NCAD in bed with UCD

Achille

First of all... from today's Sunday Independent:

LIKE any art college worth its salt, the National College of Art and Design is a hotbed of outlandish creativity and grand ideas. Usually noted for the diversity of thought that exists within its walls, the students and staff of the college are strangely unified in their outspoken dismay in the face of the suggested plans to relocate the college to the University College Dublin campus in Belfield.

Already, a large-scale protest against the idea has been staged, and more action is planned.

According to college director Colm O'Briain, no concrete proposal has yet been made to move, but he will be entering "into discussions" with UCD to research costing for building a new site, and how that would compare to costings to develop and expand the current site, which is landlocked in the city centre. A final decision would be made by the Minister for Education.

Such a move, the students feel, would crush the spirit and sense of community in the college which has nurtured so much burgeoning talent over the years.

If transferred to Belfield, where they feel they will be overshadowed and, therefore, marginalised by the larger college, they are adamant that their distinct identity as a college will be diluted, and that they will lose their autonomy as a student body.

"I'm one of the sculpture students, and our department has really strong links with the local community around the Liberties area. We're involved in a range of public art projects, exploring different ways of contributing to the community through public art. We also do a community art project in conjunction with Dublin City Council, through which they engage with local groups, such as a drugs rehabilitation group, a gardening group, and a day group for the elderly," says Michelle Browne, who is horrified by the proposal.

The students are well aware that the relationship they enjoy with the local community is a reciprocal one.

"It's important for us to learn about site-specific work," she says, stressing also how the ethos of bringing art out of the studio and into the real world, has proved incredibly valuable to their development as artists.

They feel sure these opportunities would be lost in the utilitarian atmosphere of Belfield, which looms over rather than integrates with its surroundings.

Since easy and quick access to art galleries is one of any art student's primary concerns, being outside the city centre would make daily living more expensive, and less convenient for those attending NCAD.

The fact that the area surrounding the present college is going through a process of regeneration, and has been earmarked as a cultural centre in the city, stands as further evidence, argues the Student Union president Nessa Darcy, that their presence there is vital.

Other articles:
Sunday Times, Oct 23rd
Indymedia Oct 26th
Indymedia Oct 31st


For more information, check NCADSU.com

anyone interested in finding out more or supporting the NCAD students could do worse than popping along to the general Lake area in UCD from about 2pm onwards tomorrow (Mon 7th)

TempestSabre

Bit odd (but odd is normal for NCAD) since they've only just built (ok its open a few years now) a huge new extension on Thomas St site. Personally ok, I reckon that the student social life suffers quite a bit from being tucked away on Thomas Street. Most people don't hang around the college all that much. That said, commuting out to UCD would be a pain in the rear, and its out in the middle of nowhere aswell. The Thomas ST campus has character, whereas Belfield is souless concrete jungle. I think theres more of a social life in UCD though.

Jonny Arson

I know a few people in NCAD and they absolutely love the college due to it's small size and great community spirit despite it being a bit of a dump. I'd give my right arm to be in a college like that TBH.

Syth

no concrete proposal has yet been made to move

tintinr35

good we have enough weirdos in ucd already ncad students are like concentrated weirdos:D

breadmonkey

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

I know a few people in NCAD and they absolutely love the college due to it's small size and great community spirit despite it being a bit of a dump. I'd give my right arm to be in a college like that TBH.

You do realise you can leave any time you wish?

ferdi

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

I'd give my right arm to be in a college like that TBH.

ditto

Red Alert

nice to see their student activists concentrating on issues that affect the students at the coldface. i hear NCAD is full of hot girls so i wouldn't exactly say no to such a move.

SPOILER: ask to be built beside engineering!

the evil lime

Red Alert wrote:

nice to see their student activists concentrating on issues that affect the students at the coldface. i hear NCAD is full of hot girls so i wouldn't exactly say no to such a move.

Well, you can always check that, they may still be down at the lake...

Pythia

They were down at the Michael Tierney building abut 15 minutes ago, shouting things, disrupting my study in the library. Tut tut.

Jonny Arson

breadmonkey wrote:

You do realise you can leave any time you wish?

:rolleyes: eh... yeah... I do know I can leave UCD if I wish since Brady hasn't chained me to this place. :rolleyes:

Anywaaay, IMO it would be great for UCD if NCAD came out here...... 80% female students in many of the courses in NCAD!

irlrobins

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

80% female students in many of the courses in NCAD!

Yea cos we're seriously short of girls as it is.....

And if you're having probs hooking up with one of the current girls, what makes u think adding anymore is going to improve things?

Jonny Arson

irlrobins wrote:

Yea cos we're seriously short of girls as it is.....

And if you're having probs hooking up with one of the current girls, what makes u think adding anymore is going to improve things?

All I can say is that there isn't a plague of orange faces amongst the female population of NCAD!

Red Alert

i'll certainly show them around

*grins gleefully*

Achille

well, eh, thanks for all the comments everybody... about girls or otherwise.
I hope you enjoyed our protesty fun the other day. I hear you had your own deal on Thursday as well, hope that went well.

and thanks to whoever wrote the article in your student newspaper!

see you SOON!

Blush_01

To be honest, I was pretty offended by the Arts not Orts comments made by the NCAD students. Fúck them, we hardly invited them onto campus and nobody's asking us, the students of UCD, whether we want them or not. So a few guys think that more hot girls means more chance of one of them getting drunk enough to sleep with them is a possibility. I wouldn't call that the general consensus.

