Just wanted to establish a discussion/support group with fellow students currently studying on Y180 'Making Sense of the Arts' and to see what choicess other students are considering if going on to further study with the OU.
OU sponsors IF: Milton Keynes International Festival
The festival runs for 10 days at various locations across Milton Keynes and presents a busy international programme of concerts, comedy, cabaret, theatre, pop ups, activities and large scale events in unusual places and temporary venues.
The OU is sponsoring two of the festival’s events: As The World Tipped – a wired aerial multi-media theatre in which performers, suspended above the audience in the night sky, struggle to control their increasingly precarious world as they do battle with the effects of drastic environmental catastrophe; and the Cabaret of Ideas, described as a live Wikipedia of fascinating thought leaders, experts and mavericks from, or who have a strong connection with, Milton Keynes.
Free tickets for members of the OU community!
Members of the OU community – staff, students and alumni – will be entitled to free tickets to the As The World Tipped event, which has been shortlisted in The Observer’s Ethical Awards.
For the 'free ticket' code and booking number - to a maximum of four tickets per caller - please email platform@open.ac.uk and state whether you're a member of OU staff, a student or alumni.
The OU is one of the sponsors of IF: Milton Keynes International Festival which has been listed as one of the top 100 festivals in The Sunday Times 2012 Festival Guide. The festival runs for 10 days at various locations across Milton Keynes and presents a busy international programme of concerts, comedy, cabaret, theatre, pop ups, activities and large scale events in unusual ...
Share your OU success story like OU Humanities graduate Dave Webster
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
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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 ...