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Laurence Sturla

Sculptural Conceptions and Ceramics
March 2025

An overview of the open-plan studios of Bath Spa, a previous Herman Miller manufacturing facility.

Combined Mobility / Teaching and Training

Mobilität durchgeführt an folgender Universität / Institution | Mobility carried out at the following university / institution: 
Bath Spa University

Zeitraum | Duration of stay: 9th - 15th March 2025

Abteilung an der Kunstuniversität | Department at the University of Arts Linz: 
Sculptural Conceptions and Ceramics

Meine Erfahrungen / Mehrwert / Ergebnis der Mobilität | My experience / added value / outcome of the mobility: 
Spending a week with the staff and students in the sculptural programs of Bath Spa university was an incredibly valuable experience, which offered a lot of insight into how teaching and learning within the arts is approached by different universities.  I spent the week conducting studio visits and individual talks with students from various departments and artistic backgrounds, holding a public lecture of my own artistic practice, and discovering how the university operates and meeting many members of faculty.  It was especially rewarding to build connections across institutions and departments, opening up conversations around the structure of tutorials, lectures, and broader teaching methods. To be able to observe how different departments manage aspects like studio space, the formation of different department groups, and the positioning of sculpture within the wider art curriculum gave me a good perspectives on the varied ways arts education can be approached. It also highlighted how different priorities—such as subject focus or spatial allocation— can shape the making environments, and helped my understanding of how we can engage with different needs and practices.

Message to the colleagues
Following on from this trip, I think it can be really important that we as university staff use these opportunities to make these connections with other institutions.  Seeing how different groups and departments throughout the universities operate and engage within art education, being able to share different approaches, to give students an ever evolving way of studying art.