RCA Society and Thames&Hudson Artbook Prize

2008

Judging this year’s “art book prize” took place during the College’s degree show season in May, June and July.

Around thirty members of the RCA Society put themselves forward to nominate graduating students for the prize. Again we are awarding 24 prizes representing each school. The ‘judges’ visited the 4 shows: (Fine Art, Applied Art, Fashion, and Sculpture) and put forward their nominations to the committee. The nominations are now in the process of finalised. The results will be announced later this month. Each of the winning graduates will receive £150 worth of books of their own choice from the highly regarded art book publishers Thames & Hudson. As soon as the results are finalised they will be posted on the Website.

A view of the RCA Shows 2008

This year the college Degree Shows kicked off at the end of May with Show 1 - Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Ceramics and Glass, Gold and Silversmithing / Metal Work and Jewellery. The ‘Sculpture’ show was awol till Show 2 … this was due to the Sculpture school building having a ‘makeover’ prior to the inauguration of the “Battersea campus”.

This imminent extraction of ‘fine art’ practice from the design faculties at the College is an issue for serious discussion. Undoubtedly the managerial argument is around balancing the figures: student intake and availability of space. The impact of these decisions manifests itself in a number of ways, the quality of work produced, the relationship of the students with the College …

Thankfully there was no “Great Exhibition” tent in the park this year - possibly because the ‘tent’ proved to be a cruel litmus test environment for the works emerging from the College. This raises the time old chestnut about the ‘meaning of art’, the quality of Art and Design education and art and design’s place in society.

Such questions are timely. It is 40 years since hard socio-political questions were asked in the Art Schools about art education and society during the “sit-ins” of 1968. The issues surrounding fine art and design education need to be constantly raised by its practitioners and the arguments articulated. The RCA Society is in a good position to kick off the discussion.

The annual degree shows provide the opportunity to take a good look at the work produced by the current intake of (RCA) students and to talk with them about their art education experiences and expectations as artists and designers.

What did you think of this year’s degree shows… What is your opinion about current Art & Design Education… is it of any value… are too many students packed into too few places… do we get a return on our investment… ???

Send your views for publication to the info@rcasociety.net