EVENT: Making a Living Week returns to the Cass

Festival of employment brings students and creative industry professionals together.

Date: 22 November 2019

Making a Living is a one week festival at The Cass that will see nearly 2000 students attending lectures, workshops, panel discussions and other activities aimed at preparing them for employment in the creative industries.

The event, which opens on Monday 25 November, encompasses all courses at all levels in The Cass. Practices such as Studio Weave, Gensler, Open Fabric and Material Driven are all taking part in Street Wise on 26 November, a day of talks curated by the interiors area at the school. On Friday 29, there will be a Panel Discussion with Greg Burne (Big Active), Joe Cruz (freelance illustrator) and Daniel Moorey (Head of Illustration and Photography at Adam & Eve DDB). Artist Karen David will discuss the realities of life after Art School and Emily Gosling, design writer and author talks about how creative people work, based on her book 'Great Minds Don't Think Alike'.

Public events during the week include

  • 26 November: Practice Declares, a cross-disciplinary panel event responding to the Architecture Declares movement addressing climate change through changing attitudes and practice.

  • 27 November at 6.30pm: A talk by acclaimed Theatre Critic Lynn Gardner at Holloway Road moderated by Theatre and Performance Practice Course leader Rishi Trikha.

  • 28 November at 6.20pm: Creating Childhood is a panel discussion about the ways we create for children chaired by author, academic and lecturer Sunny Singh. The panel includes Sita Brahmachari, a YA author, theatre-maker and educationalist; Dr Melanie Ramdarshan Bold from University College London, who teaches and researches Publishing and Book Cultures and Layla Hudson, a bookseller at Round Table Books.

Throughout the week there will be an exhibition in the atrium called Calabrian Blueprints featuring work by architecture alumni and students Rita Elvira Adamo, Vincenzo Guarini, Pasquale Laconantonio, Cristina Muto and Salvatore Sart. Supported by Cage Architects and La Rivoluzione Delle Seppie, the socially engaged work in the exhibition links to a recurring collaborative project in Calabria in Italy.

A full programme will appear online and posters around the school soon. Consistent with the focus on employability, the graphic identity for the week which will be used in print and digital materials has been created by Studio Fancy Cats a practice led by Visual Communications Alumni Lisa Wallius and Finn Kidd. 

Expert advice

Experts from within the School, the University Careers and Employability team and from Accelerator will deliver sessions on topics on everything from CV preparation, through crowdfunding to securing a job on graduation. These sessions include tiles such as ‘How to Cope with Not Getting a Job’ and ‘How to Think Like an Interviewer’. Simon Boot from London Met’s Accelerator will provide a session titled ‘Creative Enterprise Know How’ for those with entrepreneurial ambition. There will be regular drop-in sessions and portfolio advice and surgeries and specialists will put students through their paces in areas including drawing and InDesign.

Making a Living Week

Making a Living Week continues the focus on employability at the School and University that led to a record 97% score in the last Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey and will be followed in February by the more established Celebration Week where students present to panels of expert critics.

Making a Living Week 2019

News details

Dates Monday 25 to Friday 29 November 2019
Location London Metropolitan University, The Cass
Old Castle Street London
E1 7NT
The Cass on Twitter @TheCassArt

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