Design and Media Lab postgraduate shows

Last Thursday saw the opening of the Design and Media LAB postgraduate shows at Hotspur House. With the Fourth Floor cleared and cleaned, the once condemmed space was completely transformed into a unique exhibition venue. The students exhibited a range of work, from graphic prints to large scale film installation, showcasing the diversity of projects undertaken on the MA course. We hope that the exhibition marks the start of a contuining relationship with the Design Lab and is the first of many events to be held in the newly rennovated space.

* photos by Alex Bown

UHC hosts the MA Design Show

We are very excited to be hosting the 2010 Design LAB and Media LAB postgraduate shows. Students from the MA Design, Filmmaking, Photography and Media Arts courses at Manchester Metropolitan University will be showing work at Hotspur House between 14-17 October. The private view is between 4-8pm on Thursday 14 October.

The show has been curated and produced with the support of UHC, Hotspur House and Jai Redman. It will be the first time the public has been allowed access to the top floors of the building in nearly 10 years and it marks a watershed in our project to create a permanent collaborative design studio in the space.

More info on the show can be found here: www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/mashow

EVA Lisbon

Jai, UHC's creative director, was recently invited to speak at a conference in Lisbon. The conference marked the culmination of a series of successful experimental socially engaged art projects in 7 different challenging neighbourhoods in the city. The series of projects took place under the title of EVA and marked an important change in direction for art in the city, where experimental collaborative practice is still seen as rare.

Jai spoke about projects UHC have undertaken in the UK introducing a range of socially engaged work to the conference audience. Eva Merz from the New Social Art School also gave a talk about her work and in return her and Jai learnt about the issues facing artists working with poor communities in Lisbon.

The conference was hosted by the National Immigration Centre on 23rd Sept 2010. It was introduced by Pedro Calado, representing the City's cultural department who were partners in EVA and Paulo Gouveia from the Clube Português de Artes e Ideias who's amazing studio managed the residencies.