Kirstie Reid, is a senior Sculpture Technician at Wimbledon College of Art. For the past 9 years she has captained the British Team travelling to Grindelwald in Switzerland to compete in an international snow sculpting competition as part of the annual World Snow Festival.

In previous years alumni students Trilby Jones, William Waterhouse, Richard Cramp, Richard Miller, Eammon Hughes, Georgina Miller, Nathan Jarvis have all been members of the team of 4. The UK team has taken 1st place on three occasions. This year the competition theme was ‘Joie de Vivre in which the British entry depicted 3 monumental women enjoying a conversation together around a café table, referencing characters from a Beryl Cook painting.

 The final sculptures are the result of 5 days intense effort, with teams working in temperatures as low as minus 11ºC .Kirstie, has also participated in the snow sculpting competition in Brekenridge, Colorado.

Michael Pavelka, Design for Performance pathway leader, has designed the set and staging for the new adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III! The production is currently touring with The Comedy of Errors in association with the Touring Partnership of 2010-11 and is set to hit London in July.

This is promised to be a spectacular show of ones mans diabolical journey to heaven and then back into hell. Paul Valley from the Independent also recently wrote a piece comparing this adaptation to the current political issues occuring in Libya. To read this article click here.

Showing at: Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London, NW3 3EU from 22nd June until 9th July. 

To book tickets and see a list of other tour venues and dates, click here or contact the Box Office on 020 7722 9301.

Peter Farley, Senior Theatre Lecturer at Wimbledon has a very busy year ahead! From curating and designing ‘Transformation & Revelation’, the UK exhibit for Prague Quadrennial of Performance Deisgn & Space to directing and curating the Society of British Theatre Designers (SBTD) National Exhibition at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff – Peter will most certainly be kept on his toes!

‘Transformation & Revelation’ takes place between 16th-26th June in the Veletrzni Palace – The National Gallery of Modern Art in Prague. For more information and to purchase tickets, please click here to visit the website.  Scenofest, a student festival in which students from Wimbledon College Art will be taking part and will also be exhibiting as part of the UK student exhibition. This is organised by the Association of Courses in Theatre Design (ACTD) of which Peter is Honary Treasurer.

The selection for Prague is made from the Society of British Theatre Designers National Exhibition which has over 200 designers exhibiting including Antony Gormley, Richard Hudson, an alumni and fellow of WCA better known as the designer of the Lion King. Also Es Devlin’s designs for the Lady Gaga tour. The exhibition covers a huge range of performance from the highly successful and very well known designers to fledgling designers just embarking on their careers. There is also a large educational programme and both a student and professional conference organised as part of this event. For more information visit http://www.theatredesign.org.uk.

In March 2012, in Olympic year and as part of the British Design Festival,  an expanded version of the Prague exhibition will start a six-month residency at the V&A followed by a National tour including the Baltic.

Watch this space for more details and show dates or check our events page at http://newsevents.arts.ac.uk/, for more news about the up and coming exhibitions and happenings.

Jennet Thomas, former Print & Time Based Media Course Director aired on Radio 4 last Sunday, discussing the elusive non-profit making collective Exploding Cinema. She along with Associate Lecturer, Paul Tarrago are interviewed on the ways they challenge audiences to rethink the way we watch and rate films.

This coalition of film and video makers is set in the heart of London, and explores the ways in which different modes of exhibition for underground media can be developed. It invites all manner of artists to exhibit and experiment with their work, celebrating the vast demographic that limitless talent can offer. The use of cafes, pubs and disused buildings adds to the almost erie yet enchantingly creative vibe that the fusing together of isolation and disenchated fragments of the underground media generates.

To listen to the full broadcast visit BBC Radio 4 or follow the link below: 

http://http://www.explodingcinema.org/explodingR4.mp3

Jane Collins, Reader in Theatre and BA Theatre Contextual Studies Co-ordinator at Wimbledon College of Art, has written the audio script-In His Own Words- to accompany  Space and Light: Edward Gordon Craig a current exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Jane  also convened an interdisciplinary day of lectures on Craig’s legacy in the fields of art, design and architecture at the V&A and these are now available on line. Speakers included the eminent biographer Sir Michael Holroyd and architect Dinah Casson.  Kate Bailey  the curator of the exhibition provides insight into its production, which includes an interactive element, and Jane Collins talks about the research and development of the audio script.  The exhibition runs through to March before moving to the Czech Republic as part of the Prague Quadrennial.

To listen to the lecture, follow the link: http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/2447/

New lectures are added regularly, so keep up to date with recent lectures by visiting http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/cgi/latest_tool

The Jasmin Vardimon Company has invited Abigail Hammond, the acting Pathway Leader for Costume Design, to design the costumes for their new piece, 7734.

The Jasmin Vardimon Company is a prominent British dance theatre company which was founded in London in 1996, which incorporates its Artistic Director, Jasmin Vardimon’s uniquely theatrical chereography with physical theatre, quirky characterisation and innovative  techniques.

The piece, 7734, which premiered on the 23rd September, is currently touring the UK and France throughout the autumn. In it, Jasmine uses visceral chereography and video integration to create a stimulating performance of human’s natural survival instinct.  As well as using  as strong company of international dancers, 7734 also features a specially commissioned script by Soho Theatre’s, Pamela Carter.

7734 will be held Sadler Wells, London on the 25th and 26th November, 7.30pm. Tickets are priced between £10 – £20.

Michael Pavelka, Pathway Leader of Wimbledon’s Design for Performance course has received rave reviews for his designs for a new production of Arthur Millers’s  ’Death of a Salesman’ currently showing at the Gate Theatre, Dublin until 25th September. Read some of them below:

Review by Peter Crawley for the Irish Times “The world has always loomed down over Willie Loman, but in Michael Pavelka’s marvellously sinister set it actually seems to be snapping closed on him: the toppling façade of a Brooklyn brownstone and a sharply canted stage meet each other like the jaws of a trap. If it was ever possible to create a more startlingly fatalistic Death of a Salesman, this is it”

Review by Longman Oz for noordinaryfool.com  ’Michael Pavelka’s dark and minimalist set design is a place where broken dreams go to die. In one corner, a leafless elm tree lurks in frozen horror, its lower branches raised as if in perpetual alarm. The tree’s higher branches then push through the gaping windows of an apartment block façade that has been suspended at a slanted angle from the ceiling, thus becoming a crushing depiction of bland, oppressive civilisation from above. All is monochromatic, bleak, and despairing’.

Wimbledon College of Art in partnership with the V & A, and as part of London Design Week are involved in the Edward Gordon Craig: His Legacy Exhibition (open 11th September 2010 until March 2011) at the V & A Museum  Jane Collins, Reader in Theatre and currently acting Course Director Theatre at the College has worked  on the exhibition and will take part in the Day of Lectures taking place on Saturday 25th September  in the Hachhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre V&A.  Tickets £12 (£5 concessions) – to book visit www.vam.ac.uk/tickets

The Wimbledon Summer Shows open this week! As part of the build up to the shows over the past couple of weeks we have been posting a series of interviews with students, staff and technicians. This week we talk to Audio Visual Technician Sam Wilkins.

Find out more about the 2010 Summer Shows -

www.wimbledon.arts.ac.uk/summershows2010

As part of the build up to the Wimbledon College of Art 2010 Summer Shows we go behind the scenes and talk to students, staff and technicians to find out how preparations are going.

In our first video we talk to Sarah Woodfine - BA Fine Art Sculpture Pathway Leader.

Find out more about the 2010 Summer Shows -

www.wimbledon.arts.ac.uk/summershows2010