OPEN CALL | ‘THROUGH OUR EYES’ *Deadline Extended to 20 January*
*Deadline extended to 20 January 2023*
Through Our Eyes is a joint art exhibition which celebrates TUS student creativity and explores the third level student experience as told through the eyes of our students. This is an opportunity for TUS students to share their unique perspectives and their own lived experience of third level through a variety of creative media.
Students from all disciplines in TUS are invited to submit proposals which may encompass examples of: fine art, design, animation, performance, fashion, the written word, music and socially engaged art practice. A selection of work will be shortlisted for exhibition.
Note to students:
You don’t have to be an artist/designer/musician to submit an application; TUS students are multi-talented and may be engaged in other academic studies as well as being creative in their own right! Both individual and group submissions are warmly welcomed!
HOW TO APPLY
CLICK HERE to access the ‘Through Our Eyes’ online application form.
TIMELINE
- The application period opens in December after the conclusion of the Connect & Engage programme and closes 12pm, 20 January 2023; shortlisting will be completed thereafter.
- Shortlisting and final selection will be carried out by a selection panel comprised of staff and students from TUS. Notification will be sent to successful students.
- ‘Through Your Eyes’ exhibit will take place in February 2023 on the Athlone campus, exact date to be confirmed.
USEFUL INFORMATION:
- This initiative is a joint collaboration between the TUS Midlands Student Resource Centre, TUS Athlone Campus Design and Animation Department, the TUS/LSAD Exhibition Society and Limerick School of Art and Design.
- The ‘Through Our Eyes’ exhibit will be hosted on the Athlone Campus in the Creative Hub of the award winning Engineering and Informatics Building in February 2023.
- Selected work from students in the Midwest will be transported from LSAD to the Athlone campus and will be returned on conclusion of the exhibit.
- A bus will be provided to transport exhibiting students from the Midwest to the Athlone campus.
- For further information regarding the background and selection panel for ‘Through Our Eyes’ see the document available to download below.
- For any further questions, please contact: Sarah La Cumbre, slacumbre@ait.ie or Sinead Denby sdenby@ait.ie.
BACKGROUND TO ‘THROUGH OUR EYES’
The ‘Through Our Eyes’ project is being launched as a follow on from the 8-week TUS Connect & Engage programme, Connect & Engage Flyer. We encourage students to make the most out of their university experience and to continue to connect and engage with all that TUS has to offer including wider holistic development opportunities outside their course of study. This ethos is informed by the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 which states that “the emphasis has switched from over-specialisation towards deeper and broader disciplinary foundations, with learning objectives that explicitly seek to nurture in students the creativity, enthusiasm and skills required for continual engagement with learning”.
The ‘Through Our Eyes’ initiative supports the shared TUS commitment to developing a student learning experience which facilitates the development of Graduate Attributes that will contribute to the development of the whole person. This approach seeks to widen the learning experience rather than being narrowly focused on employability and the development of knowledge and generic skills which are discipline specific as described in the ‘Putting the Learner First: TUS Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy 2022-2025’. Under the Graduate Attribute of Creativity, Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills we espouse that ‘TUS graduates will be curious, enquiry-led problem solvers, able to apply critical thinking to devise creative, innovative and effective solutions to real-world challenges’.
The TUS Graduate Attribute Framework 2022-25 is available to VIEW HERE CREATIVITY AND MENTAL HEALTH The positive mental health benefits of engaging in creativity and its role in helping us perceive the world and each other in new and different ways is well documented. ‘Through Our Eyes’ exhibit participants and visitors alike will benefit from engaging with the examples of how our students respond through creativity which will contribute positively to the TUS community experience and to our culture of inclusivity, diversity and student-centred learning.
SELECTION PANEL
• Sarah La Cumbre is the TUS Midlands Student Resource Centre Manager and is also a part-time student studying for an MA in Art Psyche and the Creative Imagination at LSAD. Sarah graduated from Athlone RTC with a Higher Cert in Visual Communications (Graphic Design) and went on to complete a BA in Applied Psychology from UCD and an MA in Occupational Psychology from UCC. Sarah has worked in her current role with AIT/TUS for the past 16 years and prior to that worked in UCD, the National College of Ireland, and in consulting and organisational development. Sarah is passionate about TUS students. She is dedicated to removing barriers toward helping students realise their full potential and enriching their holistic development through connecting and engaging with the wider college experience and their own creative imagination.
• John Benton is a lecturer of final year students in Graphic Design at TUS Midlands. In 1999 he completed his Master’s through Visual Communications in the National College of Art and Design. Shortly afterwards he took up a full time Lecturing role in Athlone Institute of Technology. To date he’s been specializing in various areas of Graphic Design with a particular interest in typography and digital media.
• Dr Susan Halvey is a lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies at Limerick School of Art and Design, TUS Midwest. A graduate of Fine Art, Painting, she qualified as an art and design teacher in 1996, whereupon she taught in Valladolid, Spain. In 2000 she completed a Master’s in History of Art 20th Century at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Returning to Ireland in 2000, Susan taught in a broad range of educational sectors before taking up the role of Lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies at LSAD, where she has worked for over than twenty years.
• Samar Nezamabad is a Limerick-born artist studying Fine Art Painting in Limerick School of Art and Design TUS. Samar is the current Chairperson of the LSAD Exhibition Society. In recent years, she has become focused on providing opportunities for emerging artists to be brought into the public eye. Her efforts have culminated in Never Seen Before (2022), an open call for students curated with the Exhibition Society and exhibited in the LSAD Church Gallery, and A Place Like Home (2022), a showcase of Year 3 LSAD students co-directed and curated with James Skerritt and exhibited in the People’s Museum of Limerick. Her work was also exhibited in the above shows, as well as The Limerick Show (2022) in Ormston House, Maximalism (2022) in spacecraft studios, and Painting Through The Lens (2021) in the Belltable.
• Heather Mc Elhenny is a final year student with the Graphic and Digital Design – BA (Hons) course at TUS Midlands. Originally from South Africa, Heather moved to Germany with her family and is living in Ireland while she studies at TUS. Heather’s creative work is constantly pushing the boundaries on typography and illustration. She likes to illustrate characters and their environments and hopes to bring these characters and environments to life in the near future. Heather is excited to be part of the ‘Through Our Eyes’ project.