Arts students at Milton Keynes College mounted an end-of-term pop up exhibition at Westbury Arts Centre, December 14th to showcase their work and gain experience of exhibiting to the public.
A small group had spent the previous week at Westbury Arts Centre preparing for the exhibition and gaining practical skills in curation. They also had meetings with a number of the artists who rent studios at Westbury Arts Centre to hear directly from them about their careers in art and the different pathways they had taken.
Kate Edwards, who is the Course Team Leader for Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, has a long history with Westbury Arts Centre, both as one of the first studio artist in the 1990s and managing education and outreach projects on its behalf.
Kate said: “The experience is very important to the students; they see how an arts organisation works. They discover the practicalities and difficulties of mounting an art display in a real art venue and are presented with the need to consider issues such as the ethics of displaying artworks which might have controversial content.”
Hosting the exhibition is also an opportunity for them to seek feedback on their work and to find out what messages the viewer has taken away and if they have achieved their communication goals.
David Harbey, chair of Trustees at Westbury Arts Centre said: “We are delighted that we can support Milton Keynes College students in their careers by offering them a venue where they can professionally exhibit their work and learn more about working as professional artists.”
The students who displayed their work at Westbury are studying the University of the Arts London (UAL) Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Year 2 of the Art and Design Diploma and Year 2 Photography.
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