General News & Events
An Essay and its unexpected Aftermath
“Even essays can grow if fed and watered.”
These wise words come from our very own postgraduate student Gerry McGandy who contributed his undergraduate essay Who were Edward J. Burrow and Richard Eustace Tickell and why did they record The Vale of Nantgwilt in 1893? to this blog back in 2017.
Artist Kate Green came across his text and contacted Gerry, telling him about her latest project called ‘Walking the Pipe’. She told him that the essay was helpful and led to further research by her; to the extent that she purchased a copy of the book in which the discussed prints, which we hold in the School of Art collection, were originally published.
By now, the project has at least two artists and two musicians, including Gerry, collaborating. They intend, for example, to base a song on the memoirs of a woman called Hetty Price, of life in the valley before the dams and her sorrow at its passing.
So, all you weary students who suffer from writer’s blog and/or general ‘essay fatigue’: take courage and carry on writing. You never know what might come of it!
See the poster for more information about all events Kate and her fellow artists have planned. It surely looks very interesting, and we wish her all the best with her project.
AberForward intern Emily Willis writes about her placement at the School of Art
Prior to this work placement I had no experience working in a museum or gallery and was keen to find voluntary or employment in this sector. So, when the opportunity of a four-week paid work placement in the School of Art Museum and Galleries at Aberystwyth University arose via the AberForward scheme I immediately applied. Luckily the duration of my placement as a Curatorial and Technical Support Assistant came at a most opportune time to experience the whole process of preparing, installing and uninstalling an exhibition. Continue reading
22nd – 24th March 2019: A Weekend for (not only) Silent Movie Buffs at the Old College & Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Broadcaster, composer, musician and Aber alumnus (!) Neil Brand will give two talks about silent movies, and his new score for Underground, a classic British silent film, will be played by Philomusica under conductor David Russell Hulme.
Please click on the links below for more information and to book tickets for the events at the Arts Centre. 
https://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/classical-music/philomusica-music-movies
https://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/cinema/neil-brand-presents-buster-keaton-u
For more information about Neil Brand, please visit his website: https://www.neilbrand.com
‘A Radical Tradition – Eine Radikale Tradition’ – exhibition at Manchester Central Library until 30 April 2019
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Christopher Webster van Tonder, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art and Curator of Photography here at the School of Art. It includes a great selection of images from our own museum collection of vintage photographs as well as several new darkroom prints that Dr. Webster made from our collection of negatives of Hans Saebens and Erich Retzlaff. In addition, the exhibition shows 14 digital copies of the work of Hans Retzlaff from the Ludwig-Uhland-Institut für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft, at the University of Tübingen.
‘A Radical Tradition – Eine Radikale Tradition’, Exhibition Opening, 6pm tonight (4/3/19), Manchester Central Library
School of Art Alumni Helen Blake’s new Exhibition in Dublin, 7/-29/3/2019
Helen Blake
Recent Works
March 7th – 29th, 2019
The Molesworth Gallery
The Molesworth is delighted to present Helen Blake’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. Blake is a painter whose practice focuses on colour, engaging with rhythm and formalism, chance and deliberation. Using a working method where process and contemplation guide the evolution of the work, her small, overtly hand-made paintings record and examine colour conversations within accumulating pattern structures, embracing accidents, flaws and discrepancies within their rhythms.
Andrew Wilson, Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain, has written of Blake’s work that is underpinned by process – “always variously methodical and rational, yet also absurd and affected by the interruption of chance. In Blake’s paintings, colour is deployed to follow a given order and yet these are paintings of nature ….. not the rigid order of an urban modernism, but the texture and rhythms, and immediacy of life unfolding”.
Previous solo shows by Blake include FUTURES 14 at the RHA in Dublin. She also showed at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London in 2016 and 2018.
Opening times during exhibitions:
Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm; Sat 11am-2pm
