Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) has welcomed more than 20 councillors from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole as they visited for an Immersion Day.
Lisa Mann, Vice-Chancellor and CEO at AUB, welcomed the local councillors on Thursday 15 May with an overview of AUB, creative education and industry, “The creative industries are a huge UK success story with 2.4 million people employed in the sector in 2023 and contributing £124.6 billion to UK Economy GVA during 2022.”
Lisa then introduced the councillors to some new AUB initiatives relevant to local businesses including the University’s Industry Patron scheme, within which an industry professional has become an official patron of each of the 27 undergraduate courses, as well as the 17 postgraduate courses.
Other new developments include the option for work experience being available on every undergraduate course and the new, free, six-month Business Incubator offered at the University’s Innovation Studio, which is open to any business or entrepreneur.
Talking about community-facing projects such as the #AUBMAKERS pop-up shop in Poole that was run by students to sell their creations and Dorset’s largest mural painted by students on the Braidley Road flyover in Bournemouth, Lisa added, “From industry to creativity, AUB aims to be at the heart of BCP and it’s through vital relationships with you that we can make this happen.”
Following the introductory talk, the councillors were taken off campus to visit AUB’s state-of-the-art Elliott Road Studios, which offer full production facilities to the University’s Bournemouth Film School (BFS).
Greeted by Jonathan Carr, Director of BFS, along with Will Shutt, Production Manager and BA Film Production, and Nathan Elliot, Production Studios and Scenic Services Manager, the councillors viewed one of the film sets in Studio 5.
“I had heard about these film studios but I had no idea of their scale or professionalism," comments Lisa Northover, Councillor for Muscliff and Strouden Park. "We saw this amazing film set with both the interior and exterior of a derelict house as well as a smaller build intended for AUB’s Palace Court Theatre. To see behind the scenes on these incredible film sets created by students was a rare treat; as an artist myself it was fascinating!”
Back on campus, Russell Gagg, Director of the School of Design and Architecture, and Jennifer Anyan, Director of the School of Arts, Media and Creative Industries Management led AUB campus tours including the Fine Art studios, Modelmaking for film and for architecture, stage design, stop motion film-making, costume making, and into the Innovation Studio, where the councillors had the opportunity to try out some of the Virtual Reality headsets as part of a VR demonstration.
Councillors were also to get creative with a visit to the Print Room, where they used the printing presses to print T-shirts to take home with them.
The final stop on the tour was into Bournemouth to AUB’s Palace Court Theatre on Hinton Road.
