SUPPORTING STUDENTS CREATIVELY | APRIL 2010 Supporting students in their creative endeavours is extremely important to us because it’s extremely important to our students. In fact this strand of our work is one of our five strategic aims for the next five years: ‘Enhancing the creative development of our members’ – within this we aim to: Provide members with the opportunities showcase their work Provide members with the opportunities to develop their skills to succeed professionally Develop and build on the networking opportunities we provide for our members.
WHY? Our main aim is to enhance the student experience. At UAL this must include enhancing creativity, and supporting students to get as many professional and recreational creative experiences as possible before they leave the University.
WHO? The Students’ Union’s staff structure is designed to maximise our flexibility as an organisation so we can support students in what they want to do when they want to do it. Here is an overview of the which staff roles directly support students creatively. Culture and Diversity Officer: A full time elected student in charge of leading the Union in our creative work. Senior Management Team: A key strategic objective for the Union’s SMT is around how we support students in their creative development and achievement. Communications Manager: Manages a team consisting of many student staff, employed in creative roles to give them vital professional experience. Communications Assistant: Directly manages the Creative Team, a team of student staff who are paid for the creative work they do for the Union. Student Activities Manager: Manages a team of four full time staff working to support students to create their own opportunities, and providing funding and resources to help students do this. Sports and Societies Coordinator: Directly works with students to support them to create and develop their own activities. Provides training for students volunteering their time in sports and societies. Student Events and Exhibitions Coordinator: A new role, created to specifically support students to seek and take advantage of innovative creative opportunities.
HOW Below are some examples of the types of ways in which we support students creatively.
Work Opportunities Creative Team: Team of student designers who are paid by the Union for creative work. The vast majority of Union publications, brands, logos and printed publicity are designed by paid UAL students. Promo Team: Team of student staff recruited from all disciplines who perform a variety of creative functions within the Union. Promo Team provide Union staff with Creative Sessions where a group get together and brainstorm an issue or try to solve a problem creatively. Promo Team support activities like elections through active promotions methods.
Professional Level Voluntary Opportunities Less Common More Sense: Award winning student run magazine, branching out into radio, TV and blogs. Completely edited, designed and written by students, the magazine provides opportunities to showcase work and gain vital practical experiences. http://wearelesscommon.com/
Xhibit: Annual flagship student exhibition. Xhibit is coordinated by Students’ Union staff, but lead creatively by student curators and obviously all the work is UAL students’ work. This year, in our 13th year, over 600 people applied to be featured in this exhibition and 37 artists were selected for the show. http://www.suarts.org/xhibit
Arts Radio: Student run radio station, currently broadcasting through their website http://artsradio.podomatic.com/
Individual Opportunities We Are Arts Galleries: The galleries at CSM and LCC managed by the SU are incredibly popular and always full, with enough applications to fill the spaces many times over. The imminent opening of a third gallery space at 272 High Holborn marks an important step in providing even more students with vital exhibition experience in a student-led environment http://www.suarts.org/wearearts. Sports and Societies Federation: Any student can set up any society they like and we will fund and support them to do it. We train all students who volunteer to run societies and clubs and our training builds capacity within the federation, but also helps students to identify the transferable skills they have acquired. Some particularly creative societies include: Burlesque, Creative Writing, Curation and Exhibition, Culinary, Drama, Film, Fashion, Entrepreneurs, Hip Hop, House Dancing, Jive Dancing, Life Drawing, Manga Anime and Games, Music, Photography, Rock, Sustainable Design. Elections and Referenda: Any student can campaign in an election or referenda and the campaigning experience is a creative experience. Students receive funding, support and training from the SU.
Student Led Events and Exhibitions: The Events and Exhibitions Coordinator supports students in one-off opportunities. Examples in 2009-10 include: Victoria House: Company Mask held Christmas events in Victoria House (opposite CSM Southampton Row). More than 150 students applied and 10 were selected, and their work was displayed in VH throughout Christmas season. City of London: SU collaboration with the Park Spaces scheme has resulted in students submitting proposals for outdoor artwork in West Ham Park this summer. Enterprise Week: Two unique presentations were delivered to enthusiastic students in Enterprise Week in association with ECCA. Generating Exhibition Ideas and Running Successful Events were attended by almost 100 students who received practical advice, signed up to newsletters and had their questions answered. Chinese New Year Boat Party To celebrate the year of the Tiger the Students’ Union worked with the Taiwanese and Chinese societies to deliver an extremely popular boat party on the Thames for over 300 students. In collaboration with the International Students’ Assembly the event comfortably sold out, and many more tickets could have been sold. Free Film screenings with the International Students’ Assembly Among other events a regular programme of free film screenings ran from the end on the autumn term until the move from the site at Davies Street. Films were selected by students and provided by the Students’ Union, offering an informal setting for students meet and relax together. For more info see the ‘Showcase Your Work’ section of our website at http://www.suarts.org/showcase Helen Gimber Students’ Union President president@su.arts.ac.uk