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More than just a Degree of success:

Published May 12, 2009

Contemporary Art Practice students inundated with offers:

At the time of publication the 2009 UCAS stats for HND Contemporary Art Practice Year 2 candidates at Edinburgh’s Telford College are as follows:

  • 100% received 1 or more HE Degree offer.
  • 78% received 2 or more HE Degree offers.
  • 33% received 3 or more HE Degree offers.
  • 90% received offers @ SCQF Level 9 (equivalent to entry level 3 in Scotland)
  • 67% received offers @ SCQF Level 8 (equivalent to entry level 2 in Scotland)

Every year thousands of Art & Design students from hundreds of schools and FE colleges throughout the country apply for Fine Art and Design degree courses in the UK. Competitions for places is extremely high; Edinburgh College of Art for example receives more applications than Oxford and Cambridge. Successfully gaining a place on these courses is a significant achievement for any applicant.

Although such achievements are predominantly down to the hard work, dedication and creative output of the applicants themselves there can be no doubt that the influence of a highly creative, well resourced and supportive art dept along with the input of highly qualified and professional artists / lecturers can have a significant and lasting influence on the future success of students whether they choose to go on to Higher Education or directly into the Creative Industries.

The HND in Contemporary Art Practice at Edinburgh’s Telford College has a growing reputation as one of the most successful courses in the country. Our progression rates continue to be amongst the highest in the FE sector.

This year places have been offered on the following courses:

Edinburgh College of Art:

  • BA(hons) Intermedia
  • BA(hons) Painting
  • BA(hons) Sculpture

Glasgow School of Art:

  • BA(hons) Sculpture and Environmental Art

University of Cumbria:

  • BA(hons) Fine Art

University of Newcastle:

  • BA(hons) Fine Art

If you would like to study on one of the most innovative and successful Fine Art HND courses in the UK then why not APPLY NOW.

ContemporaryArtETC.. greet new staff to the team.

Published February 25, 2009

ContemporaryArtETC are delighted to announce the arrival of 2 new members of the staff team. Heather Craig and Jen Outhwaite.

Heather who has been a prominent of the FineArtETC team at Edinburgh’s Telford College for 5 years will replace Neil Manning as a Lecturer during his time as Acting Curriculum Manager. Heather who graduated from the Intermedia course at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is a practicing artist with an impressive CV including being lead singer of underground electro/punk/pop/art outfit The Gussets.

Jen is new to both the college and the course and has an equally impressive back ground, graduating in 2008 form the Sculpture School at ECA. Jen joins us as our very 1st Learning Assistant.

Some of our regular readers might remember that both Heather and Jen have featured on this site before as both have joined us on separate trips to Germany. Jen joined us in Muster and Kassel in the summer of 2007 and Heather helped maintain order at 5th Berlin Biennale.

Jen and Heather will bring new perspectives, thinking, skills, vibrancy and enthusiasm to the team and we are very much looking forward to working with them.

For further information on all the course team please visit the Staff Page

ContemporaryArtETC Graduates in showcase of contemporary Scottish art.

Published February 15, 2009

Graduates from Edinburgh’s Telford College’s Fine Art Programmes feature strongly in Exhibition showcasing the very best of contemporary Scottish art.

The inaugural RSA New Contemporaries exhibition presents some of the finest up-and-coming artists and architects in Scotland, selected from the 2008 undergraduate degree shows. The exhibition is an exciting and innovative move by the Royal Scottish Academy as it replaces the pre-graduation, open submission, mish-mash that was the annual student show with a post-graduation selection of the best of the four Scottish art schools and six architecture schools.

Ruth Barry who graduated from Edinburgh’s Telford Colleges (ETC) innovative Fine Art HND programme has presented a combination of table, table-top sculpture and watercolour painting in new work commissioned especially for the exhibition. An impressive work for which Ruth was presented with ESW Research Award for excellence in Contemporary Sculpture practice at the opening Gala by RSA President Prof Bill Scott. Ruth recently arrived back in the UK after working the education dept of the Guggenheim Museum in New York and she will move to London next month to continue her career in Fine Art.

Other FineArtETC graduates featured in the exhibition are Alex McAndrew whose dark glittering mountain dominates the landscape of the sculpture court and Kevin Harman who presents a rather understated wall piece featuring multiple tools which have been stripped of their original surfaces.

