An arts show which attracts hundreds of visitors each year will go virtual this year.
People flock to the annual degree show hosted Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen to celebrate with graduates and see a showcase of their work.
But this year the event will take on a different form, being held entirely online in a 3D virtual space.
With the Robert Gordon University facility closed due to coronavirus, art school chiefs had to find a new way to let its painters, fashion designers and photographers display their work.
Gray’s Virtual Degree Show 2020 will allow people to explore an online gallery with specific areas for each of the school’s 161 graduating artists and designers.
The events will be kicked off with an opening “club night” on July 10, while webinars, Q&A sessions and interactive events for the public will take place in the days following.
Libby Curtis, head of Gray’s School of Art, said the virtual exhibition will showcase the students’ commitment, professionalism and creativity.
She added: “Graduates of 2020 have suffered greatly in not having the usual facilities that they imagined they would have to make their final work.
“They have had to leave their studios and workshops behind and create these in their homes.
“Their fortitude in carrying on and continuing to create and re-create in such challenging conditions is inspiring.”
The project has been developed with arts body Look Again, which hosts a biennial festival in Aberdeen, and design agency Design and Code.
Look Again co-director Sally Reaper said: “We are very proud to contribute to this hugely collaborative creative process.
“For us, it’s about using Look Again’s expertise and connections to ensure that an online degree show is not a compromise, and is just as ambitious as the physical one would have been.
“This is about developing new cultural capital for graduating students as well as the university.
“It’s a new rite of passage to a global audience, something that many graduating students would not have considered at this stage in their career.”
Colin Leonard, Design and Code director, said: “Allowing students the freedom and flexibility when curating their spaces has been our main focus.
“It’s important we give the students an opportunity to spend time in their virtual space and really make it their own.”
The exhibition will be accessed via graysdegree.show
