After two years of home studios and mainly digital showcases, degree shows are fully and unequivocally back. Studios are being reconfigured as exhibition spaces, work is being installed, invites to friends and family are being sent out. For students, lecturers and visitors alike, this is an especially memorable moment.
Featuring interviews, comment and advice from graduating students, lecturers and artists, the just published a-n Degree Shows Guide 2022 seeks to capture the buzz around this year’s exhibitions.
For the first time, graduating students were selected to be featured in the guide via an open call, resulting in a fascinating series of Q&As, features and profiles that capture the breadth of ideas and approaches on display. We’ve also spoken to lecturers to get their take on what makes 2022’s shows so unique and special.
Stephen Cornford, senior lecturer in fine art at Oxford Brookes University, comments: “The degree show is always a remarkable week for fine art students. [It] is often proof that the work they have spent so long developing really does communicate and engage with a broader public.”
Sean Edwards, programme director, BA fine art, Cardiff School of Art, believes this year’s shows are particularly special: “Not having the degree show for two years has highlighted that seeing art is a shared experience; an experience invested in the world, invested in our bodily presence. With the degree show, it’s also about people finding their voice. That’s always a wonderful moment – everyone is getting their space and that’s the wonder of degree shows.”
Read the guide on Issuu and look out for updates and coverage of degree shows as they open on a-n.co.uk/degree-shows and @anartistsinfo on Instagram.