Both Kevin and Alex studied on the BTEC Foundation in Art & Design at Edinburgh’s Telford College.

Colin Greenslade, RSA Programme Director, comments: “We envisaged that the development of this exhibition will be one of the most important initiatives for emerging artists in Scotland each year, enabling a ‘first exhibition’ opportunity for some 60+ emergent artists annually. The exhibition will be an unique opportunity to see the best of Scotland’s emerging talent under one roof.”

RSA NEW CONTEMPORARIES

14 to 25 February 2009. Open Monday to Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sunday 12noon – 5pm. RSA Upper & Lower Galleries, The Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL. Admission £2 / £1 conc

THE SKINNY

Site / Sight opens Tonight

Published February 5, 2009

Sight / Site is an exhibition of new works by year 2 participants of the HND Contemporary Art course at Edinburgh’s Telford College. The exhibition deals with the dual themes of visual impairment & location in response to the current exhibition at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh by artist Rosita MacKenzies; who is herself blind. The work has not been developed specifically for those with visual impairment but rather deals with the individual concerns of the artists. Taking the Royal Botanical Gardens as their source / site of research the work explores and attempts to tackle some of the apparent contradictions between visual art and visual impairment.

Sight / Site is open on Wednesday 4th – Friday 6th February from 10am – 5:30pm

This event will coincide with the opening of the Richard Demarco Archive also at Edinburgh’s Telford College.

ContemporaryArtETC… student exhibits in City Art Centre

Published January 31, 2009

Lex Sumptuaria by Sarah Wilson

An artwork by HND Contemporary Art Practice Year 2 participant Sarah Wilson has been selected for the annual exhibition of Visual Arts Scotland which opened at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh last night. The exhibition offers a rare chance to see some of the best painting, sculpture, printmaking, jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles, furniture and photography in Scotland all under one roof.

This is a great honour for Sarah who’s work was selected from among 750 submissions many of which were made by professional artists and degree graduates. It is testimony to the quality of the work produced by participants on the ground breaking course at Edinburgh’s Telford College that Sarah is exhibiting in such illustrious company.

The work, which was produced in response to a course brief, is brass plaque mounted on wood with an engraving of the definition of the Lex Sumptuaria an ancient Roman law outlawing the public display of wealth during times of economic hardship.

The exhibition is open daily until 19th March

City Art Centre
 2 Market Street. Tel: 0131 529 3993

ContemporaryArtETC Graduates show opens in Carlilse

Published January 27, 2009

Congratulations to ContemporaryArtETC graduates Jennifer Ferns, Lynn Mouat & Daine Cornwall who’s latest works featured in “Therfore I am” an exhibition of new work at Cumbria University’s Fine Art Campus in Carlisle. The exhibition which is of a very professional standard was developed, organised and promoted by the students themselves giving them invaluable experience in organisation and co-operation.

The opening of the show coincided with a visit to the campus of our current HN students all of whom have applied to the Fine Art course at Cumbria University.

During the visit we were kindly invited to take part in the gallery walk through which involved all the exhibitors giving a short presentation providing valuable insight into their work.

The exhibition “Therefore I am” is open daily from 10am – 4pm until Friday the 30th January

University of Cumbria, Caldewgate Campus, Newcastle Street, Carlilse

City/Town:

New Studios for HND Contemporary Art students.

Published January 8, 2009

localhost:10076/ is delighted to announce our recent move to brand new studio accommodation in Edinburgh's Telford College. The new studio has allowed us to allocate individual spaces to all of our current students in years 1 & 2 of the HND Contemporary Art Practice course.

As well as individual spaces the studio is also equipped with networked iMac computers and personal lockable storage. Having their own spaces means that students can take ownership of the studio allowing them to carry out sustained research, development and production.

As well as the new studio students continue to have access to specialist studios and workshops including; flexible and well lit life drawing and drawing & painting studio and specialist workshops for wood and metal production.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop @ WASPs presents: Lyndsay Mann and Ewan Robertson

Published November 12, 2008

Lynsay Mann & Ewan Robertson

TBG&S Installation, Dublin 2008 Casimir in Monoceros, 2007

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop presents a two person exhibition featuring new work by Edinburgh based artists Lyndsey Mann & Ewan Robertson will open tomorrow night 13th Novemebr at Patriothall Gallery, Stockbridge.

