Art and Design students travel the world
Annual travel awards give students a chance visit places to enhance their creative practice.
Safari in South Africa, celebrating Pride in Iceland, exploring rural Norway, learning about sustainable textiles in Bali, studying the art of stained glass in Sicily. These are some of the adventures a group of students took part in after being awarded one of the generous travel awards available to students in the School of Art and Design.
The annual Susan Cotton and Sue Dunthorne Travel awards are open to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the school, designed to enhance students’ personal and career development through travel and impactful experiences. Successful applicants for the Susan Cotton Awards receive a budget of £1500 to spend on the trip of a life to their choice of destinations, while the Sue Dunthorne Travel Bursary is an award of £500 to travel anywhere in the UK or overseas.
Where did students end up?
Ella Henry, who recently completed the MA Fashion Innovation and Realisation and specialises in natural textile dyes, visited Bali to understand traditional dyeing techniques and text practices. After returning, Ella reflected on her experiences, “the trip solidified my desire to continue exploring natural dyeing techniques and I’m eager to build on what I have learnt and expand my knowledge through further research and collaboration with other artisans.”
BA Graphic Design and Illustration student, Matthew Hare flew to South Africa and spent seven days at the Amakhala Nature Reserve. During his stay, Matthew enjoyed a game drive and bush walk, visited a local school and a local film festival, he also participated in vital reserve preservation and maintenance activities. Remembering his trip, Matthew said, “overall I had a wonderful time and enjoyed connecting with locals and learning about their day-to-day lives and struggles. I really enjoyed the shift of a different culture and have already began embedding experiences into my work, for example exploring ways to recycle plastic and produce a product with it.”
Alice Muirhead, who also studies on BA Graphic Design and Illustration, went on an adventure to Iceland during Gay Pride week. Alice wanted to gather research for an essay on ‘queer visual identity’ and how this has changed throughout history. Starting at Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, Alice visited historically significant site such as Höfði House, where Ronald Reagan met Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 to end the Cold War. She visited Iðnó and participated in conferences as part of Pride, hearing from a wide variety of speakers including guests from Lebanon and Israel who talked about the war in Palestine and their experiences as queer immigrants.
Amelia Rose Penny, studying BA Fine Art visited Norway and travelled around Hemsedal, Holmestrand, Lier, Lillehammer and the capital, Oslo. During her visit, Amelia experienced Norwegian culture from a variety of perspectives and lifestyles. She stayed with farmers, an interior architect and textiles engineer. During the visit Amelia said she experienced the “raw intimacy between families living on farms and met individuals who have experienced hardship within their line of work. From the forever change in climate, economic crisis and consumer habits. The changes were all very evident within each area of Norwegian culture and life.”
When Amelia arrived back in Liverpool she curated an exhibition called ‘Farmhouse’ at the Arts Bar featuring a retrospective of photography of her grandparents farm in Yorkshire juxtaposed with the farms she visited in Norway along with sketches and journal entries. The reactive research tool was designed to help her understand how an audience could interact with her research and has helped further her research in developing relationships with farming communities.
“We’ve been really impressed with the reports written by each of the students who were successful in their travel award application,” said Professor Rachel McLean, Director of the School of Art and Design. “Each of the trips had a unique footprint determined by the students’ interests, passions and areas of research they are interested in pursuing. This is exactly what the awards have been designed for and we look forward to seeing where each of the travellers takes their work next.”
“I’d like to thank the families of Susan Cotton and Sue Dunthorne for their continued support of the School of Art and Design through these awards. The opportunities they offer our students a limitless and add so much value to their degree studies and personal development.”
This year’s awards are open for applications to students in the School of Art and Design. Application forms are available by emailing lsaoffice@ljmu.ac.uk
Application deadlines
Stage one
If you would like to be considered for this award, please complete and return this stage one application form, including your personal statement and personal data form, no later than midnight on Sunday 9 February 2025 via email to c.quail@ljmu.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)
Stage two
You will be informed week commencing 17 February 2025 if you have been successful in going through to the final round. You will be asked to submit a more comprehensive travel proposal, to include estimated travel costs, no later than midnight on Sunday 16 March 2025.
