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Creative Arts Blog Posts - Page 4 of 28 - The Open College of the Arts

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Creative Arts


Notes on the winter digital assessment for Creative Arts – A programme leader’s perspective thumb

Notes on the winter digital assessment for Creative Arts – A programme leader’s perspective

This second digital assessment event for creative arts followed up on all the successes achieved in running the summer assessment online whilst allowing room to progress. I was keen to gain further insight into the approaches CA students take to developing their work and understand more about their learning journeys.  The creative arts programme is […]

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A conversation between Foundations Drawing student David Csaba and tutor Cheryl Huntbach thumb

A conversation between Foundations Drawing student David Csaba and tutor Cheryl Huntbach

It may be interesting for prospective students, and others to know a little about your background, your life, and art experience prior to your OCA studies- for example from where you originate (how this may or may not inform your own studies / drawing work / process.   My name is Csaba David and I have  […]

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Sharing Reading Strategies thumb

Sharing Reading Strategies

This post has developed out of conversations which were part of the Creative Arts group work sessions last year. These were exploring a range of approaches to combining practice and research. This got me thinking about reading and how it can underpin practice based research and so it would be useful to share some tips […]

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Motivated to work in Equality and Diversity thumb

Motivated to work in Equality and Diversity

The motivations for my becoming the OCA student representative for Equality and Diversity are deeply embedded in my personal experiences of racial and social class based injustices. I felt that this personal context was important to illustrate my interest and commitment to the role. But equally I wanted to add a real life dimension to the discussion on equality and diversity.

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Black History Month 2020: Creative Arts in conversation thumb

Black History Month 2020: Creative Arts in conversation

When encountered in an art institution like Tate and reimagined in this way, we have no choice but to engage with this darker side. Events of the past few years, such as Brexit and BLM have really started to change that – I think people are noticing public monuments and statuary a lot more. 

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Printmaking studios at home thumb

Printmaking studios at home

During covid lockdown I’ve been so grateful I have a studio space at home. I was reflecting how my OCA students use their homes as studios. I asked a number of printmaking students to reflect and share how they made printmaking spaces within their homes.

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Creative Arts, Part 2: How can interdisciplinary ways of working produce new ideas? thumb

Creative Arts, Part 2: How can interdisciplinary ways of working produce new ideas?

A student recently commented to me that trying different techniques out, although unrelated, had improved the quality of their work and they enjoyed the feeling of connection within a broader student body.

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OCA wellbeing: On self-care thumb

OCA wellbeing: On self-care

Increasing online presence may result in online fatigue with visual and somatic symptoms. To Self- care and to be aware of changing habits and maladaptive behaviour patterns may overcome not only chronic ‘online’ disease but also negative impact on concentration, mood and emotions. 

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Notes on summer digital assessment – A tutor/assessor’s perspective thumb

Notes on summer digital assessment – A tutor/assessor’s perspective

Assessment can be a nervous time for many, whether it’s your first course unit or final degree qualification, the summative grading of your hard work underpins progress made and future direction, forming key milestones in your studies. This summer’s assessment was the first fully digital event at OCA, as students and tutors had to adapt during the height of the covid pandemic.

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OCA wellbeing: Community in lockdown thumb

OCA wellbeing: Community in lockdown

Miranda shares what she has found helpful during the pandemic so far. Miranda is new to the Student Services Team at OCA, and has had the challenge of joining the OCA ‘virtually’ during the lockdown period!

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