Features

At LU Arts we work with a wide range of people from individual students and student networks and associations to societies, academics and other professional services at the University. Here we look in more detail at some of the students we have worked with and some of the projects we have been involved in.

Brightly coloured woven textile pieces hanging from the ceiling in a bright, well lit exhibition space with windows.

Degree Show 2026 - Student Vlogs

Go behind the scenes and find out what it takes to put together a collection or showcase for the annual Degree Show as five students share their journeys with us.
Textiles exhiibition with various woven fabrics in bright colours and patterns hanging from the ceiling with a backdrop of bright windows along the back wall

Degree Show 2025 - Student Vlogs

Discover what it takes to put together a collection for the annual Degree Show as three final-year students from the School of Design and Creative Arts share their journeys with us.
A geometric cross like shape in blue, red, white and yellow colours, on a pale blue background with blue, yellow and red horizontal strips coming from the left and right side of the cross

Five Pillars: lived experiences, new futures

An opportunity to contribute to this exhibition, opening in March 2025 and celebrating Muslim identities and Islamic cultures.
Illustrated hands in varied skin tones sign 'be kind' with a purple background

International Students Day - 21 Nov

Loughborough University fosters International students' creativity and provides platforms for artistic expression. This year, we're excited to collaborate with The International Students Network at LSU to showcase international students' work on our social media.
A white walled gallery space with wooden benches and chairs with various tools and vases on top of it, with grey and cream coloured designed aprons and artist workwear hung up on the walls

Harriet Rose Morley

Handicrafts Artist in Residence 2023/24

‘Hard Wear, Soft Wear’ was an iteration of work by artist Harriet Rose Morley as part of her Handicraft Residency for LU Arts.
A black and white banner with squiggly shapes in the background and a shioluete of a woman with large afro hair

AFRO HAIR: IS a BIG conversation

Our new project helps reclaim the narrative about Black history, identity and culture with contributions of AFRO HAIR stories, memories and reflections from staff and students at Loughborough University.

A white male academic characterised in stained glass on windows

Artist Kedisha Coakley is making a new stained glass artwork for the University.

We have invited Kedisha to create a work that addresses this and represents the Global Majority community at Loughborough from the past and present.
A white walled gallery space with from left to right, a series of 3 black and white architectural drawings, a large, pyramidal ceramic dumbell sculpture, colourful ceramic vases and shapes, and two pink colourful expressive artwork

School of Design and Creative Arts Student Vlogs 2024

Find out from four final-year students what it takes to put together a collection for this year's Degree Show.
A wooden sculpture consisting of vertical beams in a winding shape, on top of a small grass mound with halls of residence in the background

Announcing Flux: A new sculpture for campus

Flux is the latest addition to our campus sculpture collection, proudly located in the Claudia Parsons Hall courtyard. We are pleased to reveal the premiere of a video documenting it's journey from the Welsh forests to Loughborough. Click to watch and read about the process.
Granduates pictured at Royce Hall with a large black sculpture pictured in 1966 in colour with halls of residence in the background

The Legends of St. Fred

Do you have memories of ‘Fred’, the sculpture adjacent to Royce Hall?

We're launching a social history project exploring the sculpture’s life on campus, and as part of it, we're asking for your stories, photographs and rumours – or  anything else – associated with the sculpture.
An illustrative mural on a brick wall showing colourful characters and phrases about sustainable practices at Loughborough University with the words 'Sustainability at Loughborough' in the centre

Sustainability mural competition

In November 2023, LU Arts, in collaboration with the University's Sustainability team, sparked creativity among students to design a climate-conscious mural for our campus.

Jasia Pang's vibrant winning mural, now semi-permanently displayed on the Schofield building, radiates fun and sustainability. Runners-up Candis Boateng and Freya Neame's work will be displayed on digital screens on campus during Sustainability Fortnight.
A still life arrangement featuring wrapped packages, vietnamese text and a painted image of food

International Students Week Art Showcase

To celebrate Loughborough's International Week this week (19-23 Feb) we are hosting an online gallery of student art. See and read more about the featured students here.
two yellow post it notes with What does culture and creativity mean to me written on them

What does Culture & Creativity mean to me?

