For today’s episode, I have Delyth Done from England, her hardworking and dedicated efforts are indispensable in promoting and developing artist blacksmiths in today’s modern world. Delyth is the Course Leader for the MA in Contemporary Crafts and the BA for the Artist Blacksmith program at Hereford College of Arts. She also is the coordinator of an upcoming major international contemporary forged metal exhibition called “Transition” that will open at the Ypres International blacksmithing event in Belgium starting September 1st, 2016.
What We Talked About
- Delyth has a clay background for her education which includes a Bachelor of Art and a Masters from the Royal College of Art in London. After her education, she exhibited her clay art in many venues and also completed some bronze castings.
- She began as a ceramics and clay teacher at an art school in Cardiff that offers a single discipline Ceramics degree. This led to becoming the course director for the program at the school.
- After a few years of running the ceramics program in Cardiff, Delyth felt that she would like to move to the next step in her career. A position opened at the Hereford College of the Arts to oversee all of the programs at the college, Delyth applied and was hired.
- After being at Hereford for 10 years and working with the students, Delyth saw the need for a master’s program to be developed for the contemporary art students, so Delyth, along with a coworker, developed a 45 week Master’s degree program in Contemporary Craft.
- Hereford College of the Arts offers a 3-year Artist Blacksmiths program that teaches a solid grounding in history and in critical ways of thinking about creative practice. This is done by simultaneously teaching process and design creation, always pushing the student to generate design ideas from their inspirations. The program also includes a professional work placement, creating a professional portfolio and business plan.
- Delyth talks about her ABANA conference experience in Salt Lake City and how she led a series of lectures along with Rick Smith and Heiner Zimmerman.
- The Ypres International Blacksmithing Event will be held in Ypres, Belgium, September 1 – 6th and Delyth has organized a lecture series with some of the 24 master blacksmiths that have been selected to forge a panel during the event.
- Another project that Delyth is spearheading involves coordinating a major international, contemporary, forged metal touring exhibition, called “Transition” to coincide with the Ypres event and then continuing on, travelling to other countries and galleries. The exhibition’s theme is about the transitions that happen during the first world war in landscape, languages, and process.
- The exhibition drew over 90 art submissions from 15 different countries. A panel of 5 judges took 6 weeks to look over the submissions and select 40 pieces of art to be in the exhibition.
Guest Links
A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – www.Ypres2016.com
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