Arts Council England funds mini-residencies at UCF

University College Falmouth (UCF) has been accepted as a host for the Artists Access to Art Colleges Scheme (AA2A) funded by the Arts Council England, at the Design Centre on the Tremough Campus from October to April 2010

AA2A is a national project hosted by the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design, funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, which in 2009/10 celebrates its 11^th year by offering 148 ‘mini residencies' in 37 Universities and Art Colleges across the country.

The scheme offers four mini-residencies to craft makers, designer makers and artists to undertake a period of research or realise a project, using the college's Design Centre facilities. These range from computer controlled equipment to workshop facilities that support ceramics, glass, metals, plastic, woods, textile print and weave, to IT and library resources to develop their work. This allows students to work alongside established artists and gain a valuable insight into the art world outside the educational environment.

Each artist/maker has a minimum of 100 hours access, which they can use over a period of at least 17 weeks, between October and April together with a grant of £220 available for materials. They will also have a webpage on the AA2A website which can be updated at the end of the scheme, as well as the use of a networking site to record their ongoing project. To see the latest postings of current AA2A artists, please visit http://aa2a.biz/

University College Falmouth is one of 37 colleges and universities across England that has been successful in its application to host an Artists Access scheme, and is the only college in Cornwall and one of two colleges in the South West to be accepted for the scheme.

To be eligible for a mini-residency at UCF, artists must not have been engaged in any full or part-time study at an art college or similar institution in the last year, which allowed access to workshops for more than 4 hours a week. Applicants must also have their own place of work and be able to work with minimal technical support. Artists who were on AA2A schemes run from 2006 to 2007 or before, can now reapply i.e. artists may only apply every three years.

For more details of the scheme visit http://www.aa2a.org/ or to apply for an information pack and application form, contact the college coordinator, Simon Thompson, University College Falmouth, Tremough, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, telephone, 01326 370483 or email simon.thompson@falmouth.ac.uk. You may also contact one the college administrators by telephoning Katie Townsend 01326 370480 or email katie.townsend@falmouth.ac.uk or Rachael Chapman on 01326 370433 or email rachael.chapman@falmouth.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications to be sent to Simon Thompson at University College Falmouth is 14 September 2009.

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

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

Editor's Notes:

History of AA2A
After initial research and piloting (which was managed by Norwich School of Art and Design), the full AA2A project was launched in April 1999. This phase of the project was managed by NAFAE (National Association for Fine Art Education) with three years funding through the Arts Council's A4E Lottery scheme. As the remit of the project was extended to cover craft as well as fine art, the management of the AA2A project moved to CHEAD (Council for Higher Education in Art and Design).

Since 1999, approximately 825 artists/makers have taken part in AA2A and in 2009/10 another 148 will be recruited.

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