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sustaining practice Blog Posts- Page 12 of 22 - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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sustaining practice


Student work: Krystyna Dembny thumb

Student work: Krystyna Dembny

Sally, the absolute antithesis of a ‘sissy’, Sally, a woman with chutzpah, who had just been diagnosed with a recurrence of her breast cancer and who, when I finally decided to grasp the nettle and face my own mental discomforts, was more than happy to become my exemplar of the naked post-menopausal: “Invisible Woman made Visible”.

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Creating great character voices: Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible thumb

Creating great character voices: Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible

Writing in many voices within one novel is a challenge, one that can demonstrate a writer’s prowess, as it does here, but  one that can fatally wound a promising idea for a story, weighting it down, making it over-complex, and pushing a student writer’s skills to the very limit.

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Why enter awards?  You might actually win! thumb

Why enter awards?  You might actually win!

When the global Covid-19 pandemic threw us all into a national lockdown, I – like many other OCA students – watched my university studies grind to a shuddering halt.  My otherwise reasonable progress through Body of Work and Contextual Studies was suddenly stymied by uncertainty, chaos and adventures in homeschooling!  Then I read a #WeAreOCA article about why photography students should enter awards.   

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Calling all Level Three creative writing students! thumb

Calling all Level Three creative writing students!

The Creative Writing department is now offering Zoom-based peer hangouts and workshops for students at HE6 (Level 3) on a regular basis. 

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Writing what you don’t know: The magic of uncertainty thumb

Writing what you don’t know: The magic of uncertainty

We don’t have to know where a piece of writing is going to end up before we begin; this navigating, or finding our way, is often where the magic of a piece of writing arises.

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Student work – Art & Ecology thumb

Student work – Art & Ecology

As Programme Leader for both the painting and drawing degree pathways I am very pleased to present the finissage of the painting and drawing ecology group’s recent group work, led by artist and tutor Lydia Halcrow.

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OCA Alumni: Jason Dimmock thumb

OCA Alumni: Jason Dimmock

Congratulations to OCA Alumnus Jason Dimmock whose portrait of Ashley Walters is one of the winners in this year’s Portrait of Britain awards by @BJPhoto.

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Jerwood to Trinity Buoy Wharf – past winners and potential winners in conversation thumb

Jerwood to Trinity Buoy Wharf – past winners and potential winners in conversation

It’s great to report that OCA student Alice Powell’s drawing 60 Hours was shortlisted for the 2020 prize. By applying for this she follows in the footsteps of others who feel it’s time to test their work in the ‘real world’, to take a step up and to see what might happen. The process of application and getting as far as she did was a great learning experience and opportunity for Alice.

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Difficulty in writing: part two thumb

Difficulty in writing: part two

In my previous blog on difficulty I suggested some of the reasons why difficult literature might be worth the reader’s effort. This time I’d like to take focus more on why you shouldn’t always avoid it in your own creative writing.

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