Arts Week
Poster for the Keble Arts Festival (KAF), this year themed ‘Carnival’.
Fabian Sturman (2021 Maths and Computer Science), writes:
In 7th week, the annual Keble Arts Festival took place. Combined with a JCR charities motion, the festival raised over £400 for Asylum Welcome, a local charity offering information, advice, and practical support to asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants living in Oxfordshire. The festival started with a launch event on Sunday of 7th week, featuring a talk from the head of Asylum Welcome and a former refugee who was helped by the charity and now works for them, and concluding with a performance from a university a cappella group, the Oxford Commas.
The festival launch event featured a talk from the head of Asylum Welcome
This festival’s theme was ‘Carnival’, and many of the events were carnival-inspired, from a mask-making workshop and a carnival-themed postcard competition to a carnival-themed drag brunch. We also were lucky enough to collaborate with many other groups from across the college and wider university to put on events encompassing a wide range of art forms: these included a jewellery-making workshop with Keble FemSoc, a successful comedy night with the Oxford Imps and Oxford Revue, and a gouache workshop with the Oxford Art Club. As always, all events were free for Keble students to attend, other than the drag brunch, which had half of all proceeds going towards Asylum Welcome.
An abstract depiction of a piece of music by Deborah Pritchard
We were also lucky to have the incredible Deborah Pritchard, Visiting Fellow at Keble and an accomplished composer and visual artist, display a selection of her artwork in our KAF exhibition in the ARCO building, in which she explores her experience of synaesthesia by expressing music through visual artwork. Her artwork strikes a balance between a precise visual depiction of complex musical works, and an abstract representation of the music itself and of the emotions associated with it. She delivered two talks focusing on both her visual art and her synaesthesia-influenced composition style, which were well attended and massively appreciated by those who came.
A big thank you to those who attended the events that we held, and to the student team that put the festival on. In particular, thank you to Molly Dineley (2021 English), the KAF president, who spent countless hours organising the whole event and ensuring it ran as smoothly as possible.
For those interested in the work of Asylum Welcome, check out their website at https://www.asylum-welcome.org. See you at KAF 2024!
