More than 80 graduating students from contemporary art, design and film presented their work together at Atlantic Technological University Galway in June 2022.
The exhibition was the first joint graduate presentation held under the newly formed Atlantic TU, which had replaced GMIT two months earlier. It also coincided with the institution’s Golden Jubilee.
Several disciplines in one graduate show
The Galway exhibition included work from the BA in Contemporary Art and several design programmes, including industrial design, textiles and fashion, graphic design and illustration, animation and game design. Film and documentary students also participated.
Bringing these programmes together created a broad view of the university’s creative education. Visitors could move between fine art, applied design and screen-based practices rather than encountering each department separately.
A related exhibition at the Mayo campus featured nine students from the Contemporary Art Practices programme in St Mary’s Hall.
Graduating after disrupted study
The 2022 students had completed much of their education during the pandemic. Department head Celine Curtin highlighted the persistence required to generate ambitious new work under those conditions.
The exhibitions marked a return to live public presentation. Families, friends and the wider community could enter the campuses and encounter work that had often been developed during periods of restricted access, remote learning and uncertainty.
For graduating students, the exhibition served as the transition between education and professional practice. It required them to select, finish and present work for an audience rather than only for internal assessment.
The first joint Atlantic TU graduate show therefore documented both institutional change and a cohort’s recovery of public space. Its range reflected the increasingly connected relationship between contemporary art, design, animation, games and documentary production.