UAL Awarding Body’s Events Coordinator’s Arbenita Lumi and Georgia Hicklin usually spend their summer organising our London exhibition. This year, as part of Origins Creatives and with everything moved online, they’ve been scouring the web for creative student opportunities and virtual exhibitions taking place this summer. See their ‘best of’ list below!
Best of... online exhibitions
V&A Museum: Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk at the V&A delves into the history of the kimono in Japan, dating all the way back to the 1600s. Today, a reinvention has seen the kimono become a popular stalwart in Japanese street culture. Viewers can now catch the entire exhibition via YouTube stream. There are five films of the show, curated by Anna Jackson and made before lockdown, for viewers to experience behind-the-scenes footage.
TATE Modern: Andy Warhol
Join curators, Gregor Muir and Fiontán Moran, on a video tour where they discuss Warhol through the lens of the immigrant story, as a member of the LGBTQIA community and his concerns with death and religion. Twenty-five works from his Ladies and Gentlemen series – portraits of black and Latinx drag queens and trans women – are shown for the first time in 30 years.
NOW Gallery: Slices of Time
This is the most brightly-coloured display on this list and is inspired by the artist’s time living in Tokyo among the neon lights. Slices of Time takes on Moureaux’s invented concept of shikiri, which means ‘dividing space with colour’. The exhibition is a sight to behold.
The Broad: Inifinite Drone Series
Forty-five seconds. That’s how long you normally have to bathe in the twinkling, reflective abyss of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away at The Broad. But now you can spend as much time with its signature piece as you’d like – virtually, at least. As part of its #TheBroadFromHome initiative, you can watch a video playlist of Kusama’s artwork set to a spacey soundtrack.
Sims Reed Gallery: Chihuly Solo Exhibition
Famous for his cosmic rainbow glasswork, seen in Kew Gardens and at the V&A, artist Dale Chihuly is also a dab-hand at painting. Having lost sight in his left eye in 1976, the artist’s paper works are an integral part of his creation process. See them your yourself via Sims Reed Gallery’s virtual 3D exhibition, for which 29 original prints and 10 works on paper reveal the synergy between Chihuly’s two preferred methods.
Google Arts and Culture
This website and app displays online collections from around the world, virtual tours, HD artworks and famous sites in street view. Explore art galleries from home and scavenger hunt through museums, or download an activity book and complete one of the suggested activities to do at home.
HOFA Gallery
A couple of weeks ago, Mayfair’s HOFA Gallery was due to unveil the opening of its new 4,000sqft gallery space on Bruton Street, complete with a debut exhibition by artist Zhang Hong Yi. With coronavirus putting a stop to celebrations, the gallery has provided a virtual art experience, featuring a walk-through tour of the new space and a chance to see the artist’s Nova collection.
Eden Fine Art Gallery
Eden Fine Art has decided to launch two new virtual tours - with a characteristically elaborate approach. These newly launched navigable experiences take visitors inside both their Madison Avenue and Soho galleries and allows them to explore the vibrant array of works in an experience as close to real-life as possible.
#MuseumFromHome
Under the Instagram hashtag #MuseumFromHome, cultural institutions have shared several informative posts about their collections and other artworks in an effort to continue to share knowledge and culture with the public, despite the closings.
Best of... student opportunities
Art UK
Passionate about a particular piece of art? Why not enter Art UK’s Write on Art competition. Art UK is the home for all art in UK public collections and features over 230,000 artworks by over 40,000 artists. If you're aged 15-18 and feel inspired to write more about art, you can take part in their annual prize for young art writers. To enter the competition, all you need to do is pick one artwork featured on the Art UK website and write about it.
We Are UK Film
View and listen to talks and topical discussions with filmmakers and key industry professionals. Their latest videos focus on the film industry in the context of the current pandemic, such as ‘Co-production in COVID-19 times and beyond’ and ‘Back to our Future: restarting UK production’.
Summer of Animation
Interested in animation? Summer of Animation is holding a competition for students aged 13-18. This is the perfect opportunity for you to get your animated short film seen by top industry experts, gain valuable feedback and win some incredible prizes. Weekly masterclass videos are also available, each focusing on a different stage of the 3D animation creation process.
Roundhouse
With its door still shut, Roundhouse have created #RoundYourHouse instead. From a home studio guide, roundtable discussions with Spotify and Giant Artists Management, films and podcasts, as well as creative online tools, resources and advice for young creatives, there’s plenty of ways to still get involved.*
*Parts of this digital offer are age-restricted, please check individual events for details.
National Theatre at home
Enjoy the best of British theatre right from the comfort of your very own home. Their ‘National Theatre Collection’, a collection of 30 world-class productions, is available for educational institutions to stream at home, alongside a range of resources to aid student’s understanding of the theatre-making process.
Side Quest
Always dreamed of designing your own video game? Do just that through practical quests delivered by some of the UK’s biggest games studios, with live weekly masterclasses from industry professionals. It’s open to beginners too and no powerful computer or coding is required. You can even access a free range of resources that include tutorials, a paper Prototyping Pack, and a copy of GameMaker Studio 2.
Sadler’s Wells
Join Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage online for dance performances, films and workshops. With a programme of full-length performances, there’s plenty to keep you entertained until it’s safe to go back to seeing a live show.
Design Museum
Check out the Design Museum’s new series of online content. You can also join the Chief Executive and Director, Tim Marlow, every week in conversation with a wide range of familiar faces from the world of design, fashion and architecture as part of their #DesignDispatches series.
Adobe Live Daily
Adobe Live is now streaming one-hour sessions with UK-based artists and creatives every weekday. Join them live to get inspiration from guests chatting about their work and revealing their design hacks, as well as asking guests your own questions. Their previous live streams are also available to view on demand.
