Art History and History Employability Conference

Art History are organising an Employability conference for Undergraduate and Postgraduate students, on November the 8th, at the Minories Galleries in Colchester. Attendance is ABSOLUTELY FREE (!), and includes talks by academics, curators, librarians, and students, on how to get into the arts and heritage sector, as well as a buffet lunch and cupcakes :)

How to Recognize the Artists of Paintings...

 

Graduation Day at the University of Essex

By Simon Kaye

Last Friday marked the final day of the University of Essex experience for the 2014 graduates of the School of Philosophy and Art History. Three years of rushing to meet deadlines and of an overwhelming exams’ stress at the end of every year are now over. The long journeys to London to visit galleries, the sounds of the projectors during seminars, the persistence to make it for 9 am lectures after a night, and the late evenings writing essays in the library are now things of the past. They will nevertheless soon be replaced by the regular morning alarm and job applications.

Although it started raining in the morning, the weather quickly shifted to a sultry summer heat, which graduates and their parents enjoyed on the square throughout the celebration. Having been living like a hermit for the past month whilst writing my dissertation, it was very refreshing to see some of my friends graduating.

Music and barbecues were on the menu and as a frontrunner I got to enjoy this particular atmosphere whilst taking some pictures of joyful moments. I was wandering around campus in between photographing and congratulating until a bell rang calling this vast crew to make their way to the graduate ceremony. Streamed on the university website, I was glad I could see what my ceremony would be like. Sitting under the shades of the Pagoda I sat with a few others watching Prof. Wayne giving a very insightful speech before graduates were called and went up to shake the hand of the chancellor. 

Following the ceremony, which took place in the Ivory Crew Lecture Hall, graduates and parents gathered at the SPAH marquee in Wivenhoe Park to enjoy the warm weather and share a drink with their - now - former lecturers. Refreshments and food were provided to congratulate and celebrate the success of the students. Perhaps a little bit nostalgic but nevertheless embedded with a sense of completion, the atmosphere in the tent was very cheerful and convivial.

Already, I could feel that the graduates will soon miss their university life and the communal sense the campus has got. The little things such as Campus Cat waiting to be stroked in the Tony Rich Teaching Centre, the paternoster of the Albert Sloman library and its check point will always bring a smile to those who came here to study. Memories of the sport centre and its “blades” whose students’ passion embraced on Derby Day, the sport federation’s nights every Wednesday, Art Exchange and its private views where students and lecturers gathered together to speak about art, will be dearly missed by those who now enter “the real world.”

Once prizes and speeches were finished, students made their way outside for the famous hat throw, the final and maybe last moment of their University life. I was glad to see that postgraduate students still came for their graduation even a year after they finished their program. It galvanized me to make sure that I will be able to attend mine next year where I will be standing there wearing black, red and white throwing my hat in the air a second time.

Art History Higher Education and Careers Fair

By Simon Kaye

The sun shone all day on Friday 27^th , and I was off to meet Sophie Dickey in London to help out at the Art History Higher Education and Careers Fair.

After leaving the old town of Colchester, I made my way to London. From Liverpool Street, I took the Hammersmith and City Line and I arrived at my destination, the Godolphin and Latymer School, a wonderful institution located two minutes away from the Hammersmith station.

 

Straight away, I could fell the warm sense of community of the school. With a history of more than hundred years old, I felt privileged to step into the establishment where W. B. Yeats was a pupil during his younger years. The fair was organised in the vaulted hall, whose architecture contrasted magnificently with the new buildings of the school.

Sophie and I set up our little stand and we were ready to speak to students about Art History and the University of Essex. Throughout the afternoon, we met some interesting students very attracted by the opportunities the University has to offer, especially with opportunities such as study abroad, language for all and the variety of joint degrees that we have here at Essex.

Although a lot of A-level students chatted with us, a few teachers who did not know much about our campus also took time to learn more about our institution and the School of Philosophy and Art History. Curious about the prospect of their students to potentially make a move to Essex, they left us nearly empty handed of our literature (which I was grateful for because I had to carry back with me!).

After a few cups of tea, we left the place at five o’clock and went to eat a well-deserved subway whilst watching on an outside screen Petra Kvitova defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon. All in all it was a great day, and a lot of fun!