City welcomes Class of 2011
Posted: Friday, 14th October 2011
THE CITY of Manchester turned out to welcome first year art & design students at Manchester Art Gallery on Tuesday night.
As part of Induction, new arrivals were treated to a private view of the Ford Madox Brown exhibition in the building where Manchester School of Art was founded in 1838.
They were also able to mix with School academics and partners including executives from the BBC, Manchester City Council, MIF, Madlab, The White Room, Fab Lab, Red Eye, Ammo, Bite Digital and the Contact Theatre.
Welcoming students to their “first networking event”, dean of faculty Professor David Crow said: “The city has come out tonight to welcome you to Manchester. This is a fantastic place to study and work and we want to keep the majority of you in the city.”
Magnetic city
“Manchester School of Art and this our city’s great creative heritage attract large numbers of people to the city not least our students- – our largest cohort originate from between 100 and 200 miles away and we have 200 overseas students.”
And he said the School was making an undoubted impact: “Our people make a significant community of artists and designers in Manchester. Only the other day I visited Rogue Studios in Piccadilly, where 110 artists work together – 97 of them our staff or alumni!”
Also presenting were Brendan Dawes, creative director of magneticNorth, who spoke about how technology had empowered the individual creative; and principal lecturer Jane McFadyen who introduced students to the mysterious ‘Unit X’ - a forthcoming professional engagement scheme (all will be revealed shortly on ManMetLife!).
Michael Howard, senior lecturer in contemporary art history, was also on hand for insight into the Lowry and Valette artworks on show, while music was provided by Nils Olav, with the School’s own Ian Roberts on guitar.
Manchester Art Gallery has a current display on Mary Greg, which features work by our students curated by senior lecturer in three-dimensional design Sharon Blakey.
The welcome event, organised by Mike Gorman, is a first for the School and reflects the growing importance of relationships and collaboration in professional practice.