It's my pleasure to announce the winner of the AA2A votes 2009/10:

David Henckel won the student vote and presented at the AA2A College Briefing day held July 6th 2010 at Wellcome Institute, London.

Have a look at David's work on Dotbiz:   http://aa2a.biz/pg/profile/david

Also a lucky student from UCS, won the student prize draw.

Thanks to all those who voted!

Georgia

 

 

 

Hi AA2A Artists,

Some of you may have been wondering whether you'll be able to continue using this site after you've finished your scheme. The plan is that you can continue to use Dotbiz, but only the new year's artists' mugshots, blogs and image albums will appear on the home page. That way, both you, your college and AA2A nationally will continue to have a record of your AA2A project and see what you're doing in the future if you continue to use the site. We also hope it'll help artists to keep in touch with each other, post AA2A.

Whilst we are hoping to be able to keep it open for you in this way - if we are not able to we will always give you at least a months notice before making changes either to your access or material on the site.

If for any reason you don't wish to continue to using the site please let us know so we can remove you from the site.

There have been some great blogs reflecting on the scheme this week (thanks to Andrew Dalton and Helen Dearnley)  Don't forget that your blogs and images albums from this site provide a fantastic record of your work on the scheme and can be printed off/or saved as a pdf and could be added to your promotional folder, or used in support of future applications for research/study/residencies...etc.    Also if you haven't used the site much/at all yet - I'd like to reassure you that it's not too late! Last year we had a brilliant series of catch up blogs produced in retrospect - and they were still valuable to the artists/students/colleges.

Lastly we're always keen to know your progress, so whether you let us know by using the exhibitions listings on this site and/or send us an email so we can update the AA2A.org exhibition list; please also make sure you update the links on your dotbiz profile - particularly if you have your own website or blog regularly on another site. 

Any questions feel free to send me a message through this site or email georgia@aa2a.biz

Best wishes,

Georgia

Hi AA2A artists,

I hope all is going well as you near the end of your schemes!  In your remaining time please encourage students to vote for their favourite AA2A artists - voting usually closes in May and this year student voting has been particularly low so students who vote stand a really good chance of winning.  Direct them either to this site where they will find a 'Vote for this Artist' link on every artist's profiles page, or to http://aa2a.org/artistvote 

We'll be in touch soon with info about updating your profile page on the main website (www.aa2a.org) and we are also putting together the evaluation which you'll be completing online at the end of the scheme. 

IMAGE ALBUMS:  REFRESHER

As you may want to post image albums showing progress and final work we thought you might find a refresher on how to do this useful.  See below for how to create an image album, make changes to an existing album, add images into blogs and troubleshooting right at the end.  Please get in touch if you are having problems and nothing in the blog has helped, either send me a message or email   georgia@aa2a.biz

 

Create an image album

1. Select ‘Create new album’ from side menu:

2.  ‘Add image album’, enter a Title, Description and Tags.  You can also edit ‘access’ – to control who can see the album.

3.  ‘Save’ and you’ve now created the folder that the images will go in.

4.  Add images to album, ‘browse’ and select the images you want  (must be under 1mb and a .jpg .png .gif) select the image/s ‘upload’ and when you’ve finished - ‘save’

5.  Edit image properties - add individual title, caption, tags - Also you need to make one image the image album cover, finally ‘save’

 

To make changes to an existing album

1. Go to 'Your image albums'

2. click on the album

3.  You can then choose to ‘add images to album’, ‘edit album’ or ‘delete album’

 

Also some of you have asked about how to put images in blogs:

To do this you need an have a URL for image (this could be from another website if you have one or flickr, or similar site) or You can do it using an image in an image album on dotbiz.

