Two things happened this week which make the fact that my ceramics diploma at City Lit Arts is coming to an end. The first was that I registered for my photo ID card for New Designers. This is a very big exhibition for graduates of design based courses to show their best work. It is a fabulous opportunity and I am looking forward to it with a mix of excitement, anticipation and anxiety. We keep being told that this is such an opportunity to be seen by the shop and gallery owners who are looking for new names to exhibit and work with so you have to make a really great impression.
The second thing was that a group of us went along to the gallery that we are going to be using for our final show; seventeen brand new and exciting approaches to ceramics, every one different but all with the hindsight of a wonderful shared learning experience and displayed with the same attention to detail and finish. We have taken the first floor of Candid Arts Gallery behind the Angel in Islington. What a fabulous space! It is huge! Our first reaction was that we might have difficulty making it look filled but actually, having spent some time there I really believe that we can do it justice. There will be plenty of space to get all round the work, which is important with 3D art and there will be plenty of space for the hundreds – no, thousands – of visitors to stand and chat, glass of something cold and refreshing to hand, whilst a gentle warm breeze wafts over them from the windows at either end which give the place such a feeling of light and space. It is somewhere which lends itself to each of us being able to spread out and yet feel as one. Our work will positively shine in it!
So there is nothing left to do now except to make some work, get some publicity organised, finish my essay and send out the invitations. . . . What have I missed? Oh, I know, dates for your diaries: New Designers – The week of 22nd June, Candid Arts – the week of 29th June. It feels a bit like going on tour!! More details will follow shortly.
Bridget Macklin 
The big break? How about a google map fo the locations in next week’s blog?