Submit a photo, creative writing, or graphic design showcasing why arts and culture matter to you for a chance to feature in LU Arts' special dinner centrepiece at the launch of Loughborough University's Culture and Creativity Strategic Plan on February 6, 2024, and win £20 Love2Shop vouchers
Four male students standing by a sequined banner saying 'Are You Being The Best Version Of Yourself?'

Sexual Assault Awareness Month Banners

A collaboration with Loughborough Students' Union, Loughborough Women's Network and artist Charlotte Tupper to create two pieces of art that invite the viewer to pause and evaluate and question their own knowledge and understanding of Sexual Assault Awareness.
An outdoor photograph of martin hall gallery with a colourful illustrative black people on the windows

Black Heritage : Narratives of Diaspora

Exhibition now online

Curated by Dr Kerri Akiwowo, the works range from visual arts like collages and sculptures to cultural artifacts and each submission highlights personal connections to heritage, history, and identity within the African diaspora, fostering a rich tapestry of narratives and experiences!
four ghostly figures sitting on a wooden table and chairs

Tableaux Vivant

A day of Virtual Reality sessions on Loughborough campus.

Put on a VR headset and be transported through a sequence of unusual spaces, collaged together into a surreal melancholic journey.
A close up of an outcrop of rocks in the foreground with a blue sky and country parkland in the background showing rocky outcrops, green and brown land and a copse in the distance.

Charnwood Forest Geopark Visiting Artists

LU Arts is working in partnership with Charnwood Forest Geopark to give three UK-based artists the opportunity to engage with the unique environment that has been identified as a future UNESCO Geopark.
Multiple multi-coloured ceramic pots on stands, in front of a grey background

Black Heritage: Narratives of Diaspora

We asked black staff and PG students to submit their diasporic object as part of our Black History Month Exhibition.
An exhibition space with one white wall displaying photographs and two glazed window walls. Around a dozen people are standing in small groups looking at the exhibition including a central display table.

Review: Volunteering, Displacement and Livelihoods exhibition

A review of our latest Martin Hall exhibition showcasing original photographs by young refugees in Uganda.
An illustration in the colours pink, white and blue showing a person sitting inside a persons head with flowers sprouting from the top

Mental Health Awareness Week

15th - 21st May

A series of events across our two campuses, helping make a meaningful contribution to supporting our staff and students mental health.
This photograph is taken from inside one of the tubular forms that make up Bernard Schottlander’s Abstract, which beautifully frames the plane flying overhead.

Fresh Eyes On Sculpture

Photography Competition Winners

Announcing the winners of Fresh Eyes on Sculpture. Entries were sought which suggested new ways of looking at our campus sculptures. Selected entries are displayed in stairwell B in Pilkington Library, with two photographers receiving a cash prize.

A pink background with an illustrative design of 5 black women

Celebrate Black Joy

Our project with graphic artist Nadina Ali included a student and staff poster competition, installation of a 30 meter mural on campus and concluded in a panel discussion.

A new Virtual Reality artwork for campus

LU Arts is collaborating with leading dance and technology organisation Displace Studio and students for a Virtual Reality (VR) project.
This image shows 'The Democratic Movement', a work by Adam Nathaniel Furman. The image conveys a colorful interior with interesting architectural features.

Queer Spaces

LU Arts is collaborating with LU Arc and the LGBT+ Association to develop a new ‘queer space’ for the University campus.

We are supporting the costs of creating a new space that supports or celebrates our LGBT+ Community and are beginning the project with a presentation from Adam Nathaniel Furman, co- author of the influential publication Queer Spaces.
A window of a gallery showing the Diverse Voices In Tetxiles logo on

Diverse Voices In Textiles

LU Arts is helping support the Diverse Voices in Textiles initiative through a series of events and opportunities for students to engage with leading figures in textiles and interact with materials. Read more about our upcoming and past collaborations.
A large scale digital design of Loughborough Campus by artist and graduate James William Grant

Loughborough Campus Dystopia

A new commissioned artwork by recent graduate James William Grant which reimagines Loughborough University as a noir-ish cyberpunk landscape will be on temporary display on campus over the coming months.
LU Climate Action Image

LU Climate Action

LU Climate Action was a campaign that encouraged students to have their say on climate and sustainability issues at the university, and lead in making positive changes across campus.
The Chronicles of Black Joy podcast invites a collective of dynamic storytellers to use their art to express what black joy looks, feels and sounds like to them.

