AA100 The Arts Past and Present

Julius Caesar - a production featuring a Royal Shakespeare Company cast - will be broadcast at 8pm on BBC4 on Sunday 24 June.

The film features a Royal Shakespeare Company cast, and was shot alongside the stage rehearsals and during the actual theatrical run in Stratford-upon-Avon. No television version of a play has ever been made in this way before. The programme is a collaboration between the RSC, BBC, OU and World Shakespeare Festival.

The series was commissioned to support the Arts faculty priorities of engaging an audience in Shakespeare and, through that, into a deeper engagement with English Literature. Dr Edmund King is the academic consultant on the programme for The Open University.

The OpenLearn website also offers more information, including specially shot, behind the scenes films with the cast and crew.

Caroline’s winning poem: An Apple Tree Spouts Philosophy in an office car park can be read on the Ward Wood Publishing website.

Her short collection An Apple Tree Spouts Philosophy is now on sale, with all £3 of the cover price going to raise funds for ‘The Cold Weather Shelters’, the same charity. The winner is chosen on the strength of just one poem, and as part of the prize they will be helped to complete a short paperback collection with 20 pages of poetry. Caroline has also had the opportunity to take part in a launch event and Open Mic night.

You gained a BA in Literature with the Open University? Why did you decide to study with the OU?
I’ve always loved books and literature but somehow I ended up studying accountancy and becoming an auditor. After spending several years in the corporate world, I became attracted to the idea of doing something different and I decided to study with the OU to give me a creative outlet. Getting a qualification wasn’t the most important thing for me though – I would have been quite happy just to go on with more courses really, but I suppose you have to stop somewhere? I’m fascinated by psychology, so maybe one day.

Have you been writing poetry long/When did your interest in writing poetry develop?
I’ve written some poetry in the past, but nothing much. I really started taking poetry more seriously when I first studied Creative Writing with the OU about four years ago. I completed both the level 2 and the level 3 Creative Writing courses. I remember feeling apprehensive about studying the subject at first, because I didn’t think I was particularly creative. But the courses were excellent for stimulating creativity and imagination, with techniques such as freewriting, and cluster diagrams.

How did you feel when you found out you had won the competition?
Quite shocked. I don’t think you ever expect to win something.

Can you share your experiences of :
Producing & getting An Apple Tree Sprouts Philosophy published?
This has been an exciting experience. I never felt time pressured to produce more poems for the pamphlet before I was ready. There was quite a lot of polishing and editing to do, even for such a small book. Adele Ward has been great - very helpful and encouraging all the way. It was a very valuable prize – far better than cash.

Doing a reading at Open Mic night?
I was quite nervous about the idea if I’m honest, but on the night I actually enjoyed myself. I suppose my worry was that people wouldn’t like the poems, and I would be faced with rows of stony faces. Of course it wasn’t like that at all. I attended poetry evenings leading up to the event, and took the opportunity to read at these whenever I could.

What you plan to achieve now after/alongside studying for you MA?
I would really love to publish a full collection when I’m ready. I have to produce poetry on a regular basis to take along to the MA workshops, which is a real incentive, so I’m building up a store. Not that I need the push, as writing poetry is something I always do. The only problem is that they all need more work after being critiqued at the workshops! It can take quite a lot of time and editing to get the poem to where it needs to be. It’s my aim to get up early and spend an hour or so editing before work. I managed it today for the first time.

Anything else you would like to share
One of the great things about studying for the MA is getting to read some fantastic poetry, from the classics to modern and contemporary poetry, some poets I’ve never even heard of before. Everyone says it, don’t they, but if you want to write poetry you have to be a reader of it first and foremost.

The poetry competition, judged by Carol Ann Duffy was introduced to raise funds for ‘The Cold Weather Shelters’ and organisers say they couldn’t survive without the contribution made by poetry. Events held and the competition are the brainchild of the poet Ruth O’Callaghan, who has been running the Lumen and Camden Poetry series of open mics and performances for five years.

Adele Ward of Ward Wood publishing said “I have no say in the judging of the competition, and I was delighted to see an OU student win because I also got back into studying by doing an MA in Literature with the OU and some of the Creative Writing courses. So the OU played a major part in the steps that led up to me starting Ward Wood Publishing.

Being able to publish an OU student felt especially rewarding, and I enjoyed working with Caroline on compiling her first short collection. Caroline won against incredibly tough competition, including published authors and poets from the best creative writing courses in the UK, Ireland, and around the world, so it’s interesting to see how the OU courses inspired and developed her skills.”

