New AA2A National Director - we're thrilled to introduce Daniel Hawley-Lingham as our new National Director. Daniel comes with extensive experience in the realms of higher education, artistic collaboration, and the corporate sector. His tenure will commence from the 1st September. We also extend our sincerest well-wishes to Wendy Mason, our departing National Director, as she enters what we believe... show more
Hosts for 2023-24 - we are very pleased to have 8 host institutions confirmed so far, see colleges page for details, and expect to have at least one new host uni. Do get in touch if you know of a potential host college or university - it’s not too late to sign up and there's an early bird until the... show more
Self-employment seminars - the final seminar for this year is about ‘Keeping records and tax’ with guest Creative Rory Buckland on Tuesday 27th June at 1.30pm. We’ll cover essential topics including self-assessment and dealing with HMRC.
Student Rep challenge winners - congrats to our two winners Julie Woods and Charlie Alston at Blackpool School of Arts. Both met up with... show more
Self-employment seminars - we had a very useful discussion at our 'Charging for work and invoicing' seminar last month. The next one - 'Copyright and licensing' is on Tuesday 23rd May with contributions from guest creative Celia Smith. There will be just one more seminar in this year's series, details here
Schemes coming to an end - this year's residencies are... show more
Recruiting new host institutions - the end of this year’s schemes is now not too far away so we’re reaching out to potential new hosts for our 2023-24 residencies. If you work at a HEI or would like to suggest one that might be interested in an AA2A scheme next year, let us know. See all our current colleges here... show more
Self-employment talks ‘on the road’ - as well as our online version our National Director Wendy Mason has been around the country delivering in-person talks to students at some of our host universities (most recently in Sunderland and Blackpool). This is a great opportunity for us to meet staff, AA2A artists and students and see first-hand how our AA2A residencies... show more
Featuring our Artists - It’s great to follow our Artists' projects through posts which feature on our Latest Activity page. Artists and Student Reps can also be featured on Insta, Twitter and FB (as well as our Home page) as our ‘Pic of the Week’ just by uploading images to their AA2A profile. We feature both finished work and images... show more
Happy new year! We hope you've had a restful festive season and are ready to get stuck into 2023.
Self-Employment Seminars - on Tues 24th January we will be hosting the first of our programme of 2023 Specialist Self-Employment Seminars This is a monthly online seminar for up to 25 participants (students and graduates) from our host universities. The first seminar... show more
Artist Support Fund - this has now closed. Around half of our 55 artists are on low income and we're delighted to be able to help them with their expenses and travel costs. Final payments have been made this week. more info on the fund
Weekly ‘Pic’ and ‘Tip’ - each week we share an image that's been uploaded to... show more
Funding - We’re delighted that AA2A is to continue being funded by Arts Council England from 2023 to 2026. We’re one of only 40 national sector support organisations (now known as IPSOs) covering all the arts, museums and libraries across the country
New intake of Artists - Welcome to our 50+ new AA2A artists (with quite a few re-joining us... show more
New AA2A year - host organisations are beginning to welcome in their new cohort of AA2A artists. We can’t wait to see who has signed up and what they will be working on! Artists are encouraged to use their AA2A profiles to showcase work in progress, blogs or upcoming exhibitions, see our new artist profiles here
Artists support fund - for... show more
Promotion of our residencies is now in full swing. So far we have 10 hosts signed up across the country, including two new hosts - welcome to Blackpool School of Art, joining us for the first time and Sunderland Uni who are rejoining the scheme... more info on applying
Apply for a placement - We're often asked if you can go on... show more
End of scheme artist shows and exhibitions
As the schemes at many of our host universities draw to a close for the year, many of our creatives are showing the work from their placements in shows and exhibitions. If you are a current AA2A creative taking part in a show or exhibition do upload it to your profile as we... show more
Return to full schemes in 2022-23
After the disruption during the pandemic, we are currently in, what we’ve called a 'transition’ year, while we return to business as usual. Institutions were given the option to host between 0-6 artists.
Applications for the 2022-23 schemes will open over the summer and this will mark the AA2A project's return to full capacity.... show more
It’s officially spring (meteorologically that is), how the academic year is flying by!
It’s brilliant to have seen so much activity across the country, especially as part of organised events with students. In February AA2A artists took part in Wolverhampton’s Creative Futures event, Anglia Ruskin’s artists did an update talk and Lizzie Jordan did a talk at Staffordshire Uni last week. Our Creatives... show more
We want to say welcome to all of you who have now started your AA2A schemes. Thank you all for updating your profiles and sharing images. It is great to see so much exciting work happening.