Lyndsay Mann and Ewan Robertson share a sensibility in their approach to materials, each following diverse areas of research which leads to both multi-disciplinary processes and practice.

This new recent work by Ewan Robertson further explores interests in physicality: it’s material nature; constituents; fabric and status lying somewhere between the experiential and the physical, between object and installation. Drawn together from individual strands as diverse as mechanical music, the LA coastline, vehicles and props in non-violent action, linear systems / events / narratives, the work has a slow-burn feel and has almost self-formed into a singular sense or entity speaking about presence, silence and shadow. Like a newly uttered visual sentence it seems caught perpetually in the moment before thought condenses and meaning is fixed. It feels like a momentary clearing in fog that quietly subsumes but shows light traces of its tangential origins.

Lyndsay Mann’s work explores the most fundamental aspects of our experience: desire and dread, faith and futility. She follows simultaneously intuitive and pragmatic routes within her enquiries, often employing labour intensive processes in her work; using simple and inexpensive materials to suggest an environment of appropriation and a submission to process, manipulating familiar materials removed from their common context simulates a ritual. Mann’s writing, which is integral to her practice, falls somewhere between a manifesto and a self-help text, taking the form of suggested hypotheses or personal statements, neither definitive nor absolute. Abstracted from larger texts, she creates mantra-style sound bites within the works. Most recently she has developed this through sound recording during her residency at Stills gallery.
For Mann, combining multi-dimensional elements of her practice creates a dialogue which the viewer interrupts and becomes party to, assigned a role within the created dynamic to produce event, experience, and witness.

Opening: Thursday 13th November 6-8pm

Dates: 14th-30th November
Exhibition open: Thursdays to Sundays only
Opening times: Thursdays & Fridays 12-6pm, Saturdays and Sundays 12-5pm

There will be an artists’ talk on Sunday 23rd November from 2-3pm at WASPS, Patriothall.

Entry to the exhibition and talk is free.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop at WASPS, Patriothall in Stockbridge.
WASPS, 1D Patriothall, Off Hamilton Place
Stockbridge, Edinburgh EH3 5AY

Free Contemporary Artwork

Published October 2, 2008

To celebrate the 50,000th virtual visitor to localhost:10076/ we are giving away 50 individual contemporary artworks made by staff and students at ETC.

localhost:10076/ provides a number of online resources including contemporary art news, views, reviews, Art e-facts, art e-maps, course information and examples of student work for our readers old and new.

All you have to do to get your artwork is be one of the first 50 people to contact us at our email address:

contemporaryartetc@googlemail.com

In return we will send you one of the beautiful and individual mono-type drawings made by one of our staff or students.

Please include the following details:

Full name
Full Postal Address

ContemporaryArtETC.. graduate, Ruth Barry, to work at Guggenheim NY

Published September 2, 2008
.

Despite early set backs to her artistic career Telford Fine Art graduate Ruth Barry has been awarded the kind of opportunity she once only dreamed of. Ruth has beaten off international competition and will move to New York this month to take up post at one of the most iconic modern / contemporary art museums in the world. Ruth who is originally from Inverness, graduated form the Fine Art dept at Edinburgh’s Telford College in 2005 will move to New York next month to take up post in the museums Education Dept. Galleries and museum play a significant part in Ruths own artwork and she is hopeful that she can bring new thoughts and ideas to the Guggenheim program as well as influencing her own practise and taking her work to new levels.

This will not be Ruth’s first encounter with Gallery Education,

“I’ve been working in the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh for a couple of years now and I was given the opportunity to assist on an educational workshop for young people I was able to apply both my critical and creative knowledge to the program, allowing participants to develop & explore alternative viewpoints on contemporary art.”

Degree Show Installation
Fragments of Demeter/Recalling Poseidon (2008)Degree Show Installation

Ruth has been passionate about art since an early age and was determined to study at Art College. After a couple of unsuccessful degree applications she spent a very successful period on the Fine Art Foundation and HND courses at ETC and gained direct entry to the 2nd year at Edinburgh College of Art from where she graduated this year with 1st class honours.

