While we are working behind the scenes to bring student art to Collegiate Learning Centre, take a look at what is already there! We talked to a couple of colleagues who shared their views and experiences of the bronzed hand sculptures on display.
Sam Smith, in the Business Services team for Student and Learning Services told us how his hands came to be immortalised on display.
“When I was a student at Psalter Lane there was a competition to design a sculpture for the new Learning Centre. An artist in the year below me, Abi Stevens, won the commission with her idea to cast several hands in different positions. I volunteered to have mine done… It took about 40 minutes… Overalls were provided.
I like that my thumb has become a bit polished due to people touching it. I think I was in the 2nd year, so… around 1999? On the other hand (haaaaaa) I might have been in my 3rd year.”
Julia Shakespeare, who manages the Collegiate learning centre gets to see the sculpture on a regular basis and is very happy to be getting more student art at Collegiate this year.
“I like the hands mainly as they are bold and striking and contrast well with the sleek environment they have been displayed in. They are incongruous – flat white walls, straight lines and angles, then suddenly these beautiful organic sculptures !
It was something that hadn’t been done before – the libraries were very utilitarian and the only art was in the Librarians Office – this opened it up ( it was one of four original installations ) and I remember feeling very proud that we had done something to promote student art for a student audience. It was a good thing to do.”
We’ll be blogging about some of the highlights of this year’s Creative Spark exhibition soon, and sharing experiences from the SHU Architecture exhibition later this week.
