- Students’ success celebrated at first in-person graduation since lockdown
- Foulis Medal awarded to MLitt Art Writing student, Sara O’Brien
- Chairman’s Medals for Jekerina Ancane (Architecture), David Ross (Design), Edward Jones (Fine Art), Lydia Stewart (Innovation) and Sarah Iannucci (Simulation & Visualisation)
- Acclaimed French designer, artist and filmmaker, Nelly Ben Hayoun, gave the keynote addres
| Sara O’Brien, recipient of the 2021 Foulis Medal |
The success of the 2021 cohort of Glasgow School of Art Masters students was celebrated today, 9 December, at the first in-person Graduation ceremony since lockdown. The students were awarded their degrees in a ceremony which took place at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
“Graduation is an important moment, an occasion when students and their families come together to celebrate their success,” says Professor Penny Macbeth, Director of The Glasgow School of Art. “This year’s cohort of students has created some extraordinary, insightful and provocative work and we are immensely proud of them.
“Creativity is essential if we are to develop as a society. Across all the disciplines in the Schools of Architecture, Design, Fine art, Innovation, and Simulation & Visualisation the graduating students have applied their creative skills and knowledge addressing many of the key issues that we face today.
“We look forward to seeing their professional practice develop and wish them every success as they develop their careers in the creative sector, a sector which not only makes an important contribution to the global economy, but also to how we conceive and make a better future for our world.”
The Foulis Medal, which is presented to the top student graduating from Masters Programme, was awarded to Sara O’Brien for her work Cascade, which is anchored in the story of a female character who travels to the coastal town of Burntisland, Scotland, to carry out biographical research into Mary Somerville, a 19th century mathematician, astronomer and polymath.
“We are delighted that Sara O’Brien is the recipient of the 2021 Foulis Medal,” says Dr Laura Haynes, Programme Leader in Art Writing. “Throughout two years of study, Sara has worked at a consistent exceptional level, advancing new writing which is deeply attentive and innovative with form. Her Master’s project worked across several registers of narrative, critical enquiry and poetics and included both text and image.”
Chairman’s Medals were awarded to Jekaterina Ancane, (MArch Architectural Studies – Urban Design), for her work on possible interventions to unite the Cowcaddens area of Glasgow with the rest of the city centre; David Ross, (MDes Interior Design), for a series of interiors objects crafted in and for the domestic environment, using waste material and other environmentally responsible materials; Edward Jones, MFA for his artwork Genesis (What Can’t Light See?); Lydia Stewart, (MDes in Design Innovation and Service Design) for Green Pages – a digital network empowering people to connect in their local economic and creative area and directly invest in their communities for a sustainable, citizen and community led future and Circular Fashion Box, an circular economy approach that encourages consumers to wear the original and trade in for new piece; and Sarah Iannucci, (MSc Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy) for her work on the visualisation of the spike protein on the SARS-Cov-2 virus.
| Image: acclaimed French designer, artist and film-maker, Nelly Ben Hayoun, with Professor Penny Macbeth, Director of The Glasgow School of Art, outside the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall following the Winter Graduation ceremony at which Nelly Ben Hayoun was the keynote speaker.. |
The keynote speaker for 2021 Winter Graduation was the acclaimed French designer, artist and filmmaker, Nelly Ben Hayoun, whose documentary film, I am (not) a Monster (featuring contributions from Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot and Noam Chomsky among others) was released on Netflix last month.
“It is my greatest honour to join the students and their family in what is a very special moment.” Says Dr Nelly Ben Hayoun, “This ceremony also marks the start of new beginnings and I am looking forward to seeing the bold, courageous and unique work they will create in the years to come. I will do my best to prompt and call for radical imagination, and aim to inspire ‘thinking in action’. I am so thrilled to meet them all, thank you for having me!’.
In June 2021 Nelly Ben Hayoun was a participant in Appetites for Risk, an Undergraduate Showcase event which examined the relationship between risk and creativity. See the full event here:
See work by the 2021 cohort of Masters students at:
https://gsapostgradshowcase.net
Ends
For further information
Lesley Booth
07799414474
@GSofAMedia
Note for Editors
Nelly Ben Hayoun is the founder of both NASA’s International Space Orchestra and the tuition-free University of theUnderground. Her large scale projects have included collaborations with Massive Attack, The Avalanches and Kid Cudi to name a few. She is known for challenging institutions from within through events, and she has done so at the United Nations, NASA or the International Astronautical Federation. She is currently leading a new festival called Tour de Moon touring across the UK in the summer 2022. It is offering more than 850 creative grants to all 18-25 year olds to collaborate with the moon in unique ways- Applications are open now until 6th January 2022. You can see more about it here