The Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) Graduate Showcase 2023 is taking place in Cambridge this month, with a range of events providing a platform for the most exciting and innovative works produced by Anglia Ruskin University students graduating this year.
Bringing together participants from Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge School of Creative Industries, School of Humanities and Social Sciences and ARU’s Saturday Art Club, student art will be showcased through media including film, fine art, animation, games design, illustration and performance.
Several students displaying their work have already received critical acclaim for their creations. BA (Hons) Fine Art graduate Chloe Culley is one such example of this, having been selected as a winner of the Freelands Painting Prize 2023.
The painting which won her the illustrious award, Untitled (Red), will be on display to the public in the Ruskin Gallery throughout the Graduate Showcase.
Chloe said: “The Fine Art course and staff gave me opportunities to express myself with no boundaries and produce ambitious work like you see in the showcase. It has exciting spaces filled with a diverse range of works.”
Rosanna Greaves, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, added: “Chloe has been an outstanding student throughout her time at ARU. She has impressed through her commitment to painting, in developing a style and language of her own, and is dedicated to a reflective and philosophical evaluation around abstract oil painting.
“She has developed a sophisticated visual language and sensitivity to the medium – oil painting – and has become increasingly prolific as she has progressed on the course. Her mature and professional approach has been continuously evident. It’s been a great pleasure witnessing Chloe’s development throughout her time with us and I wish her every success in the future.”
Other award-winning ARU students to be featured on the agenda are Leah Risby, who won the 2023 Stratford Literary Festival Design a Book Jacket Competition, and Kai Wissler and Martha Wallam, who were part of the team behind Therapy which received a top prize at the Royal Television Society East Student Television Awards 2023. Exhibiting alongside them is Tess Duffin, who has been longlisted in the uncommissioned new talent category of the World Illustration Awards 2023.
Joe McCullagh, Head of the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “The Graduate Showcase is a fantastic celebration of our student achievement. For me, when I interact with the work it always brings a sense of wonder and enchantment.
“I am always inspired by the work of our students who bring creativity, craft, innovation, imagination, care and social purpose to our lives.”
The Graduate Showcase is open to the general public from 9-23 June 2023. Details of individual events and locations, including a special preview event on Thursday 8 June, can be found at: https://creativeshowcase.aru.ac.uk/graduate-showcase
