Degree show opens this Friday
Every studio clears out for it. For one week at the end of April the kilns go cold, the screen beds are scrubbed back to bare mesh and the stages are struck, and three floors of the building become a single exhibition of the work our leavers made this year. It is hung by the students who made it, and for most of the nine days they are in the room beside it, ready to tell you how any of it was done.
The show opens on Friday 1 May at six in the evening and runs until Saturday 9 May. It is free, there is nothing to book, and it is open to anyone: families, other schools, people who live on the street and have always wondered what goes on behind the long windows on the corner.
What is in it
Around ninety leavers are showing, from the sixth form and the Portfolio Year. Each has a wall, a plinth, a screen or a booth, and each chose what goes in it. Some are showing a single piece they have worked on since September. Others are showing thirty small things, because the thirty small things were the point.
- Ceramics fills the ground floor, including the first pieces out of this spring’s wood firing.
- Print and metal takes the long gallery: etchings, screen prints and two forged pieces that needed four people to carry up the stairs.
- Moving image runs in both blackout stages, on a loop, with a printed timetable at each door.
- Sound is in the booths and the live room. Headphones are provided; the live room is not quiet.
- Painting, drawing and textiles share the main hall, which is the room most visitors remember.
Hung by the people who made it
There is no curator. The technicians put up the walls and run the power, and after that the hang belongs to the students. They measure, argue, move each other’s work by a few centimetres and move it back. It takes most of a week, and it is one of the few times the whole year group works on the same thing at the same time.
It is also, quietly, the last lesson of the year. A piece that looked finished in the studio can look unfinished on a white wall under proper light, and there is still time to do something about it. Several of this year’s leavers did.
Nobody here hangs your work for you. If it looks wrong on the wall, that is the last thing the school has to teach you.
Adam Holloway, Head of School
When to come
| Day | Open | What is on |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 1 May | 6pm – 9pm | Opening evening. Every maker is in the building. |
| Saturday 2 to Tuesday 5 May | 10am – 5pm | The show, with students on every floor. |
| Wednesday 6 May | 10am – 9pm | Late opening, workshops lit. |
| Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 May | 10am – 5pm | The show. It closes at five on the Saturday. |
The Wednesday late
On Wednesday 6 May the building stays open until nine and the workshops downstairs are lit, with a technician in each. It is the best evening to come if you want to see how the things upstairs were actually put together: the kiln room, the etching press, the grade suite, the booths with the patch cables still in them.
Coming with children, or with a portfolio
The show is a good first visit for families thinking about the school, because nobody is performing for you. On the Saturdays someone from Admissions is on the front desk from ten until four, and will happily walk you round, answer questions about entry or just point you at the room your child keeps drifting back to.
If you are applying yourself, come and look at what the Portfolio Year produces. It is the clearest answer we can give to the question of what the year is for.
Do I need to book?
No. Walk in during opening hours. Groups of more than fifteen are asked to email ahead so the students on duty know to expect you.
Is the whole show accessible?
Yes. There is a lift to all three floors, and the stages and booths have step-free entrances. The live room is loud; ear defenders are at the door.
Can I buy work?
Some of it. Where a maker has chosen to sell, a price is on the label, and everything goes to the maker except a small amount for next year’s materials fund.
Most of what is on the walls started as something else in September. Come and see what it turned into.