“The tutors at Telford were incredibly supportive I found them to be energetic and highly influential encouraging me to keep going and not give up on my goals. Being taught by a team of practising artists in an environment which is as close to any art college as possible gave me a solid platform from which I could progress. I gained entry to Art College most certainly as a result of completing the HND in the Fine Art Dept”

RSA president Bill Scott with Ruth Barry
Ruth with Prof. Bill Scott (President of the Royal Scottish Academy)

As well as her appointment at the Guggenheim Ruth has also been selected for inaugural Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporaries exhibition, which will take place in February.

The Guggenheim Museum New York was designed by iconic American Architect Frank Lloyd-Wrightt to house the modern art collection of wealthy New York industrialist Solomon R. Guggenheim. The museum opened to the public in 1959 and has been followed by two further museums in Berlin and Bilboa, the later designed by another superstar of the architectural world; Frank Gehry and which is hailed as reviving the reputation and fortunes of the Basque region.

http://ruthbarry.blogspot.com/

Art e-Maps ETC…

Published August 26, 2008
Screen Capture of Art e-Maps
Screen Capture of Art e-Maps

Here at localhost:10076/ we always like to let you know which direction things are moving in and whats hot and (sometimes) whats not in the world of contemporary art. To do this we regularly visit museums, galleries, colleges and alternative spaces to bring you up to the minute information and share our experiences. During the last year or so we have visited several spaces in a number of towns and cities in the UK, Europe and the USA; at times it has been tough work but someone has to do it. Often the most problematic thing about making such sorties into the contemporary art world can simply be planning the trip and finding the art. So to help ourselves and our readers we are launching Art e-Maps ETC… which provides a series of online maps marked with the art spaces and places localhost:10076/ have visited in a particular place. The maps can be found by clicking on the links below or the links in right hand column of the site.

Edinburgh Art e-Map etc…

Glasgow Art e-Map etc…

London Art e-Map etc…

All maps will be updated as appropriate and new maps will be added very soon including Berlin. If you would like to suggest new maps, locations or spaces please contact us using the comments option.

Happy travels

ED

Magazine 08 @ Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

Published August 13, 2008

MAGAZINE 08: Positive Critical Imagination is an exhibition of work by an array of international artists curated by David Arlandis and Javier Marroqui at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. The show is the third part in an ongoing curatorial investigation looking at artists who offer concrete solutions to social problems. Alongside the exhibition is a series of workshops and seminars discussing the concerns of the exhibition details of which can be found at www.edinburghsculpture.org

The project features work by:

Superflex and Copenhagen Brains, Elske Rosenfeld of Big Hope, Oliver Ressler, Andreja Kuluncic, Recetas Urbanos, Wochenklausur, Société Réaliste and Marta de Gonzalo & Publio Pérez Prieto.

The exhibition is open until the 24th of August, Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm

Big Case at Lauriston Castle

Published August 3, 2008

Big Case has been devised and facilitated by a group of MFA students from Edinburgh College of Art. The exhibition is sited in the glasshouse in the grounds of Lauriston Castle, Edinburgh and features the work of 10 artists.

The preserved interior of Lauriston Castle displays an ostentatious array of fine art, applied art and furniture presenting a monument to Edwardian predilections. For the purposes of this exhibition the glasshouse acts as a cipher for the display cases held within the main castle, an enlarged cabinet of curiosities, with the work critically reflecting on notions of collection, display and decoration and all the inherent ideological concerns they raise within the context of contemporary artistic production.

The selected artists have responded to the site with objects, videos, performance and photography toying variously with formal artefacts, the playfully defunct, the sentimentality of the object, period drama, alchemical experiments and romance.

Exhibiting Artists:

Lucy Keany, Veronica Lussier, Peter Morphew, Shelly Nadashi, Jan Pottinger-Glass,
Andrea Roe, Kadie Salmon, Gemma Saville, Joanne Smithers, Damian Troup.

Big Case is open daily from 10am – 4pm until the 13th of August.