Let them stay in the city centre. My course is every bit as valid as theirs, and I don't see why I, and other arts students like me should have to put up with that sh!t from them. They use their talents, we use ours. So they're different talents - I thought NCAD was supposed to be the kind of college that encourages acceptance and openmindedness. Obviously I was very wrong.

Red Alert

sorry blush_01! i agree they haven't exactly endeared themselves to us by saying 'art not orts'. why didn't services remove them i wonder... maybe we should all head down and set up shop in their college.

Achille

Blush, i don't think anybody meant to cause any offence by the slogans on the banners. everything was meant in good fun. i think that was meant to poke fun at a stereotype of ucd arts students. we get plenty of jokes made at our expense but you can't take these things too seriously.

we are in a strange position at the moment where we don't want ucd students to dislike us because we like you, but we don't want you guys to like us too much or else you'll want us to go to Belfield.

please understand that we have nothing against you guys or the college, we just think removing NCAD from Thomas St would be a great diservice to the area and wold remove us from the facilities that we need.

and you're all more than welcome in our place. come round for dinner!

Stepherunie

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

80% female students in many of the courses in NCAD!

This is completely off the point but try Health Sciences, 3rd Nursing 7 lads around 192 girls. 2nd Radiography 5 lads 34 girls,2nd Physio 8 lads, 50 or so girls etc.,I'm afraid you'll have to work out the percentages, my brains not up to it.

On the NCAD thing, i'm with the NCAD students they shouldn't be forced to move here, I could understand them moving to Trinity but not here, also i know for a fact that moving to another college tends, eventually to destroy the name of the college i.e. they'd be UCD graduates not NCAD.

A girl I went to school with always dreamt of getting a degree from the London College of Music, it was going under a good while back and Thames Valley University offered to house it on there campus and fund it. It was all fine for a while, however this year it was decided that calling it the London College of Music meant the course wasn't fully associated with TVU so they renamed the school..... Thames Valley University Faculty of the Arts. Thus her bubble was burst. I'd hate to see that happen to NCAD and a long established name and tradition lost in the concrete jungle of UCD.

Fajitas!

I'm a student in NCAD, core year. I love the campus that we have, and the community that we have. While a move wouldn't directly affect me, the lack of finances being put into our current campus if the move goes head certainly would. Apologies to anyone who took offense to our Arts not Orts posters, but we were also on the recieving end of quite a few comments.

Oh, yeah, and the guy/girl ratio is great, but then again, you've got a couple of thousand more students than we do!

Húrin

^^^^
Hey Alan, what's up?!

Yeah, the NCAD is as good as Zane says. There's a great community spirit, societies are good and the campus has character.

tintinr35 wrote:

good we have enough weirdos in ucd already ncad students are like concentrated weirdos:D

I think we're happier without you jocks. Good thing we feel the same way.

Blush_01 wrote:

Let them stay in the city centre. My course is every bit as valid as theirs, and I don't see why I, and other arts students like me should have to put up with that sh!t from them. They use their talents, we use ours. So they're different talents - I thought NCAD was supposed to be the kind of college that encourages acceptance and openmindedness. Obviously I was very wrong.

I'm glad that neither student body wants the other. What made you think that NCAD was about acceptance and openmindedness?

Red Alert wrote:

sorry blush_01! i agree they haven't exactly endeared themselves to us by saying 'art not orts'.

Don't forget "drugs not rugby!"

Blush_01

Way to miss the point.

Pet

I think...that moving NCAD to UCD would be possibly the worst decision ever. NCAD is a college that values openmindedness, creativity and individuality, and a move to UCD would destroy that spirit. Also, taking NCAD out of the city centre would be a stupid decision, because it does good work just like the article mentioned, and that area (Thomas St) is becoming the artists' quarter of Dublin.

Also, I doubt UCDers want art students on their campus either. I've a feeling the orange-facers wouldn't take too kindly to the competition!

Blush_01

Pet wrote:

I think...that moving NCAD to UCD would be possibly the worst decision ever. NCAD is a college that values openmindedness, creativity and individuality, and a move to UCD would destroy that spirit. Also, taking NCAD out of the city centre would be a stupid decision, because it does good work just like the article mentioned, and that area (Thomas St) is becoming the artists' quarter of Dublin.

Also, I doubt UCDers want art students on their campus either. I've a feeling the orange-facers wouldn't take too kindly to the competition!

Hipp... hipp... hippo... damn, how does that word go?

To be honest, I used to think that having NCAD on campus would be fantastic, that the individuality and openmindedness they claim to possess would be great, that they could reinforce the creative side to UCD students and open people up to the more artistic things in life. Turns out that they're just as closed minded as the rest of the population, if not more so. But then again, I'm just a dumb, blonde and orange Orts bird.

Mr.Nice Guy

If they weren't smart enough to get the points needed to come to the best college in Ireland, if not the world, UCD...D, then they can feck off.

daram

My girlfriend is in NCAD, trying to decide whether or not it would be a good thing having her on campus...

That said, I'm doing my finals now, so by the time anything actually happens I'll be well gone. I'll come to the protest tomorrow anywise just to make it look like I care

humbert

While I like ucd I think it could just about kill the creative/artistic spirit in almost anyone:( and I think the quaint little spot they have is much more suitable for them, having said all that I'd love to see those crazy hippy sorts around campus:D