Graduate artist gets career-boost thanks to partnership

A graduate ceramics artist has been able to buy her own kiln after receiving a £2,000 award to kickstart her career.

Emma Leahy graduated this summer from the School of Art at the University of Reading. She was awarded the prize by the Arts Society Henley (TASH), which donated the money in response to the struggles faced by many students during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emma produces ceramic artwork inspired by the environment and social history of her home in Northern Ireland. Her degree show submission, Fallen, was an installation of 3,602 hand sculpted, high fired porcelain feathers, each representing and commemorating a person whose life has been lost as result of the Northern Irish conflict from 1969 to the present day.

Emma said: “Having people other than your family and closest friends believe in your work and see potential in your practice is a very special feeling. Creating the installation Fallen was an emotive and personal piece, so for it to be recognised in this way leaves me lost for words. I am so, so thankful to everyone at The Arts Society Henley.

“It would be pretty impossible to try and create a career as a ceramicist without my own kiln so this award really has had an influential effect on my future plans.”

Difficult lockdown experience

TASH approached the University with the offer of a financial prize for an art student, in recognition of the difficult time students have had during lockdowns, and the further obstacles they will face in establishing themselves after graduation.

The prize is hoped to become an annual one to support art graduates starting their professional lives after university.

Reading art students have faced particular challenges in having to produce artwork in their homes at times, and host online degree shows rather than the traditional physical exhibitions.

TASH is a society with nearly 600 members from the Henley and Reading area, dedicated to the support of the arts in the local area. It holds monthly lectures, further special interest days of connected lectures, support for local schools, visits, and work in local archives.

Supporting students into the future

Katerina Burgess, TASH Chairman, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Emma, and the School of Art at the University of Reading.

“This is exactly in line with our aims.  We look forward to further links, and to seeing Emma’s work as she progresses.”

Professor Rachel Garfield, Head of the School of Art at the University of Reading, said: “I am delighted with the partnership that has been established this year with The Arts Society Henley.

“Emma is a very deserving winner of this inaugural prize, and we look forward to seeing how her work develops from this. We are working to develop the prize in future years, and to set up mentoring and placements for the students with Society members.

“This partnership is an effective way of supporting our students into their future”.

Follow Emma on Instagram at @emmaleahyceramics for updates on her life as a graduate artist.

The funding prize follows closely on from other successes achieved by the Reading School of Art, including two students being awarded notable prizes this month.

Final-year student Tom Hall Boehringer won the Freelands Painting Prize 2021 for his oil painting of the Edward Colston statue being thrown into Bristol harbour by Black Lives Matter protesters. The prize celebrates outstanding painting at undergraduate level, culminating in an exhibition at the Freelands Foundation gallery in London this Autumn.

PhD student Jung Yun Roh was selected  for New Contemporaries – an organisation that supports emerging art practice from around the UK – for nature-inspired drawings.

Art and Design at the University of Reading also jumped up 31 places to sixth in the UK as a subject in the Complete University Guide 2022, after ranking third in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide in September 2020.