• Enter the competition with Ward Wood Publishing

• The open mic events are held in the two venues where the homeless sleep in the Cold Weather Shelters. 
   

Henry Stead, Research Student (Classical Studies) has won third prize in the prestigious The Times Stephen Spender Prize 2011, awarded for an original translation of poetry into English. His winning entry is a translation from Latin of an extract of Seneca's powerful tragedy, ‘Medea’.

The prize set up by the The Times and Stephen Spender Trust, hopes to encourage and stimulate a new generation of literary translators. Stephen Spender was himself a fine translator of poetry.

Email to request a free booklet containing the winning translations and commentaries.

One of the judges, Prof Edith Hall, comments: "As a theatre enthusiast, I was delighted with the taut speakability of Henry Stead’s excerpt from his version of the grim Senecan Medea. I hope that it will encourage others to submit translations from verse drama, a category of translation in which poets such as Ted Hughes and Tony Harrison have recently shown English can be most effective."

Find out more:

• Henry's winning poem
• Classical studies at the OU
• The Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation 2011
  
   

OU graduate Dave Webster completed his BA (honours) in Humanities with Art History in 2006. Since then he has been working hard on various projects including his recent 6 week touring exhibition of his artwork called ‘The Real Meaning of Life, A Question of Evolution’.

Platform caught up with him to find out more about his OU experience, his inspirations and further details about his fascinating artwork. Read his story below.

My idea had always been to create art that could be understood by all. But first I felt I had to fully understand art myself, at a much deeper level than I had previously accepted. Working as a sculptor made full time education impossible. The OU provided the answer. The method of helping me to gain confidence as I progressed through the various levels of study fired me with enthusiasm to learn more.

The courses starting with A103 were a challenge to my preconceived ideas. The work was structured and understandable to a student who had left school at fifteen years of age and not formally studied at all in the intervening thirty five years. I had decided to work my way through various courses starting with the Renaissance to Modernism and Conceptual art. During the years previous to this I had read as much as I could on the first known forms of art such as the sculptures of the Venus figures found all over Europe. This first awareness into the workings of the human mind combined with the open shelter and cave paintings in Africa, France and Spain all helped to create a hunger for knowledge of these past cultures. I went on to read about the art of Egyptian, West Asia and Crete followed by Greek, Roman and the art of the Dark ages. These studies in tandem with reading about Palaeo-anthropology and the Fossil record have been instrumental in my art works in which I try to show how we evolved and how art and religion have played such a major part in forming our societies and cultures and the present human condition.

The experience of working towards a degree was both rewarding and frustrating as time was in short supply to complete the study and TMAs. The summer schools were both hard work and fun. Meeting fellow students with the same problems was rewarding and the philosophical debates and the ensuing arguments with various tutors were a challenge yet stimulating. All these experiences added to visits to galleries ensured a most memorable time. The OU experience is one of the best achievements of my life. It helped form the ideas to create my recent exhibition ‘The Real Meaning of Life’ The object of creating the exhibition was to provide an experience of art which provokes questions regarding our past and present civilizations, cultures and societies, and most of all our future.” 

Visit ‘The Real Meaning of Life, A Question of Evolution’ virtual exhibition for the result of Dave’s OU journey. He welcomes questions and comments below.

If you want to share your story, please add this in the comments box below (please note that you'll need to be logged in to Platform with your OU username and password or guest account in order to post comments) or email: platformeditor@open.ac.uk

Useful links

• Arts and Humanities
• Study with the OU
• BA (Hons) Humanities

Registration is open for What have we learnt? Transmitting knowledge, facilitating learning c1960-2010 on 29 November, 10.30-15.30.

Location: The Open University Campus, Library Seminar Rooms 1 and 2, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes.

This is a one-day forum organised by the History of The Open University project.

It will bring together a range of experts to discuss different elements of the history of university teaching over 50 years.

The morning session will ask how have students been taught, looking at the move from traditional lectures and tutorials to the use of new technologies, a variety of pedagogies and the development of student-centred learning. 

The afternoon session will reflect on 50 years of the student experience, placing learners’ perspectives at the centre.

Speakers include:

• Prof John Beckett, University of Nottingham
• Dr Georgina Brewis, Institute of Education
• Prof Judith George, The Open University
• Prof Fred Gray, Sussex University
• Dr Janet MacDonald, Higher education consultant
• Prof Harold Silver, Author of Tradition and Higher Education
• Prof Malcolm Tight, Lancaster University,
• Dr Dan Weinbren, The Open University

The event is open to all but those who wish to attend are asked to register in advance as space is limited. 

To register please email history-of-the-ou@open.ac.uk by 22 November.