Author Archive

It’s quiet here at the OCA offices today. Gareth and I got back to Sheffield late last night after a long, long day. We were meeting with the University for the Creative Arts to validate our MA in Fine Art. First of all UCA had to satisfy themselves that they wanted to partner with...
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Two OCA tutors, Emma Drye and David Winning were recently in the office and we filmed them talking about one of David’s students (Iwona Barltrop) who had just finished her Painting 1 course. I think the video really helps explain how important it is to retain vitality in your work for it to be...
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The OCA is working hard on designing an MA and hopes to launch it in January 2011. This is an exciting new venture for OCA and we anticipate significant interest in it, judging on the feedback we have had from the students we have asked. The programme will be different from existing...
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The Business Design Centre in Islington is a great venue for designers to show their flair, with 65,000 square feet, a graceful iron arch originally designed as the Royal Agricultural Hall, opened in 1862. Now a thriving conference centre, the venue has, for the last couple of weeks, been jammed with creative young people,...
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I had a meeting at Bucks New University recently and visited the degree show in Furniture design (a real strength), Textiles Surface Design and Fine Art. Fine Art was really stimulating. It really struck me how useful it would be for OCA students, if at all possible, to get along to any...
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I’ve just had my first iPhone art exhibition, and squeezed in a couple of iPad images because, yes, I was one of those sad-os that got an iPad on the day it came out in the UK. The iPad is even better than I expected. The resolution of images created on it is...
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OCA is going to be further developing its curriculum in the next 12 months, and there are some exciting new additions to the existing suite as well as a couple of exciting additions to our undergraduate degree programmes. First, there is a new Textiles course at level 1 (HE4) coming in the next few weeks...
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There’s a new exhibition shortly on at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, close to OCA HQ (29 May 2010 – 27 February 2011) of work by David Nash, tracing the evolution of the artist’s 40 year career and offering a vivid statement of his life’s work. David Nash has created Black Steps, an ambitious...
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OCA’s exciting new web resource is launched today. You can find it at http://oca-elements.com. This resource provides supporting material on all the creative arts subjects OCA offers. These learning ‘nuggets’ are a mixture of video, audio slideshows, and text. A wide range of fundamental learning points will be covered over the coming...
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2nd Prize has been awarded to James Cowan for his watercolour ’The Bakehouse, Vienna’ Although James regularly puts work into exhibitions, mostly in London, this was the first time he had sent work to the Royal Watercolour Society. “Just getting into an exhibition is great news, so...
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