Spent a very pleasant morning catching up with
who is the course leader of the BA Illustration course at UCLAN in Preston. I enjoyed a good few years teaching at the Uni with Steve and his team. Certainly very interesting to be back in the academic environment for a short time, catching up with student progress, the course evolution and how the nature of University funding is changing (for the worse - much worse) in relation to the new fee structure. Its show time of course and the Year 3 bods have their graduation exhibition now open to the public. Overall its a mixed show, but there are stand out artists and potential stars in the making. The course has gone from strength to strength over Steve's ten year role as course leader, turning out some of the finest UK based illustrators working today. To name check just a few:
Being in the Y3 exhibition room brought back the memory of the frantic last minute preparation, student panic and the relief of completing it all. Wistful sigh!
Great to see that the course is thriving with Steve at the helm and his teams passion for the subject appears undiminished, despite the challenges ahead regarding Uni funding etc. Well worth a looksee if you are in area :-)