News

Department Art Competition

Date
The Department of Politics and International Relations has recently launched a competition for staff and students to design and exhibit artwork to enliven the Departments space at Manor Road.

The Department has been located in the Social Sciences building at Manor Road since August 2004. Designed by the award winning architects Foster and Partners, the building was intended to develop a new culture in social science at Oxford, encouraging collaboration and interaction between academic staff and research students; large open spaces and shared common rooms were at the heart of the design to facilitate exchange and interdisciplinary research.

However, at a recent review of the Department of Politics and International Relations by the Social Sciences Division the sterility of these spaces has been criticised and identified as one of the major drawbacks to encouraging research student activity in the building. The Department has approached a number of museums and art galleries to enquire about the possibility of obtaining artworks on loan to enliven and brighten our open-plan space, but this avenue has so far been unsuccessful.

We have therefore launched a competition for students and staff to provide suitable artwork for 10 of our empty walls. The design, which may use any medium from paint to material to photography, should be bold and bright but in keeping with the academic character of the building. Designs must be submitted by Monday 16th January to Maria Moreno (Courses Manager). The winning artists will receive a book token to the value of 100. To view the areas in need of decoration, please see our highlighted plan below.

If you have any queries please contact either Maria Moreno or Marga Lyall in the Department.

The floor plan below shows, marked in red, the areas currently being considered for artwork. THe 8 small walls measure roughly a 70cm wide by a meter high and the two long walls roughly one meter high by 4 meters long.

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