Open Field

Open Field Residency Programme

The Cass School of Art

The activity of Open Field provides insight into how individual artists practice. One of key reasons for establishing this studio is for students to be able to share in, and observe the resident artists’ working processes, the practical and the theoretical development of the work, and the work’s wider context.

Open Field stands for experimental learning scenarios that privilege collective practical investigation, speculative approaches to the development of ideas and forms, informal work-based learning, and methods of working which are sensitive to context. As such, the Open Field studio offers a responsive and dexterous form of education for The Cass students, at the same time as offering the chance to learn about professional practice in creative industries through first-hand experience.

For the residents, it offers time and space for re-evaluating their practice, and for considering ways in which contact with the Fine Art course might influence their work as artists and teachers, as well as access to highly skilled technicians and sophisticated production processes.

Open Field at The Cass is unique within UK Fine Art undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and represents a serious interest in investigating the future of learning within this field. What is particularly progressive about Open Field is its commitment to supplementing the student experience through direct contact with practicing artists, and the unique opportunity to observe and take part in the development of their practice in the studio.

Open Field events are included in the Fine Art BA and MA timetables, and a small group of students from a range of studios will be assigned to Open Field for each residency period. The assigned students will work as artist’s assistants, take part in the Open Field parallel programme alongside their regular studio work, and will be responsible for helping to organise Open Field events.

The parallel program will include workshops and seminars that are specifically tailored to the concerns of the artist in residence. 

During each residency period Open Field will host the following events:

• an introductory artists’ talk by Open Field residents open to all
• three participatory events for Fine Art BA and MA students
• a residency closing event during which residents present the work developed during the residency period

Image credit: Drop Process by Ian Gouldstone