News

Art Teachers and Guidance Counsellors

In the next academic year the method of application to the CORE year in NCAD will change .

We would like to invite all interested people to an information evening NCAD when the new Portfolio Submission Brief will be launched. All interested parties will receive the Portfilio Submission brief which will be explained in detail.After a presentation the staff of NCAD will be available for questions. Refreshments will be served.

Date 9th April 2008
Time 6.30 pm – 8pm
Venue NCAD (Noel Sheridan room), 100 Thomas St, Dublin 8

RSVP by 2 April 2008 to wilsonj@ncad.ie.

Minister for Education launches the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media

The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin T.D., will launch the first ever nationally funded Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media at the Project Arts Centre, Monday 10th March 2008 at 5:00 pm.

The Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GRADCAM) is an exciting, unique project, bringing a team of creative minds together, to find new ways of addressing some of the key issues facing Ireland, and the world, today. The first of its kind in the world, GRADCAM is a collaboration between four of Ireland’s leading academic institutions.

Over the past decade Ireland’s economic development has been driven by the quality of our education, and our competitive edge has come from our high standing in the ‘knowledge economy’. International developments now mean that new leaders will bring an additional element to this, with the ‘creative knowledge economy’. GRADCAM has been established to lead this development.

The first nine researchers at GRADCAM come from different backgrounds, and include artists, industrial designers, writers, computer experts, and critical thinkers. Bringing them together in the unique environment of the School will develop a new kind of ‘creative think tank’, where issues such as urban regeneration, working to meet the needs of an aging population, design in the health services, and new ways of managing and marketing the creative economies can be addressed.

Recognising that sometimes the solutions to problems lie in re-thinking the ways in which the problems are presented, GRADCAM is an independent group of doctoral researchers, working together, and separately, on looking at new ways to innovate and find cutting-edge solutions to those issues challenges and opportunities, that face us all today. Working with colleagues in Ireland and internationally, the GRADCAM project is the culmination of a long period of research and development, and brings the potential of intensive research and creative thinking away from the ‘elite’ atmosphere of the university, to find practical applications in the real world.

From computer gaming, design in healthy aging, and experimental education projects, to initiatives that promote social inclusion, and new ways of encouraging cultural activities in our cities and towns, the School’s programme of lectures, seminars, projects, and conferences is pitched at the highest international level and will attract leading cultural practitioners and innovators to Ireland. The Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media is a key development in retaining and developing the best and brightest of Ireland’s creative talent and cultural innovators. The innovation leaders of tomorrow are being developed in the exciting creative mix that is at the heart of the new Graduate School. (www.gradcam.ie)

GRADCAM is a collaboration between: Dublin Institute of Technology, the National College of Art & Design, the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire, and the University of Ulster.

GRADCAM is funded by the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions

Portfolio Submission Brief

“But what do you really want to see in the portfolio?”

Applicants for art and design third-level courses want to know this at seminars for school leavers or at college open days. Colleges usually have provided guidelines and general requirements to students, teachers and parents to assist in the preparation of work for inclusion in portfolios which have to be presented for admission to art and design courses. Selectors prefer a portfolio of work which includes some continuity of ideas and a series of images, or objects, which relate in some way to each other rather than a purposeless collection of random pieces of work.

In order to address these issues and to assist applicants, NCAD has now introduced a portfolio brief and applicants to First Year Core Studies (AD111) are asked to follow this brief in preparing to apply to NCAD from 2009.

The main purposes of the brief are to create:

Fairness by providing an equal opportunity for all applicants to address the same topics of enquiry using the same time span.

Clarity by removing all notions of doubt as to what is required in order to gain entry to AD111.

The brief clearly outlines the expectations of visual study at third level in the identified terms of volume, quality and intensity of work.

The brief tests the applicant’s abilities over a number of clearly identified criteria, and is designed to encourage a structured development of a cohesive body of work.

The brief provides opportunities for applicants to demonstrate individuality within a framework. This is intended to be a good indicator as to how they might be expected to perform at third level, where similar structures prevail.

Download : Portfolio Brief 2009 (PDF 795k)

Love Objects: engaging material culture conference

Click here for further information