Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

The School of Art at Aberystwyth University has been awarded Accredited Museum Status by Arts Council England. The accolade recognises that Aberystwyth University’s School of Art Museum and Galleries demonstrate the highest standards of collection care and management. Aberystwyth and Glasgow are the only art schools in the UK to have been awarded accredited museum status. Professor Robert Meyrick, Keeper of Art and Head of the School of Art Museum and Galleries at Aberystwyth, said: “Maintaining our status as an accredited museum is a significant achievement and is testament to the dedication of staff and students here at the School of Art Museum and Galleries. Our collections and galleries now play a greater role than ever before in public engagement activities as well as in the training of fine art and art history students who go on to become artists, art historians, curators and museum professionals.” Housed in the historic Edward Davies building on the Buarth in Aberystwyth...

A pioneering non-toxic printing process invented by a member of staff at Aberystwyth University’s School of Art and now used worldwide will be showcased in a special exhibition in autumn 2016. Senior technician and tutor Andrew Baldwin began making etchings in the mid 1980s. Fascinated by the process he worked extensively within the medium but over time he found the process was having a detrimental effect on his health - a common problem for printmakers using traditional, toxic etching materials. Keen to find a solution, he began to explore alternative, less harmful materials and eventually this paid off as he produced his own non-toxic etching ground, BIG (Baldwin’s Ink Ground). “Not to be confused with its more commonly understood cousin of industrial printing, fine art printmaking is steeped in tradition, and therein lies the problem,” explained Andrew. “Safer alternatives over the years have lost out to tradition, due to several important factors, including the quality of the et...

Aberystwyth University’s School of Art will welcome four artists from Changsha, Hunan Province, China, who are here visiting the Contemporary Chinese Printmaking Exhibition due to open at The School of Art on Friday 10 October. They include Professor Xiangke Luo, Head of Fine Art, Changsha Normal University and Professor Lu Yu from Changsha Central South University, Director and Vice-Director respectively of The Hunan Printmaking Association. The Director of Creative Art at Changsha Normal University, Liu Jing and Huang Yuanqiang, Chairman of Chenzhou Art Association, will also be making the journey over to Aberystwyth. Curated by Paul Croft, Lecturer in Printmaking at The School of Art, this exchange exhibition will comprise of over seventy prints by 28 printmakers including members of The Hunan Printmaking Association as well as further prints by students from Changsha Central South University, Changsha Normal University (CNU) and The Art School at Hunan University of Science and Tec...