As this is quite a complicated way to get round it if you have more than one image to put up I'd advise you to create an image album.  You can include text in an image album too and it would also mean you had an image shown on the front of the site in latest activity (rather than just the blog title)

But if you do want to do it - here's how:

1. On dotbiz - image saved in an album (which you can save as private, if you want to use it purely to get a URL)

2. Image size under 1mb and saved as 'filename.jpg'

3. open the album selected the image and right clicked on it to 'copy image location' 

4. In 'write a blog post' click on picture symbol (tree), paste to enter the URL into 'Image URL' the dimensions should come up automatically, 

5. 'insert'

 

Troubleshooting:

- album appears with ‘no images’ message although when you click on it the images are there – it says 'no images' because there's no image selected for the image album cover - to change this:

1.Go to 'Your image albums'

2. click on the album

3. click on the image you want as the image album cover

4. 'Edit image' on the left hand side menu

5. select 'Make image album cover?'  and finally 'save'

To make sure it doesn't happen next time you are creating a new album or adding images to an existing album:

After you have gone through the file upload (where you browse and choose the images you want) 

'Edit image properties'

'Make image album cover?' 

By default the first image will be selected as the cover - leave it checked if you are happy with this -  If you want to change it select one of the other images but make sure you have an image selected.

- Images are not shown in the order I put them in

This is an issue with the software that powers the site – our web manager is aware of it but there isn’t a fix for it yet.  You may also notice that sometimes tags are shown in an unexpected order.  We hope that this won’t be a problem for you, let us know if you notice anything strange – either send me a message or email georgia@aa2a.biz

Hope this helps,

Georgia

 

Hi AA2A Artists,

We're still welcoming comments on the 'Students and AA2A.biz' discussion in the main forum - do have a look and join in! As you might have noticed if you've read any of my other blogs, we're very keen on student involvement.... so my blog this week is highlights from your blogs that particularly relate to student interaction. Thank you to the artist's I've quoted - I hope that reading them others might feel inspired to share your experiences/thoughts on AA2A and the benefits for students in AA2A colleges.

"Alongside the work itself I have been able to meet with MA students and discuss a range of issues surrounding fine art and current practice which is in itself a positive aspect of this scheme. I have also worked at the University with students from the academy where I teach and was able to instruct them in some of the techniques that I have developed and now feel more confident with."
January 8, 2010 by Annette Pugh

"I'm getting to know some of the first year BA students as well and Its interesting watching them take their first steps in printing."
November 15, 2009 by David Henckel

"After a tour and induction I spent the afternoon in the print room, working alongside printmaking staff and a few new MA students, who were creating an etching as part of their induction. When they heard about the AA2A scheme and the Arts Council, some international students said they thought artists in the UK seemed to have more opportunities and support here than in other European countries!"
November 9, 2009 by Caroline Underwood

"Spent some time in the photography dept yesterday, and met some of the students. An ex-student was giving a demonstration about using 5 x 4 cameras so I joined that, which was good."
November 5, 2009 by Kay Goodridge

"Met with the other artists today and had a tour of the college facilities and staff. Some students were hanging around and it was great to meet some of them too.
To discuss art! This is something I always didn’t do whilst in college, in pubs or in any situation. I’m not sure why this is? Maybe I needed a break from thinking about it. Maybe others didnt find it interesting. Does anyone ever talk about art?

Anyway, Im looking forward to finding out if this new generation of art students talk about art, and to find out what they know, and perhaps, for me, to remember what I know too."
November 7, 2009 by David Symons

Best wishes,
Georgia

Hi AA2A Artists,

It's been great reading your blogs this week - seems like many of you are becoming more reflective, as you near the end of the scheme... We liked Lynne Snowden's epic space movie blog ending with  'Must keep going................' 

Thankyou - we are really enjoying your work on the site - please make sure you tell students when you are putting work up on dot biz - we don't have direct contact with students so it really is up to you to spread the word!  Especially considering that some students will be about to graduate this could be just the time to talk to students as you may have had similar experiences in life after art college whether in terms of struggling with a particular technical process, working to tight deadlines and important exhibitions, building a website, finding a studio, getting access to particular facilities...etc.  These students may become part of your local creative community and are potentially AA2A artists of the future!

If you have further ideas/comments on how to benefit students/your experience on the scheme, join the discussion!  It's set up in the main forum, with comments from other artists coming in (I have to say I'm relieved it's not just me left on my lonesome in there now!)

http://aa2a.biz/mod/groups/topicposts.php?topic=3168&group_guid=11

It'd be great to hear from you,
Best wishes,
Georgia

Hi AA2A artists,

To celebrate 10 years of AA2A schemes we are putting together a celebratory document in the form of a digital publication which we will promote and circulate during 2010.

