STATEMENT FROM SENIOR LECTURER IN FINE ART AND THIRD YEAR TUTOR, VICTORIA LUCAS

Our current third year students, like many, have had to negotiate their final year of studies amid further necessary Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions. It has been difficult. Many of our students and staff have had to shield, self-isolate, work, home-school and undertake extra caring responsibilities alongside their commitments at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). For some, life has understandably infringed on creative productivity, and studies have had to be put on hold at times in response to individual circumstances. Despite all of this, our third year students have made it to the end of their degree. The Fine Art staff team are so proud of our 2021 graduating students, and what they have all achieved in such extraordinary and challenging times.

Over the past month or so, as restrictions have lifted and the vaccination programme has begun to show promise, our fine art community has been welcomed back to the Hanover Building to continue making, discussing and developing work and ideas in our dedicated studio and workshop environment. Studio culture is such a valued part of the Fine Art course at UCLan, and for those who have been able to return, it has been a place of nourishment and reflection after an unprecedented year of disruption and isolation. 

The Degree Show is a public platform for the concepts, skills and processes developed and refined over a three-year period, and an important celebration of the hard work and achievements of our student cohort. As UCLan’s School of Arts and Media 2021 Degree Show is launched online, I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to all of our graduating Fine Art students. You have all been an absolute pleasure to work with, and I wish you all the very best in your future endeavours.

I would also like to congratulate the student Degree Show Panel - Abigail Rooney, Gemma Fairclough, Jessica Grimshaw and Katherine Beckett - for all of their hard work in promoting and documenting the 2021 Degree Show in the form of posters, Instagram posts, a dedicated Fine Art website and also this catalogue. The panel’s hard work has resulted in a variety of long-lasting, public-facing platforms that work to disseminate artworks generated by this graduating cohort of students, as they all step in to the next phase of their artistic careers.

I would like to thank my colleagues - David Mackintosh, Maeve Rendle, Andrew Broadey, Jayne Simpson, Faye Spencer, Craig Atkinson, Nigel Lewis and Stuart Hartley - for the abundance of care, knowledge and skills that they all share with our students week in and week out, while also juggling extra demands and challenges that the pandemic brings to their lives.

Finally, I would also like to acknowledge the loss of our very talented PhD student, Mark Smith. Mark died after contracting Covid-19 in Semester One of this academic year, and he is sadly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him during his time studying for his BA (Hons) Fine Art, MA Fine Art and PhD Fine Art qualifications at UCLan.

Victoria Lucas

Senior Lecturer in Fine Art and Third Year Tutor

University of Central Lancashire