Celebration of creative arts at West Highland College UHI
STUDENTS from across a variety of disciplines in Fort William came together last Thursday for a celebration of all things creative.
Students from fashion, textiles, music, art, photography, media and cookery courses all put their skills to good use at the end-of-year showcase at West Highland College UHI in Fort William.
Guests were welcomed with canapes prepared by professional cookery students before taking a wander around the ‘Alternative Processes’ exhibition showcasing creative work by students from the one-daya-week NPA Art and Design Skills course.
Ali Berardelli, course lecturer, explained: ‘The students have experimented with printmaking, mixed media and illustration in response to a brief based on Movement in Landscape. This display shows a variety of development work along with finished pieces.
‘The first year of art and design skills at West Highland College UHI, Fort William has been really successful with all students producing high quality, interesting art work. Over a short space of time each student has developed their own methods of working and have created a diverse display which has had superb feedback from visitors. It has been an enjoyable creative journey over the past 16 weeks of teaching and I am looking forward to the start of the new course in September.’
Alongside this, part-time textiles students exhibited a collection of designs inspired by a variety of textile trends, including moody mermaid, forces of nature and indulgent darkness. The samples have been developed for use in the design and production of a final garment for exhibition in the end-of-year fashion show.
Later in the evening, music students took to the stage and entertained a large audience with a lively performance with a mix of covers, original compositions and Gaelic song combined with rock music.
The college recently introduced Rock Schools – after school music clubs – in Fort William, Mallaig and Ardnamurchan which were led by Mark Lawrie, a previous graduate of the college. Mark supported pupils from Kinlochleven, Lochaber and Mallaig High Schools to give impressive performances. In particular, Georgia Dennis from Mallaig High School, who won the U18s section of the college’s composition competition, performed her composition, Rewind.
Rachel Walker, HNC and NC music course leader, said: ‘It’s always special to see the music students perform and hear how much they have improved, both in skill and in confidence over the course of the year.
‘Many of them will be continuing to study music at West Highland College UHI in the coming year, enabling them to be supported while developing their own musical careers. We wish them all the very best of luck for the future and look forward to hearing more of their music.’
The fashion show gave high school students from Skills for Work courses and college students an opportunity to show off their collections of skirts, dresses and jackets which they had created throughout the year to an appreciative crowd.
Students were joined by some friends to model the clothes, and a hair and beauty team who had travelled from Skye to support the show also did an amazing job.
Laila Sutherland, fashion and design course leader, said: ‘We have had a really talented group of students this year, many of whom are going on to study HNC Textiles at the West Highland College, which will be running for the first time next year.
‘It’s exciting for us to be able to provide a great stepping stone into the world of design and we wish all of our students every success in the future.’
As a backdrop to the show, Shannon Feggans – an NC creative and digital media student – compiled a stunning show reel of images on the theme of the four elements of fire, water, earth and wind to complement the work of the fashion students. Shannon also selected background music and created a looping showcase of student work which was shown on extra screens. Videography of the event was also captured for future use on the college’s website and for other events.
And throughout the event, Higher photography students were to be seen capturing images for use in the college’s marketing department in the future.