We invited the 800+ artists who have been on AA2A schemes since 1999 up until 2009 to tell us their AA2A story and submit three images of their work.  So, although you are unlikely to have submitted your story as you haven't yet completed the scheme we hope you're not dissappointed and would still be interested to follow the digital publication - and take a look/show others when it is finished.  We will let you know when they're available on the main website :  http://aa2a.org/publication

Also if you missed my blog last week I'd like to mention again that we are looking for ten students from AA2A colleges/universities across the country, to become student advisors and help us spread the word about the scheme and increase the benefit to students.  Please mention this to students you're in contact with - it could be a great way to encourage people to follow your work on dotbiz too! We'd also welcome your feedback and ideas about ways to involve students - I've set up a new topic in the 'Main forum' on this site so you can add to the discussion here Go to the main forum AA2A     we would really appreciate your feedback.

Best wishes,

Georgia

 

 

 

Hi AA2A artists,

Wow, i'm continuously impressed with how popular this site has become - it is a pleasure to read your blogs and keep up to date with you image albums - I really hope you are letting people know about it.  The only downside is that my help blogs keep getting bumped off the latest blogs! So, if you want to read last weeks blog about 'Students on AA2A.biz' follow this link AA2A help blogs 

This weeks dotbiz tip is related to the exhibitions listings:

-  Please could you make sure that your name is mentioned when you put up info about your exhibition - it would make the exhibitions so much easier to follow if artists names are either included in the title or in the text (in bold if possible) 

If you haven't yet looked at the exhibitions listed on the site follow this link AA2A exhibitions

Best wishes,

Georgia

 

Hi AA2A Artists, 

A belated Happy New Year from the AA2A team!

Hopefully you’ll be back at your colleges now after the break and the snow.  Some fantastic blogs and image albums have gone up over Christmas and New Year - if you have a moment to catch up, check out what others have been up to. Two extremes of blogging we particularly enjoyed: Amelia Crouch’s in depth language research series and June Baker’s first time post hello, good to see new work and new faces.  

Now so many of you have work on site, broaden your audience and publicise it! In particular please do anything you can to direct students to this site. You could tell them about it face to face, or put up a notice with the AA2A.biz web address on it. Your Co-ordinator/Adminstrator or Department staff may have other suggestions for the best way to contact students.  If any students you’re in contact with would like a student profile on the site they’re welcome to email me at:  georgia@aa2a.biz  Also if you can encourage them to vote for their favourite artist there are possible benefits for you and the student… there is a link to voting on every artists profile page (on dotbiz and the main site aa2a.org)

More news from us: the main site is being re-designed, allowing for a wider layout all across the site and larger artists’ images on the home page!

A couple of reminders:

- if you join the main forum you can have group discussions about particular topics – there are already a couple started…. 

-  if you have problems using the site please drop us an email and we’ll do our best to help.

Best wishes,

Georgia

 

Hi AA2A artists,

We're very pleased to announce that voting has opened for the favourite AA2A artists of 2009/10!  Please let people know and encourage them to vote.  Each year two artists are chosen - one is nominated by the general public and the other nominated by the students at AA2A colleges.  The winning artists from 2010 will be featured on the main website and the students’ choice will have the opportunity to have their project featured in London at the AA2A Briefing Day for participating colleges and funders.  Here are the winning artists of 2008/09:    www.aa2a.org/featured-artists

So if you're unable to get into college due to the christmas break, why not work on dotbiz - make sure you're up to date, post blogs, upload your images and have a look at what other artists have been doing.  Then encourage your peers, friends, family and most importantly any students you meet in college to look at the dotbiz site and hopefully we'll see the votes rolling in shortly....   Voting is simple - every artists' profile on dotbiz has a 'vote for this artist' link, which leads to this page on the main site:  aa2a.org/artistvote  there is also a link from the home page on the main website.

Lastly the AA2A team would like to wish you a merry christmas and happy new year!

Best wishes,

Georgia