Cheltenham, London, Berlin, California: UCF’s authorial illustration MA leads the way

University College Falmouth's innovative MA in Illustration: Authorial Practice, together with local publisher, Atlantic Press, have been showcasing their authorial talents at Comica, the international comic book and graphic novel festival at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and the Small Publishers Bookfair in London.

Two students from the course - Anna Cattermole and Alex Higlett - have also been awarded joint first prize at the Cheltenham Illustration Awards, organised by the University of Gloucester. The theme for this year's awards was True Stories. Anna specialises in documentary and reportage illustration, working direct from life on site, and her winning illustration was part of a series that documents the Newlyn fishing industry. Alex's prize was for narrative illustration based on her interpretation of fragments of an unsolved murder, or suicide, that took place in New York in the 1930s. Alex has self-published the illustrations to this story in a book entitled Adrift: A Shadow in the Shallows. Each student was presented with an iMac.

Both Anna and Alex were also selected to participate in Europe's pre-eminent illustration and graphic arts festival - Illustrative 09 - staged at the Villa Elizabeth and IMA Design Village in Berlin along with fellow students, Katherine Child, Megan Whatley, Hannah Chapman, Vicky Clark, Laura Wady, Charlotte Oldfield, Tanya Tugwell, Jan Lewis, Julian Waite, Adam Gado, Jane Townsend, Georgina Hounsome, Esther Connon and Richard Dinnis.

The Authorial Illustration MA, selected by Illustrative 09 for its reputation for innovation in illustration, was one of only five courses in Europe invited to exhibit in what is predominantly an international festival of professional illustration from across the globe. Falmouth students exhibited alongside the Royal College of Art, Züricher Hochschule der Künste and the Kunsthochschule Weißensee.

"This prestigious international showcase celebrates the very best of illustration and graphic arts so for our 16 Falmouth students to have been selected to represent the UK's most exciting illustration talent is an accolade indeed," said Course Leader, Steve Braund. "Illustrative attracted thousands of visitors over the two weeks it ran and our work was very, very well received."

Steve and his colleague, Catrin Morgan, have also forged important links with the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA as a result of a recent visit by the Chair of its Illustration Department, Ann Field, to the Woodlane Campus this term.

"Italian illustrator, Sara Fanelli, who was a guest speaker at our Open Forum this year, recommended to Ann that she visit our course as Sara recognised the academic synergy between our courses and that we would have strong shared ideas," explained Steve Braund. "International partnerships and high profile opportunities to showcase our talent nationally and internationally are our lifeblood and provide our students with invaluable insight into creative practice across the globe."

For further information about MA Illustration: Authorial Practice at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/authorialillustration, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214372 (full-time) or 01326 214373 (part-time).

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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