Diffusion Festival

A date for your calendars! Throughout the merry month of May, Diffusion Festival, an "International Festival of Photography", will be coming to Cardiff. 

It will be chock full of "exhibitions, discussions, screenings, performances, events and celebrations in both physical and virtual spaces and places" and one artist whose work has been confirmed to make an appearance is current Photo Art lecturer Peter Bobby.

Watch this space for more announcements and information as and when it comes, or cut out the middle man and visit their website.

http://www.diffusionfestival.org/

Matt Colquhoun at E Book Show

Maximum Fog, a photo book by third year Photo Art student Matt Colquhoun, has been selected to appear at the E Book Show at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton.

The show, organised by Brighton-based organisation Photobook Show, will be in Southampton for exactly one month, starting on February 2nd. Their fifth independent show, they have also curated photo book exhibitions at the Margate Photo Festival as well as the Brighton Biennial and Fringe festivals in 2012.

Go check it out!

Jo Sowden for Aesthetica Art Prize

Following on from the recent post about Photo Art graduate Beverley Cornwell being selected for the Aesthetica Art Prize, it has been announced that Jo Sowden - who also graduated from the course in 2012 - is up for the prize as well.

Jo has had many successes since graduating including being selected to appear at the Videoholica festival in Bulgaria, a spot in the Caitlin Guide's top 40 emerging new artists to look out for and her own solo show at Bristol Diving School.

Best of luck to Jo and Bev! The finalists for the Aesthetica Art Prize will be announced later this month.

Beverley Cornwell for Aesthetica Art Prize

Happy new year everyone! Hope you've enjoyed your break! Now it's back to business as usual and we're going to start 2013 with the some more Photo Art alumni successes.

Beverley Cornwell, who graduated from the course in 2012, has been selected for the Aesthetica Art Prize long-list for her 'Empty Enclosure' images, produced during her 2nd year at Newport. This means that Bev's work will be featured in the award publication. The selection of the 8 finalists will take place during January 2013. Fingers crossed and best of luck!

The Aesthetica Art Prize is hosted by Aesthetica Magazine, an internationally recognised art and culture publication. Aesthetica’s editorial combines dynamic content with compelling critical debate, attracting a high-profile, culturally aware audience. Distinguished by its beautiful design and stunning images, the magazine engages with the arts both in the UK, Europe and further a field.

The Aesthetica Art Prize is a celebration of excellence in art from across the world and has developed from the Aesthetica Creative Works Competition. In its new incarnation, the prize offers an even greater opportunity for artists to showcase their work and further their involvement in the international art world.

Post-100 Years

It's been a couple of weeks now since Newport held its celebratory weekend for 100 years of photography in Newport and since then there has been no change of gear in the run-up to the Christmas break.

Now late in December things have slowed a little as we welcome in the start of another year and (momentarily) take a break from talking about photography.

The 100 Years weekend was a great success. Spread over two days, there were talks from Mark Duerden, Ben Burbridge, Sarah James, Annebella Pollen and Liam Devlin on the first day, as well as David Bate, Davide Maione, Anastasia Taylor-Lind, Clare Strand, Paula Gortázar, Ken Grant, Mishka Henner and Bertien van Manen on the second.

Afterwards, there were speeches, food and drink, and the impromptu takeover of a local pub.

Many thanks to all those who came down to celebrate with us, both past and present students and staff. Let's do it again in 25 years.

On behalf of everyone on Photo Art, I'd like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2013!

Graduate Internships

We're looking forward to welcoming back three 2012 alumni of the Photo Art course, who have successfully secured graduate internships at the University. They are Sion Jones, Meg Beaumont and Jo Sowden.  They'll be working on a variety of projects within the department and eCPR (European Centre for Photographic Research) from January 2013.

About the scheme:

The University’s Careers and Employability service has been working with university departments to create and develop graduate internship opportunities in order to enhance graduate employability, and support graduates in their transition from university study to employment.

With roles including film-making, research, photography and arts management, event support and marketing, while also offering a range of positions in university administration, the scheme will provide opportunities for recent graduates to help them further hone their experiences.

The scheme was open to all 2012 graduates from the University of Wales, Newport.

Pontypool: Transforming Historic Town to its Former Glory

Photo Art 2nd year's involvement in the town of Pontypool has made leaps and bounds over the past few weeks. There's an update on the whole project now on the UWN website. You can read it all below (continuted after the jump):

Newport University’s Photographic Art students are set to help restore Pontypool town centre to its former glory as part of a major £2.6million project. 

The group of 43 students and their lecturers have been commissioned by Torfaen County Borough Council to create art work for use in the production of hoardings as part of the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI), a Heritage Lottery Fund programme to help communities regenerate the historic aspects of their towns and cities. 

It focuses on delivering sustainable conservation in urban areas, bringing new uses and new life back into areas that have lost their traditional economic bases. 

The project runs until 2016 and is funded by a range of organisations including the Heritage Lottery Fund; European Regeneration Development Fund, targeted match funding, Cadw, Pontypool Regeneration Partnership and Torfaen County Borough Council. 

The students, who are in the second year of their BA (Hons) Photographic Art degree course, met THI project officer for Torfaen, Graham Middleton, during a visit to Pontypool Museum, where he outlined their brief for the project.