SHOWCASE

Open College of the Arts

 2009 No. 3

Gareth Dent, Chief

Executive reflects on
18 months in post
One of the joys of the OCA is that there is never a
slack period. Unlike traditional education, which
pulls down the blinds in July and decamps until
the autumn, our students continue to start new
courses and complete existing courses twelve
months of the year. The one annual cycle is the
production of a new Guide to Courses. Even in
the web age, many people and institutions still
rely on a paper prospectus and this is our annual
opportunity to set out our stall. It is one we take
seriously because we know that, for example, a
Guide in a busy public library could be consulted
many times.
So what has changed and what does this say
about the way the OCA is changing? Firstly, all
of the courses in the new guide are accredited.
They all form part of a pathway to a qualification.
This is not because we are against learning for
personal development. Absolutely not. As an
earlier Secretary of State for Education, David
Blunkett, once said:

‘[learning]...helps us fulfil our potential and opens

doors to a love of music, art and literature. That is
why we value learning for its own sake...’

We want to offer progression, opportunities to

develop skills and creativity that we can support
over time to enable students to flourish.

Continued on page 3...

Inside
Cover story Student: Sarah Tutor: Jim Unsworth
continued... Scales - The Third - Elephants as
Way metaphor
3 4&5 6&7
 Showcase Who’s who at OCA
is published by the Open College of
the Arts. Andrew Watson Pricewaterhouse Coopers and as director of
Open College of the Arts his own business).
Andrew joined the OCA in April 2009 as
The Michael Young Arts Centre, Director of Development. He will be working Kathy Petts
Unit 1B, Redbrook Business Park with Gareth Dent on strategic planning,
Kathy joined the OCA on a temporary 8
Wilthorpe Road, Barnsley S75 1JN and helping to push forward developments
week contract in 1991, packing the guide
Telephone: 01226 730495 such as the prison
to courses (it
Email: enquiries@oca-uk.com education project
was all done
Web: www.oca-uk.com funded by the
by hand back
Registered charity no: 327446 Lankelly Chase
then). 18 years
Company limited by guarantee no: Foundation. He
later she is
2125674 will also take
an invaluable
OCA welcomes contributions to a particular
member of the
Showcase but reserves the right interest in music
to edit materials at its discretion. fulfilment team
provision (alongside Course Leader Patric
Views and opinions expressed in as warehouse
Showcase are not necessarily those Standford), as he is both a harpsichordist
manager.
of OCA, nor does the inclusion of and (aspiring!) jazz pianist. Andrew’s CV
an item, insert or advertisement includes experience with the voluntary Kathy has two children and has recently
constitute a recommendation. sector (working with homeless alcoholics), become a grandmother. Her interests
To amend your contact details or to the public sector (a former local authority include reading, walking and exotic pets
give feedback – please contact Dee Education Officer and Careers Adviser) including snakes, bearded dragons, spiders
Whitmore, Marketing and Events, and the private sector (consultant with and crazy cats.
on 01226 704364 or
email: deewhitmore@oca-uk.com

Success by degrees
The OCA would like to congratulate the latest students on
their degree success:
Speaking about her achievement Joan Barker
said:
BA Honours in Creative Arts
• Joan Barker: First Class Honours “I have been studying with the Open College of
the Arts since 2004. I am absolutely delighted
• Valerie Rath: Second Class Honours (upper division) to have achieved this award. It would not have
been possible without the support of the OCA
• Parthenopi Mouskatou Christodoulidou: Second
tutors. I would like to thank Rhonda Fenwick and
Class Honours (lower division)
John Cartmel Crossley (sadly deceased) for their
• Anthony Hobbs: Second Class Honours (lower guidance and encouragement. I found the work
division) I produced under their tutorage both fascinating
and progressive. I am just so thrilled.”

