Art and Design Degree Show wows audiences

Audience members were wowed by the rich, original and daring designs on display, as well as the flawless choreography, make-up and hair. A handful of the design students have taken their collections to Graduate Fashion Week, an annual event which allows universities to show their promising future designers to the fashion industry and the media.

The opening of the Degree Show later in the week at the John Lennon Art and Design Building demonstrated the wonderful creativity and highly original ideas across a broad cross-section of subjects.

The degree show is a renowned highlight in the city’s creative arts calendar, which attracts hundreds of visitors who come to see performance, challenging art forms, cutting-edge creative design, innovative public realm and building projects, beautiful photography and breath-taking fashion collections.

Work across five floors covering Architecture (both undergraduate and postgraduate), Fashion, Fine Art and Graphic Design and Illustration demonstrated the culmination of the graduating students’ hard work, originality and collaborative working.

Students, guests, family and friends gathered in the Johnson Foundation Auditorium to hear Professor Caroline Wilkinson, Director of the School welcome guests and announce a variety of award winners. Students from across each of the subject areas had their hard work acknowledged and rewarded, with awards given by organisations such as the Merseyside Civic Society, the Royal Standard and art supplies retailer R Jacksons & Son.

Professor Joe Yates, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professional and Social Studies handed out the coveted collaborative awards, relating to the collaborative arts partnerships the School has with Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial, FACT and RIBA North. Students who won these awards will be given mentor time by some of the key leadership figures within each organisation, and opportunities to work shadow key figures.

Commenting on the awards, Professor Yates said: “the School’s unique collaborative arts partnerships are vital for knowledge transfer, as they bring together the university, its students and the wider local arts sector as a whole. On behalf of the School and the Faculty I’d like to thank each of our collaborative partners for their ongoing support.”

Two excited prize winners of the annual Faculty International Travel Bursary, History of Art and Museum Studies student, Susan Davies and Fine Art student Kate Kennedy (pictured above) will both be travelling to Aarhus University in Denmark as part of a relationship LJMU has developed via its Exhibition Research Lab. Talking about the trip, Kate said: “I’ve always wanted to study abroad and this opportunity to travel to a leading university to study Art History and Aesthetics is something I’m really looking forward to.”

The Degree Show is running until Friday 9 June at the John Lennon Art and Design Building, 2 Duckinfield Street L3 5RD. It’s free to visit and larger group bookings are being taken for Schools, Colleges or community groups who wish to see the student work. Tours are taking place each week-day at 11am and 2pm. To book a tour, email details of which day and time you would like to visit to lsad@ljmu.ac.uk