Gallery. Ranging from the unFestival that explored what it would be like to experience the buzz of live festival performance without having to travel to get there; Re-dress, that raised questions about the clothing industry, consumerism and individual creativity; and a recycling and reusing workshop based around the man-made ‘soup' that deposits all manner of objects on to our coastline; to listening to trees; dance-making with twigs; and composing new audio work in response to the environment, the workshops were thought-provoking, inspirational and fun in spite of the torrential rain.

Each member school entered its best art and design graduate into the Prize of Honour Exhibition which included students' work from art schools in Turkey, China, Korea, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Poland and the UK. The winner of the International Association of Independent Art Schools Annual Prize of Honour for the best graduated student was awarded to Laura Culham, from University College Falmouth for her work, Untitled (Net Curtain).

Laura graduated from UCF this year with a degree in Fine Art and is currently studying for her Masters in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London. Laura was unable to attend the awards ceremony and Joe Coates, Course Leader for BA(Hons) Fine Art accepted the award on her behalf.

The International Jury included Daisuke Nakatome, Vice-Director of the Tokyo Institute of Art & Design in Japan and Lorraine Kypiotis, Undergraduate co-ordinator at the National Art School in Sydney and lecturer in Art History who commented that the work submitted was of an extremely high standard.

"Laura's work references the art world on so many levels," said Daisuke Nakatome. "It is a work on paper, yet a three-dimensional object that refers to the gendering of artwork and dichotomy between craft and the fine arts."

Lorraine Kypiotis explained further, "It is such a simple idea but complex in its conception and production. It is, at the same time, traditional but very contemporary and like all good art, its message is embedded not only within its pleasing aesthetic qualities, but also in the associations and meaning inherent in the underlying ideology."

Two Honourable Mentions were also awarded. Justyna Drozd from Poland was commended for her, Plane-Space installation, that changes the architecture of the interior through its relation between the vertical and horizontal, plane and space that references classical order and refined workmanship. The second Honourable Mention was awarded to Kirsten Wilmink from Germany for her work, The Truth About Germans, a witty parody of cultural stereotyping. Kirsten created photographs to look like paintings, and used members of her own family to depict typical German pursuits - overflowing beer steins delivered by a traditionally dressed Kirsten in dirndl and tracht and her father sitting in his car in the garage, where most German men can apparently be found, night or day.

"University College Falmouth was delighted to welcome delegates from the world's leading art and design institutions to AIAS 2009," said UCF's Rector, Professor Anne Carlisle. "Falmouth is committed to playing a major role in the development of international arts education, and the rewards of creative global partnerships became evident as the week progressed."

For further information about University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 213730.

For further information about AIAS, visit http://www.aias-artdesign.org/

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012/2013 that will be unique to the South West.

The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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