Student public art sculpture unveiled at Jarrold site

The winning sculpture in the first FONT St James Place NUCA Student award has been unveiled at St James Place, Norwich. This is a new annual award to students to create a temporary artwork responding to the theme ‘Font' as part of The St James Collection. The winning entry, ‘Yes' by Jessica Miles, George Payne and Kate Murphy, was unveiled on Tuesday 25th May 2010.

The scheme is a platform for displaying the work of exceptional and talented students within The St James Place development. It is part of The St James Collection, a curated programme of temporary and permanent public artworks and events devised by lead artist Cath Campbell, which has been supported through an investment from Arts & Business.

The Font Award scheme was launched in November 2009, when second year students in BA (Hons) Fine Art and BA (Hons) Graphic Communication were invited to work in collaborative teams to propose a temporary artwork for a chosen site within St James Place. The artwork was to explore the specific theme ‘Bembo' - this is the font used in the Jarrold logo and will be in place for a year. The site chosen for the work is bounded by the John Jarrold Printing Museum and is situated along a riverside walk, which will form part of a sculpture trail throughout the site.

After submitting initial expressions of interest, four teams were selected to develop their ideas. Following a visit to the John Jarrold Printing Museum, the four groups worked closely with artist Cath Campbell, with support from NUCA staff, to develop fully illustrated and costed proposals that they presented to a selection panel in March 2010.

"NUCA is very appreciative of the opportunity that Jarrold has given students to undertake this commission," said NUCA Principal John Last. "This kind of commercial experience is an invaluable complement to the degree courses at NUCA and it has been particularly stimulating to have cross curricular co-operation on this project. I am really proud of the standard of the students' work and I look forward to continuing co-operation as the St James Collection develops."

Caroline Jarrold, Community Affairs Adviser at Jarrold, added: "We are delighted that Jarrold has been able to collaborate with NUCA on this exciting project. The presentations by all the student groups were very creative and diverse and each team had put a lot of thought into how the theme was developed and the practicalities around the installation of their proposals within the budgets set."