Nottingham Contemporary’s exclusive Aftermath placement returns for a sixth year to inspire future creative careers for NTU MA students
November 2021 marks the start of Nottingham Contemporary’s sixth annual Aftermath group placement, exclusively for MA students across Nottingham Trent University (NTU).
This sixth-month placement is a collaborative exhibitions project, taking inspiration from the themes in Nottingham Contemporary’s upcoming programme Our Silver City 2094. Students collaborate to develop exhibition designs and an interpretative publication for new artworks conceived and produced by first year Masters, Fine Art (MFA) students.
On what she gained, Klara, First Year MFA student listed:
“Experience of working with different people across an art institution, professional experience with the support of a facilitator and the university, an idea of the scale of work in big institutions, working alongside some fantastic artworks and collaborations, meeting creatives from across different courses, amazing documentation, social media presence, experience of transporting and installing works in a big institution, and print!”
Placement Opportunities
Nottingham Contemporary will select up to six students from a range of courses across the Schools of Art and Design, Art Design and the Build Environment and Arts and Humanities to work alongside the first year MFA students. In 2020, MA Interior Architecture student Dina, collaborated to produce models of the exhibition space, MFA artworks, exhibition layouts and renders. On reflection, Dina said:
“[I] Learned a lot from artists on how they think or see things. Also, their comments on my design proposals taught me about exhibition design, and discussions with professionals taught me about exhibition design and technical aspects - experience of working on a real-life project.”
Dina, MA Interior Architecture student, participated in Aftermath in 2020
Benefits
This placement offers behind-the-scenes access, valuable professional exposure to one of the UK’s leading contemporary visual arts organisations. For Alexandra, International Fashion Management student, this placement provided her with, "[a] better understanding of time management and organising skills. I never realised what it took to actually plan and put an event together so just noticing everyone’s work and approach to tasks really taught me a lot.”
A unique part of Aftermath is being part of creative processes and collaborating with students from other disciplines, whilst gaining professional insight. MA Photography student Kathleen, benefited from, "great advice from artists in Nottingham Contemporary and great advice on how to make better quality videos. Photographing the installation allowed me to see the process of organising the set-up of an exhibition.”
Be inspired
Visit Nottingham Contemporary’s website to view Aftermath 2021, including profiles on each student, exhibition photographs, the exhibition publication and a short film about the making of Aftermath 2021.
The NTU Employability Team wish this year’s cohort of successful applicants all the best with this exciting placement and we look forward to experiencing the next Aftermath exhibition in 2022
Applying
Are you committed, enthusiastic, curious and open to new ways of teamworking and peer learning?
Can you adapt your schedules to incorporate this placement into your workload?
Can you offer skills in interior design, photography, filmmaking or graphic design?
If yes, read more here for information on applying between Monday 1 November 2021 and Monday 6 December 2021.