ANYONE visiting the main Talbot campus of Bournemouth University, whether as student, lecturer, visitor on other business has a treat in store. Its foyer contains a remarkable exhibition of work by some of the finest artists in Britain today.
The Art loan Collection was originally conceived in the late 1990s. The idea was to ask the cream of local artists to lend a piece of work which would remain on show for a year. Six years later the annually changing exhibition has become integral to the university's image.
It has also developed and, as the sixth Art Loan Collection was officially opened, Bournemouth artist Martyn Brewster told me he had been anxious that the style and content of the show he had selected should be seen by all to be moving on.
As a result the original intention to showcase only local talent has been widened to include artists living outside the area. This year's show, for instance, includes two works using graphite, limestone and carbon deposit on paper by Richard Devereaux who, although he lives and works in Lincoln, has exhibited many times in Dorset and Hampshire and considers the area to be a second home. Others like Jeremy Gardiner, who lives in Bath, have life-long connections with the Dorset and in particular the Purbeck landscape.
An illustrious list of exhibitors include many who may have a local postcode but also have national and even international reputations.
The biggest name, for those wanting to play the fame game, is undoubtedly Sir Anthony Caro whose sculpture in waxed steel Bacolet Bay is on show in the central part of the exhibition space. Possibly the most famous living sculptor practising in Britain today, Caro, who was once an assistant to Henry Moore, is to have a major retrospective at Tate Britain next year.
There are other sculptures on show too in the form of works by Rebecca Newnham and Terence Maloney which are sited outside in the university grounds.
The main body of works is made up of paintings by well- known local names like Brian Bishop, Brian Graham, Paul Jones, Teresa Lawton, Alastair Michie, Geoffrey Robinson and others. There's a digital photographic work by Aisling Hedgecock who is about to embark on an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art and ceramics loaned by The Bettles Gallery in Ringwood.
The latest collection was opened by someone whose expertise is in another creative discipline - broadcaster and writer Sean Street, who is also the University's professor of radio.
But, as he pointed out, his is a visual medium. "Those of us who work in radio understand images and pictures very well indeed."
He spoke warmly of the university foyer as an exhibition space.
He said: "People who come into the university, our guests, visting lecturers, this is where we meet them and inevitably we find them here engrossed in this work."
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