The graduation ceremony will take place

BA in Creative Arts
at Buckinghamshire New University, High
• Caroline Hockley Wycombe on Monday 7th September

2
 key component of the course is that it recognises that intended
output may be a short piece to support a video on YouTube or
Vimeo rather than a symphony. The third change is even less
obvious when flicking through the pages of the Guide. We are
now working far more closely with our tutors. New course leaders
assist the head office team to understand what works and what
doesn’t and what tutors need to ensure students can get the best
out of their courses. Course leaders are also increasingly active
in the OCA student forums, clarifying points for students and
provoking thought around the courses.

Emphasising the changes has the danger of appearing to say

Continued from cover...
For this reason we have widened the range of level one
photography courses, introducing People and Place as a successful
new course which leads directly into our level 2 Landscape and
Social Documentary photography. It is why we have added Digital
Film at level 1. It is also why we have added Visual Studies to the
art history stream and why we will add Illustration to the fine art
Detail from a photograph by Shirley Plowright
courses later this year.
everything needs to change. Yet there is a powerful case for
continuity, since the OCA still provides - now as ever - a highly
flexible way for students to develop their creativity and skills.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the work chosen to illustrate
the guide, some of which is reproduced here. The OCA head office
is a strange place, oddly distant from the experience of artistic
endeavor, and yet three times a year when work arrives for
assessment it becomes like an oasis in the desert after the rain, as
work of outstanding quality emerges from the packing materials.
We know how good our student work is and that doesn’t change.
You will however be seeing more of it over the coming months.
Detail of a piece by
Penelope Stevenson

Secondly, we are reviewing and updating

courses, ensuring the content is
relevant to today’s learners.
Nowhere is this more obvious
than in our composing music
courses. Quietly, and with
far less fanfare than
in photography, the
business of composing
music has changed.
No longer is it the
preserve of a tousle haired
individual at a grand piano
with sheets of manuscript
paper, rather the keyboard
has replaced the keys and the
score can be emailed to the
tutor, listened to, tweaked and
returned. Equally radically the
nature of music has changed and a

3
 Student: Sarah Scales
The Third Way
When I decided to work towards a internet, and wood from a large cedar tree near to my home which
degree with the OCA, I was intrigued was being made safe and cut back. So although the materials
by sculpture as I had never done any described in the course notes seemed daunting, you can find
3D work before, and decided to give it a what you need cheaply if you shop around.
try, even if it meant getting a low mark,
What I really started to understand from this course was how
because I know I would be trying out
to see something three-dimensionally, what it looks like from all
something completely different. I have
angles, and how it fits into its surroundings. This approach has
always enjoyed experimenting with art,
really helped me with my drawings and I think about what I am
and I am happy to make mistakes if it
drawing or painting quite differently now, my style is much more
means understanding new approaches and progressing.
freed up and when I draw I am automatically thinking about the
The Sculpture 1 course offered a whole range of sculpting three-dimensional form, how it will translate into sculpture, and
techniques using different materials such as; relief work, carving, what techniques and materials to use. I attend a life drawing
casting, construction and modelling. Having face-to-face tuition group weekly and found that it is the quick warm up sketches
was really helpful, and I looked forward to meeting my tutor Alan, that often become sculptures because they have more vitality and
who is very supportive and motivates me tremendously. I think movement in them.
that it is really important to be tutored by a working
sculptor, one who is also progressing their own work and
is excited by new ideas.

When I first looked at the course notes I was

concerned about the overall cost but I
managed to source some materials
really cheaply, such as wood
carving tools from the

4
 My favourite pieces that I have produced are often the
simplest, least complex and most expressive. I enjoy sculpting
with plaster, and the speed with which I have to work; or
using windfall branches without cutting into them. I find that
striving to be accurate is restrictive and sometimes it’s the
imperfections of a piece that make it work and give it energy.

With the Sculpture 1 course, I know that I have learned so

much in such a short space of time. I would now like to find out
more about how to go about possibly exhibiting and teaching
sculpture, there are no classes in my area, and I am sure that
people would be interested in learning.

The other aspect which I didn’t consider before doing

sculpture is that they are often free standing and you have In the meantime, I am looking forward to starting
to think how your sculpture will stand and balance, not just Sculpture 2.
the finished piece, but all the time that you are creating it
too. Every sculpture has its own
individual challenges presenting
new questions with different
solutions. I sometimes visit the
V&A museum to sketch and learn
about sculptors, and when I am
there I also visit the architectural
section too, as I think the logistics
behind architecture translate into
sculpture.