We are starting to welcome Student Reps from some of our host insitutions so you will see their profiles appear on our website in... show more
Our sign up campaign for AA2As Full Employability Support package continues for host unis and colleges for next academic year. So far we have 11 hosts signed up but are working hard to bring onboard more institutions across England
Call for applications from Creatives will be start in August, when application packs should be available to request directly from host institutions. For... show more
Specialist self-employment seminars - on the 2nd March we hosted a virtual seminar for students and graduates themed around 'Social media and web presence'. Our thanks to past AA2A Creative Anisha Parmar who lent her expertise and experience to the discussions. Our next seminar on 15th April looks at 'Support organisations', so if you're a student or recent graduate at a current AA2A... show more
Employability talks from artists and designer-makers and AA2A Self-employment talks - we've released three further video talks for students at current AA2A Host unis and colleges. These should now be available to download from host uni or college VLE e.g. Blackboard:
The forth in our series of five employability themed talks, 'Managing a portfolio career'... show more
Employability talks from artists and designer-makers and AA2A Self-employment talks - we've released further pre-recorded talks for students at current AA2A Host Unis and colleges. These should now be available to download from host uni or college VLE's e.g. Blackboard:
The third in our series of five employability themed talks, 'Galleries and agents' featuring artist Dean... show more
Employability talks from artists and designer-makers - we've begun releasing our programme of pre-recorded talks for students at current AA2A Host Unis and colleges. The following videos should now be available for students to download from their uni or college VLE e.g. Blackboard:
The first in our series of five employability themed talk, 'Projects and Funding' with visual artist Lizzy Jordan covers... show more
Artists access for 2020-21 - due to social distancing measures we will not be recruiting new artists for 2020-21. It is hoped though that some hosts may be able to offer some of their 2019-20 AA2A artists and designer-makers access to facilities to complete any unfinished hours later in the academic year
Our sign up campaign for AA2A hosts for 'AA2A... show more
Due to the social distancing measures uni's and colleges are putting in place for next academic year, we've had to take the difficult decision not to recruit new artists for 2020-21. Once facilities are available we hope that last years artists will be able to complete the projects that were cut short
Our sign up campaign for AA2A hosts for... show more
Our sign up campaign for AA2A Digital has started for host universities for next academic year, so we're working hard to bring onboard institutions across England.
Our video to promote AA2A to unis and colleges is now complete - featuring AA2A artists and designer-makers, watch our promo video for unis below. A huge thank you to all those who contributed through... show more
Wendy's been busy delivering AA2A's talk on self-employment to students and graduates in art and design in unis across England. We've had a great student and artist turnout this year. On Wednesday 11th March she'll be in Preston at UCLan from 1 until 3pm (Foster Lecture Theatre 3, Foster Building), so if any current or past AA2A UCLan artists fancy... show more
Happy New Year and welcome to AA2A's 21st Year
Thank you to all ...... Artist who've completed our AA2A Artists Evaluation (Part 1) so far. Your feedback really does helps us improve individual schemes and AA2A nationally
The deadline for our 1st Student Rep challenge is on 31st January. We've asked Reps Take a series of photographs (minimum of 5) of one... show more
We're busy getting new artists and designer-makers registered on the website. Each day more profiles should appear online. We look forward to seeing, reading and finding out about who you are and what you do across the year
If you haven't already, can you add a picture of yourself to your AA2A profile page, a project statement and an image... show more
For many of you (unless you've agreed an extension) you'll have finished or will be about to finish your AA2A placement. Thank you for being part of AA2A this year, we sincerely hope that you've found your time at your host uni productive and rewarding
We've just launched our sign up campaign for host universities for next academic year, so... show more
At AA2A we enjoy following your blog posts. Not only as we love to see and read about the work you're making and the workshops and talks you may be delivering, but because your posts help us see and show the value and impact of AA2A.
It’s been fascinating to follow the Artists and AA2A Student Reps who've blogged about their... show more
Wendy's almost finished her Self-employment lecture tour for this academic year, with only Derby University (15 May) and Sheffield Hallam's (2nd talk, TBC) to go. We'll be sending Derby AA2A Artists an invite over the coming weeks, so if you're able to make it, Wendy would love to introduce you during the talk.
Wendy recently attended the annual CHEAD Conference,... show more
Wendy will be delivering our Self-employment talks this month at York St John (7th), University of Central Lancashire (14th) and Staffordshire (21st). We'll have sent or will be sending you an invite. If you're able to make it Wendy would love to introduce you during the talk.
Our 2nd Student Rep challenge is well underway, with Reps organising student... show more
Congratulations to Saffron Crowther and Rodrigo Costa, AA2A Student Rep's at Coventry University, who've won our first Prize challenge to write and publish a blog about a current AA2A Artist. Both wrote about Coventry University's AA2A Artist Chris Dugrenier. Read Saffron's and Rodrigo's blogs.
Well done and thank you both for getting involved. show more
Thank you to all 47 Artist who've completed our AA2A Artists Evaluation (Part 1) so far. Your feedback really does helps us improve individual schemes and AA2A nationally
The deadline for our 1st Student Rep challenge is on 28th January. We've asked Reps to write a blog about one or more of their Uni's AA2A Artists. Winner(s) to be announced in February.... show more
Whats happening this month ...
Wendy (AA2A’s National Director) will be giving a talk for students on self-employment at 1.30-3.00pm Fri 15th Nov at Sheffield Hallam Uni, Careers Centre. This is the second of a series of talks (she was at Bucks New Uni recently) for Unis who’ve signed up for our top package.
We'll be sending our Artists a link... show more
We're busy getting our AA2A Artists for this year registered on the website. Each day more profiles should be appearing online. It's really exciting to see who artists are and what they're working on, so when you get time please add a profile pic and some images of your work.
Our Directors Board meeting was held earlier in the... show more
Congratulations...
Sandra Cope and Becky Collins, from University of Wolverhampton, are joint National AA2A 'Student Rep of the year winners'.
Last year we were incredibly impressed with how well Sandra and Becky responded to the challenges we set, the way they used the networking area of our website and their interactions with other students and their university's AA2A artists.
Becky created... show more
