Gray’s Degree Show 2024 celebrates unique craftmanship and ambition

Gray’s Degree Show 2024, is a highlight in the North East’s cultural calendar and will launch on Friday 7 June, opening fully to the public on 8 – 15 June.

Showcasing the work of around 150 Art & Design students across Painting, Contemporary Art Practice, Three Dimensional Design, Fashion & Textiles, Communication Design and Photography, this year’s show will celebrate Gray’s unique heritage and exceptional craftmanship, along with the school’s ‘hand to high tech’ making skills, so valued in the North East.

As part of weeklong degree show, organisers are planning a stakeholder networking evening and specialist workshops for school children. Gray’s is also engaging with Aberdeen Performing Arts to support the multi-art festival, ‘Light the Blue’, which runs the same week as the degree show, and has launched a special photography competition called CAPTURE for 13 - 18 year olds. 

During degree show week, there will be specialist mobile art school workshops in the city, to celebrate the creativity of young people aged 5 – 25 years across the North East and dedicated young people's tours of the art show from Gray's Graduates in Residence.

Members of the public are encouraged to come to see the graduating talent on show. The exhibition is free to visit and many of the artefacts and products exhibited will be for sale. There will also be opportunities to find out more about courses on offer at Gray’s and to see the specialist studio spaces across the art school.

Reflecting on Gray’s ambitions for the future, newly appointed Dean of Gray’s School of Art, Dan Allen said: “This year’s degree show comes at a pivotal moment for the school. The show marks the start of a new era, as we celebrate and reflect on our past, and look forward to the future with ambition.

“Gray’s School of Art is ranked first in Scotland for student satisfaction in Art & Design and part of our success is our ability to offer a student-centred approach, that encourages traditional handmade craftmanship alongside high tech creativity.

“This year’s show is a testament to our talented students’ resilience, as many started their courses in 2020 at the start of the pandemic and have therefore endured covid-19 and all the challenges that brought. We owe it to them to celebrate their brilliance and to showcase this to everyone.”

The branding for this year’s show has been designed by Gray's Communication Design students, Bronwen Farquhar from Falkirk and Ollie Serle from Aberdeen, who have created a theme celebrating the schools focus on traditional making skills.

Fourth year Communication Design student, Bronny explains more about her experience creating visual concepts for this year’s degree show.  She said: “Ollie and I are really enjoying our placement designing the Degree Shows visual branding. It’s been really useful learning about different print techniques and expanding on our digital skills which has given us a taste of design and working within the creative economy. The degree show brief this year has been super fun to work on and we are really excited to reveal this year’s brand identity.”

As part of the degree show, Gray’s hopes to share interactive content so that people can access QR codes digitally and remotely.  

A private view will take place on Friday 7 June for friends and family with presentations of Gray’s Four Pillars and Industry Awards. Members of the public can visit from 8 to 15 June, weekdays 10am-8pm and weekends 10am-5pm.

Main image shows Gray's students outside Gray's DesignHaus - credit Nicole Paterson. Gallery images include brand imagery for Gray’s Degree Show 2024 and 4th year Communication Design students, Bronwen Farquhar and Ollie Serle, with Dean for Gray's School of Art, Dan Allen (credit Martin Parker, RGU Gatehouse.)