5
 Tutor: Jim Unsworth
Elephants as metaphor
Jim Unsworth has been an OCA fine art tutor for 4 years. After gaining a first class honours degree in
fine art at the University of Reading he has worked from studios in London and has sculpture in public
collections in the UK and the United States. Jim is one of a small group of tutors running the OCA’s
webcam sculpture tuition pilot.
Elephants feature heavily in your work, what draws you to Making large sculptures takes more time. They are heavier and
them as a subject? inevitably the cost of production is greater. Small sculptures are
easier to exhibit and produce in bronze. Often the small works are
Essentially it is man’s relationship to animals, in particular to
elephants that inspires me to want to express my ideas through made after the large ones. Smallness does not possess exclusive
them. I use the elephant as a motif or vehicle to express complex rights to intimacy, hopefully some of my larger pieces have this
ideas about the world we live in. I see them as a metaphor both also.
for man’s relationship to animals and for man’s relationship to
himself: the nature of wild, captive or tame; the nature of freedom
and control; the nature of partnership and individuality.

My personal relationship to elephants is particular; childhood

memories, early experiences of the circus, of seeing an elephant
for the first time and re-living the wonderment that something so
visually awkward yet ultimately so sophisticated could exist in the
world.

The form and spirit of elephants are fascinating - prehensile trunks

that often become serpent-like; large, padded, silent feet; folds
of skin; a beady eye. They possess a great sincerity and humility
often tinged with humour. They have immense strength yet are
very gentle. They have both male and female attributes, can be
aggressive or placid. They engage with us as equals, and they
relate to us with a closeness which is always awe-inspiring and
often acutely disarming.

Elephants are a great challenge to make.

You work at both an intimate and massive scale. Could you

describe how you go about planning and making one of the
large pieces?

There is little difference in how I approach making large sculptures

or small ones. The intention is the same. I try to create work
with a sense of life and movement, and with a response to the
material being used which enhances the idea being expressed.
The inventive use of material is crucial in giving the objects that I
make vitality and spirit.

6
Is the use of recycled materials driven by
economic necessity or is it a statement?

Recycled material, scrap steel, does have quite

a different feel from steel bought straight
from the factory. It has usually been through
the manufacturing process and, more often
than not, is crushed and misshaped in some
unpredictable way. This gives me great
opportunities to find more natural and rhythmic
forms to make use of as I make my work. Steel
that I find in the scrap yard is appropriated, cut,
welded and sometimes forged to construct my
sculptures. The materials’ original properties are
part of the sculptures formulation as it would be
with clay, wax, wood or whatever. New steel is
better for representing more architectural forms
such as the circus podiums which act as foils for the movement is incalculable and invaluable. One’s precursors are influential
above. though.
Who would you say have been the biggest influences on your Finally what are you working on at the moment?
work?
I have just picked up several bronzes from the foundry, some of
Initially the sculptors who influenced both my work and my which have places to go, others don’t.
approach to making were David Smith, Anthony Caro and
Philip King, painters such as Terry Frost, Clyde Hopkins and I am continuing to work on a large seated elephant holding a
Mali Morris all of which except Smith taught me at Reading ball in steel. It is about three metres tall. I like to have at least
University. I have always looked at and gained so much insight one large piece on the go in the studio where it will be worked on
from Matisse, Picasso, Rembrandt, Rodin and Michelangelo intermittently over time until it is complete.
especially in their use of material and expression of ideas. How
I have just begun a new series of smaller sculptures, some made
one is formed as an artist is rich and complex and is not always
directly in wax, others in clay. I am hoping to broaden the circus
readily understandable, nor should it be. Living one’s life, likes,
theme to some extent but I don’t know fully where this will lead
dislikes, prejudices, personal history all contribute to what
yet. I am excited though.
forms you as an artist. The amount of stimulus that you get
from looking at artists work, of all types, periods and cultures

7
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