Lauriston Castle: Cramond Road South, Edinburgh, EH4 5QD

http://www.bigcase.org

Annuale ’08

Published August 1, 2008

Hot on the heels of the Edinburgh Art Festival launch on Thursday night Annuale ’08 organised by The Embassy Gallery, sprang into action with the opening of Mutatis Mutandis at the Embassy Annexe at Edinburgh College of Art. Like the EAF Annuale is also in its fifth year and it continues a tradition of presenting a diverse programme of visual art exhibitions and events will be presented in a range of permanent and temporary venues such as: vacant shop and office units; tenement flats; underground passageways; indoor and outdoor stairwells; public and private gardens; as well as regular and irregular publications.

“This year there will be an emphasis on further galvanizing these disparate collectives with a series of salons, artist talks and a symposium highlighting the context of Edinburgh and its complex relationship with contemporary art. We want to highlight the local at a time when the emphasis tends to be on the international. It’s a motivational support network built upon the grassroots foundations that actually function here all year round. A practical and pragmatic camaraderie that says, perhaps we’ll be the bridesmaids, but at least we can have nice frocks.” Annuale website 2008

“A fast-paced, freewheeling art festival that feels, truly, like a festival…” The Map

For more information on all the Annuale has to offer please visit the

Back from the sink.

Published July 31, 2008

After weeks of slavishly plumbing the depths of home and caravan improvement during the summer break contemporaryartetc… is getting back in the swing of it. In the coming days, weeks and months we will be posting our cold hard little hearts out with news on the Edinburgh Art Festival ’08, Cy Twombly, Psycho Buildings and all the the contemporary visual art we can possibly cover from around the world. There will also be the re-launch of Fact of the Day which will be re-branded as Matter of Fact.

More soon.

Ed.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop launches fundraising campaign

Published July 12, 2008

Yesterday saw the launch of a public appeal by Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) fundraising campaign. ESW has already secured 90% of the funding needed to realise their vision for a world class contemporary visual art facility with 30 artists studios, specialist research, development and workshop spaces as well as project and education spaces which will further enhance their already successful community and outreach programmes

If you would like to know more about the new building and ESW’s or if you would like to support directly support the project by making an online donation then please click on the following link.

http://www.edinburghsculpture.org/new_build.html

Underlined: HN Diploma Show @ ESW

Published June 1, 2008

After a highly successful opening event the show ran until the 28th of May. The exhibition was well received and was well attended by family friends and members of the Edinburgh art fraternity. The Staff and students would like to thank the following people for their contribution and continued support:

  • Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
  • Ben McLeish
  • Breave
  • Mandy Purdie
  • Benjamin Fallon
  • Chris Walker

PLEASE CLICK ON A PHOTO TO VIEW A LARGER VERSION

Funding boost for Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

Published April 7, 2008

Leith-based contemporary visual arts facility Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) has been awarded a major boost towards the development of a purpose built facility in the recent funding round of Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Capital Awards.

Iain Munro Head of Capital at the Scottish Arts Council, said: ‘When we decided to consolidate our funding for the next three years into one funding round, we wanted to support exciting and ambitious projects that will contribute to the development of Scottish artistic and public life for many years to come.  Providing development funding for this project will now allow Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to examine its proposals in more detail, looking at things such as business plans and sustainability as well as its architectural ambitions to develop a leading international centre for sculpture and contemporary art that will excite, inspire and transform the lives of both artists and the local communities.’

The new facility will provide up to 30 studios and 3 purpose-built workshops as well as a dedicated education area and accommodation for visiting artists. A general project space will allow for experimentation and artists’ professional development as well offering a programme of public events and exhibitions throughout the year. At present the building has 15 studios, a single workshop and one general public space and the organisation is struggling to cope with demand.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) Director, Irene Kernan said ‘This is a marvellous opportunity not only for Edinburgh but for the visual arts sector throughout Scotland. This will be the first building of its kind in the UK – a purpose-built sculpture facility supporting young and established artists which also will be open to anyone interested in learning about or making visual art. Our aim is to create a centre of excellence for sculpture and contemporary visual art which will attract artists working in Scotland and throughout the UK as well as internationally.’

ESW has been working with award-winning Edinburgh architects, Sutherland Hussey to develop the first stage of the project and will continue consulting with artists and the local community as the project develops.

All the staff and students here at Contemporary Art ETC.. are delighted by the news and we look forward to our continued collaboration with ESW.

http://www.edinburghsculpture.org/new_build.html

http://www.sutherlandhussey.co.uk/