You and AA2A

We want to hear from you! Please contact us with news of your experiences with AA2A ie what you think of it, whether you have contacted AA2A artists outside your college, how your college involves students with AA2A etc. If you are keeping a blog when working with AA2A artists on a project we would love to hear from you and maybe link to it. We will try wherever possible to use the information you send us on the site. As you may have read on other pages there are also several different ways you can get involved with AA2A:

• Student Newsletter : general info and news for students

• AA2A.biz : the AA2A artists networking site where you can have a student profile

• Vote for an artist : you could win the prize draw...

• Become an AA2A student advisor : we want your feedback and ideas

Information for graduating students and graduates

Hopefully you’ve met AA2A artists working in your department. If you have, you may already have an idea how the scheme works.

The Artists Access to Art Colleges (AA2A) project is a national set of schemes, providing visual artists and designer makers with the opportunity to undertake a period of research or realise a project, using workshop and supporting facilities in fine art and design departments of Higher and Further Education institutions in England. In return, participants are asked to propose how they would be prepared to share their knowledge with students.

If you're in your last year at Uni or College, you will only need to wait about * 12 months to be eligible to apply for an AA2A placement, either where you’re studying, or at one of the other AA2A schemes around the country. For full details about eligibility see how to apply

Here are some of the benefits the scheme can offer once you’ve graduated and had some experience of professional practice outside of education :

• Geographical coverage - there are over 30 schemes running in England, so even if you move away after graduating it’s likely there will still be a scheme not too far away. Have a look at the map
  , to see the colleges running the scheme this year. You can also apply to more than one institution. The list of colleges for each year is finalised in May.

• Peer support - each participating institution usually offers places to four artists or makers, so it’s a great way to meet other artists, who may have many years of experience and contacts in the local arts scene.

• Access to specialist facilities - that you may not normally be able to use/afford; typical supporting facilities available to artists/makers include college workshops, lending libraries, access to lecture programmes, IT equipment, life rooms, etc.

• Time - each artist/maker has at least 100 hours access, which can used between October and April (some schemes extend these hours and the scheme length)

• Materials grant - a small grant of around £200 may be available for materials, formal childcare or travel (if your AA2A scheme is more than 30 miles away).

• NB: This budget is reviewed annually and may not be available to all participants.

• Publicity and documentation - each Artist has a webpage on this, our main website: www.aa2a.org
  They can also use the networking site to record their project: www.aa2a.biz . Many colleges also offer exhibitions as part of their scheme.

• Shared experience - giving something back to students; artists on the scheme usually do this through formal or informal presentations of work, sharing a record of their project on the AA2A networking site or arranging studio visits.

Here’s what the artists said:

"It was brilliant to be accepted and to have the opportunity to explore ideas and experiment with processes that have enabled me to extend and invigorate my practice. Thanks, it's been a fabulous opportunity and I wish I had a bit longer!"
Gill Newton : University of Portsmouth

"The facilities made such a huge difference; they are costly and difficult to source elsewhere."
Julie Cassels : Manchester Metropolitan University

"One of the best things about AA2A was meeting new artists and students to spark ideas and inspire the next generation of artists that there is life after college."
Kate Sully : University Centre Doncaster

"The best thing about the AA2A scheme was setting aside a day a week to focus totally on my practice and being back in an art environment at a time, post graduation, where I had begun to feel isolated."
Rachael Marchant : Birmingham City University

 

We hope you find this helpful - while we understand that the next few months are likely to be very busy for you, this could be just the time to talk to an AA2A artist. Don’t forget, they have valuable real life experience and can offer reassuring words on ‘life after graduation’, and may be able to offer advice on finding a studio, building a website, exhibitions... etc.

Wishing you all the best with your final show and creative life, post graduation.

Best wishes

Wendy Mason (National Coordinator) and the AA2A team

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST now to be kept informed about current and future schemes. Email us at: AA2A@wendymason.biz with Student Mailing List in the subject line.

* Artists applying for the scheme will be expected to show evidence of at least one years professional practice (not necessarily as a self employed person). Artists must not have been engaged in any full, or part time study, which allowed access to workshops for more than 4 hours a week, at an art college or similar institution in the last year