Trainees embark on exciting Glyndebourne opportunity

Two of our (Secondary) Art and Design PGCE trainees have been selected by world-leading opera house Glyndebourne to take part in the 2019 Visual Artist teacher residency this summer.

Zoë Zietman and Joanna Mills have been selected to experience a range of valuable experiences, including attending dress rehearsals and benefiting from access to the Glyndebourne archives, exhibitions and stunning gardens.

This year’s Visual Arts theme is ‘Between worlds’; exploring thresholds, transformations and blurred lines. The post requires a minimum of 64 hours at Glyndebourne over the Summer Festival period, allowing our trainees to produce a piece or series of artwork in response to their experience there.

To initiate this un-missable opportunity, our PGCE artists were invited to the launch event on Thursday 16 May to meet and greet with the 10 artists involved, as well as receiving free tickets to a dress rehearsal.

Following the introduction, our PGCE artist Zoë describes Glyndebourne as, “a complex, fascinating and beautiful place with so much history. Until being shown around, I didn’t realise the sheer number of people that are involved in the running of Glyndebourne. The Education Team are very supportive in helping us access what we are interested in, which is a real privilege. It has an incredible atmosphere and I’m looking forward to creating something in response to that.”

“I was really surprised and excited to find out that I had been selected for the residency. My first experience of the opera was through the Performance for Schools at Glyndebourne last year, organised by the University as part of our PGCE course.  I never imagined I would get to return with this role.”

“I am most excited about having the time and space to create some new work in response to Glyndebourne. I’m hoping to learn more about the history of backstage workings, and generally just immerse myself in the experience and enjoy it.”