Nadia Francis is among the fine art students at the University of Chichester currently offering their degree show.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and I'd
00:07 love to speak to Nadia and Gemma today, both students who are taking part in one of the
00:12 most exciting events at the University of Chichester each year, it's the Fine Art Degree
00:16 Show. Huge pressure there, it's from June 6th to June 12th at the Bognor campus at the
00:22 University of Chichester, and then it moves to the Oxmarket in Chichester from June 25th
00:28 to July 7th. Now Gemma, it sounds like you've had a great time in Chichester, haven't you?
00:35 What's made it good? What's made it been rewarding for you?
00:40 I think with this course, I've really been able to push myself and understand myself
00:47 a lot better, and especially with my artwork and knowing what I'm capable of especially,
00:56 and meeting new people and just the overall experience as well.
01:00 And it sounds like you've found it liberating, haven't you? You were saying that you were
01:03 quite strict in your approach, much less so now.
01:08 Yeah, 100%. I was very set in my ways in my college course, and I wasn't doing any artwork
01:15 bigger than like A3, you know, I was very, you know, specific, but I've definitely been
01:20 much more open minded with this course, and it's been great.
01:23 Fantastic. And what about you, Nadia? Is Nadia pre-Chichester different to Nadia post-Chichester,
01:29 do you think?
01:31 Yeah, I definitely think my style and my practice and my confidence as an artist has been boosted
01:38 like for the whole of my degree at Chichester. I think that has a lot to do with the tutors
01:44 and the technicians who are kind of there to have a little shoulder to lean on, to listen
01:52 to your ideas, and they always push for you to experiment with your ideas, whether that's
01:57 physical or mentally, like thinking about the ideas and where it came from and what
02:02 the outcome is going to be. I think that I'm definitely a different artist after my time
02:09 in Chichester Uni.
02:10 And Nadia, what about this degree show? Is there huge pressure or is it excitement, thinking
02:15 this is my moment, I can show everyone?
02:18 I think it's a little bit of both. It's obviously such an amazing experience to see all the
02:23 work that we've done, like everything that we've done through our whole degree has gone
02:27 into this final degree show work. And I feel like it's just going to be so nice to see
02:33 our work finished and in that gallery style. I think there is a little bit of pressure
02:38 like getting it done, but I think that everyone's going to pull through and it's going to be
02:42 an amazing show.
02:43 And what about you, Gemma? Are you feeling the pressure? Oh, you've disappeared. You've
02:49 come back.
02:50 Oh no, sorry, I don't know what happened.
02:53 Not at all. I was just saying, Gemma, are you feeling the pressure for the degree show?
02:59 Your tutor was explaining there's a lot hanging on this. Oh, it seems like we've lost Gemma.
03:06 So let's go back to Nadia. What's happening next, Nadia, for you?
03:11 Next, I'm going to see if any opportunities come up during the degree show and also Ox
03:15 Market Contemporary. I'm going to be looking around where I live and seeing if there's
03:20 any kind of like curating gallery spaces, jobs available. I'm going to carry on with
03:26 my professional practice in my own time. And maybe if there's any commissions out there,
03:32 then I can do that on the side as well.
03:35 Fantastic. We're really lovely to speak to you both and very, very best wishes for the
03:40 degree show and everything that comes afterwards. Thank you both.
03:43 Thank you.
03:44 And good luck.
03:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]