Welcome to the RCA Summer Show of 2008.

This time last year, we celebrated the 150th birthday of all the great South Kensington cultural and educational institutions, which were born in the wake of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Royal College of Art, then known as the Government School of Design, had been in existence since 1837; but it was only when the College moved to South Kensington 20 years later that it really began to find its own voice. We celebrated this birthday in grand style by holding our single Summer Show in a large tent in Kensington Gardens. It was visited by over 72,000 people – an all-time record for the College, which made us one of the most successful London art events of the year, including international blockbusters.

For 2008, we return to the College galleries, with Part One and Part Two of the Summer Show and with a Sculpture Show in its completely refurbished home in Howie Street, Battersea. So 2008 is in some ways a year of ‘returning’. But in no sense does this mean a ‘looking backwards’. The famous Bauhaus Manifesto of 1919, which launched that great educational experiment, began with the clarion call: “architects, painters, sculptors, we must all turn to the crafts.” The issue then was the relationship between thinking and making. This has usually been mistranslated into English as “we must all return to the crafts,” as if the future lay in the past. Like the Bauhaus, we are almost by definition about turning not returning.

The College has learned much from the ambitious birthday celebrations of last Summer: about curatorship, about The Show as a coherent exhibition, about orienting the visitor more helpfully. So The Show 2008, back in the College galleries and in Howie Street, will be the beginning of a new chapter in the presentation of RCA final year students’ work to the world.

The College’s annual Shows have become a major fixture in the calendar of art and design, even more so after the 2007 tent. They are the culmination of our postgraduate students’ studio work and research: a series of individual exhibitions amounting to one big exhibition, a glimpse into the ideas factory of the College itself, an opportunity to open our doors to the public even wider than before, a testing of research ideas, and a calling card on behalf of all the talented exhibitors who are in the process of launching themselves into their various professional worlds.

There has been a lot of discussion about public value lately. We hope The RCA Shows 2008 will – as ever – contribute to this. RCA students consistently produce exciting and challenging work, and many will already have achieved recognition in top national and international competitions. We remain committed to nurturing originality, creativity, innovation and professionalism within our walls: the words creativity and innovation have become clichés of public policy in recent years – here, they are real.

The Show is always a powerful visual demonstration of the latest ideas of students who have studied, researched and practised here, and for all of us it is the highlight of the year. So it is with very great pleasure that I present the work of the postgraduates completing their work at the Royal College of Art in summer 2008. A total of some 360 students from over 41 countries will be exhibiting from 19 courses. When I graduated from a traditional university, my final year work was read by three examiners and that was that. When RCA students graduate, in addition to their examiners their work is seen by – and exposed to – tens of thousands of members of the public. I’m not quite sure how to define the term public value, but I’m sure these Shows are a good example. 

In this online catalogue you will find the contact details of our graduating students. Unless styled as MPhil or PhD students, in other words as research students, the individuals whose details can be found here are all final year Master of Arts students. Most have chosen to make a short statement about their particular themes and interests and some have indicated their future plans on graduation. The images shown here are a combination of pre-Show and Show work, supported by student CVs.

My sincere thanks go to all those who have supported the Royal College of Art – the institution, its courses, its equipment, its projects, its prizes and its students – throughout the academic year 2007/08: in particular the Conran Foundation, which is an educational charity aiming to promote a better understanding of good design and which is very generously sponsoring this year’s Shows – for the third year running – enabling them to happen in such a professional way. We have never before had such a perfect match between sponsor and Show. The Trust’s mission – to bridge culture and industry – is precisely the College’s mission as well. Also warm thanks to the Helen Hamlyn Trust with its prestigious Design for Our Future Selves awards. This year, the Trust made history by sponsoring the College’s first-ever endowed Chair – the Helen Hamlyn Professorship of Design, encouraging ‘design to improve the quality of life’. Without financial investment from the private sector, supplementing our public income, the College would be a poorer place in many more ways than one. And investment it is: investment in the future. Many of the individual exhibits, and the specific environments in which they are presented, have been supported in this way.

So, warm congratulations to the graduating students of summer 2008. We all look forward very much to hearing about their achievements over the coming years – as we undoubtedly will. 

Rector and Vice-Provost, Royal College of Art