Reclaiming The Narrative - The Chronicles of Black Joy podcast

The Chronicles of Black Joy podcast invited a collective of dynamic storytellers to use their art to express what black joy looks, feels and sounds like to them. Revisit the full series of audio recordings on Spotify now.

Samples from the Loughborough hosiery manufacturing selected by Katie Schwab.

Katie Schwab - Handicrafts Artist in Residence 2022/23

Our latest handicrafts artist in residence Katie Schwab will be working on a new commission for us exploring the history and production processes of machine knitting to inform the creation of a wall-based artwork.

Work by various textiles students is hanging and displayed on plinths in the Arts Degree Show. It is a bright and airy room with one white wall and one window wall. Woven textile work in mainly pastel colours are hanging from the ceiling and on walls. There is a collection of brightly coloured ceramic lamps made up of different spherical and abstract shaped pieces stacked on top of one another.

Final-year Creative Arts Students Vlogs

We commissioned four final-year students from the School of Design and Creative Arts to produce a video diary following their progress as they worked towards their Degree Show collections.
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What My Disability Can Do Competition Winners

Announcing the winners of our art competition, in collaboration with the Disability Support Network, to help raise awareness of all disabilities on campus.
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Flux: A new sculpture for Claudia Parsons

LU Arts ran a competition last year culminating in a, soon to be installed, student designed functional sculpture located at Claudia Parsons Hall at Loughborough University.

Aishah-2

Jewellery making: wearing our stories with pride

An overview and gallery of a short course ran by jewellery designer and multi-disciplinary artist Anisha Parmar. Helping students create statement jewellery pieces inspired by their family history and heritage.

International Women's Day 2022

We supported Loughborough Women's Network in celebrating International Women's Day with a special dinner party event and a banner making workshop.
Crafting-Identity-Photo

Crafting Identity Makerspace for LGBT+ History Month

A month-long craft makerspace with free materials to celebrate LGBT+ History Month, open to all to create and install their own piece of art on the gallery walls.
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Hackathon

Loughborough University's first Creative Hackathon event, challenging students across multiple disciplines to come together and form a solution to a problem.

Inclusivity mural competition

We invited students to design a mural to celebrate the inclusive community we aspire to be at Loughborough. Take a look at the winning design which will be installed on campus in March 2022.

Matthew Raw - Handicrafts Artist Residency

International ceramic artist Matthew Raw is creating a new public artwork for the former School of Art building in Loughborough town centre.

Campus poetry walk

Launched on 10 May 2021, a special audio poetry walk showcasing student poems inspired by our East Midlands campus.

WAVE Press

WAVE Press is an exciting one-off risograph-printed magazine supported by and in collaboration with LU Arts to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021.

Sarah Selby - Digital Arts Commission 2020/21

Artist Sarah Selby is working with the University population throughout 2020/21 to produce a digital output which harnesses the potential of digital technologies to engender a sense of community.

Sally Sheinman: What Makes You, You?

WHAT MAKES YOU/YOU? is an on-going, interactive social media project. You submit an answer to the question 'what makes you/you?' and your answer then acts as an inspiration for a unique digital image.

Weekly Digest

LU Arts Director Nick Slater shares a weekly reflection on creativity at the University and further afield.

A Tribute to Kevin Ryan

An alumnus and good friend of LU Arts and Loughborough University sadly died last week. Kevin Ryan was known to many as the Director of Loughborough’s community arts organisation, Charnwood Arts, but he was so much more than that.

Will Shannon - A Public Workbench

As part of The Handicrafts Artist Residency 2019/20, artist Will Shannon developed a new commission - A Public Workbench - in collaboration with students. This commission takes inspiration from one of the University’s most fascinating histories.

Inspirational Women: International Women's Day 2020

LU Arts partnered up with the Women’s Network on this exciting project that asked students to identify a woman that has meant something to them, either personally or through their achievements, and celebrate them through illustrations and creative writing.
Ian Giles Ian Giles Trojan Horse Rainbow Screening Image

Ian Giles LGBT+ histories project

Artist Ian Giles is working on a new project that engages with the current LGBT+ Association.

Telling Our Stories: Campus Poems

LU Arts invited poet Indigo Williams to curate an anthology of poems that were sighted in locations across the campus for the whole of October, as part of Black History Month.