Finding my creative voice through collaboration
28 January 2026
This article was written by Festival Management BA(Hons) student, Sam.
I’m a Festival Management BA(Hons) student at Falmouth, and one of my favourite things about being here is how much I’m able to collaborate with other students. Not only is my course designed with cross-course collaboration in mind, but the constant stream of exciting student-led creative projects happening in the area means I have opportunities to try all sorts of things!
Working with other courses on projects has helped me learn a wide range of new skills - from woodwork and printmaking to operating professional TV cameras. I’ve discovered lots of new interests and become a better all-round creative person who can take on all sorts of weird and wonderful ideas. In the past year alone, I have organised club nights with Creative Music Technology BA(Hons) students, been a runner on student films, and designed funky lighting sculptures with the Fine Art BA(Hons) course alongside a host of other interesting activities.
A big highlight for me was last summer, when, as part of my course, I had the opportunity to work with the Eden Project to put on a music event celebrating nature in the tropical biome. This was a big project which involved a lot of planning and working with students from all corners of the university. I enjoyed the process of collaborating, bouncing ideas off others and shaping an event that I was really passionate about.
To source the musicians and performers for the event, I looked no further than Falmouth’s own music department – AMATA. I worked with a third-year student band, who carried all of their instruments into the tropical biome, fighting off the heat to put on a beautiful show – the first time I’d seen anything like it in the biome! Along with the band, we also had a hand-pan player and an interactive ‘plant synth’ session.
I put together a team of student volunteers to help with setting up and running the event, working with students on the Creative Events Management BA(Hons) course, who helped me with directing everyone to the event site (being in the middle of the Eden Project, this was surprisingly complicated!) and making sure the sound engineer and artists were well looked after. I also wanted to get some high-quality photos and videos of the event, so I spoke to the School of Film & Television about that - two people from the Television & Film Production BA(Hons) course ended up coming along and making some great content of the performances. Finally, I reached out to some ex-student friends, who designed, built and installed a custom art installation which used sound waves through water to tell the story of an endangered bird species.
This event was an amazing experience and a great example of how interconnected the different courses can be at Falmouth. The facilities of each department – the rooms, equipment and technicians – are available to all students regardless of specific courses, and you can get inducted, join workshops and try all sorts of different creative mediums.
I have had the opportunity to build a great network of friends and collaborators with many different skills and perspectives.
Through working on my course and following my interests outside of my studies, I have had the opportunity to build a great network of friends and collaborators with many different skills and perspectives, from fine artists to film-makers, musicians to lighting technicians. My projects have become so much richer as a result, made stronger by ideas from students studying all sorts of different fields.
Through creative collaboration at Falmouth, I have learned so much more than my own course promised to teach me. It’s been a rewarding opportunity to try lots of new things and follow my interests wherever they take me, even if the direction is completely unexpected.
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