STEP Projects - Summer 2024.

The Summer Teams Enterprise Programme is an opportunity for undergraduate students to develop a range of Graduate Attributes by participating in a fully-online skills development programme, where they work on a real-life project designed and supported by University staff, to gain virtual team-work experience and contribute to the University’s learning and teaching through working on impactful outputs.

Website Enhancement: Chinese Art in Scotland

Sponsor: Dr Michelle Huang

Project Coach: Mi Zhou

The project aimed to enhance the website https://chinese-art-in-scotland.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/collections/ by enriching its content and functions. Six students from the Schools of Art History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Chinese Studies, French and Comparative Literature conducted research on selected collections and exhibitions of Chinese art, artefacts and Chinese-inspired artworks in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Fife and beyond. They also resolved some existing technical issues and created an interactive map to show the geographical distribution of Chinese collections across Scotland. It is expected that the enhanced website will be launched in a virtual roundtable in 2024-25. Speakers will include academics, museum curators and team leaders of the STEP project.

The women artists of the Recording Scotland project

Sponsor: Dr Lenia Kouneni

Project Coach: Bridget Hardiman

The project focused on the women artists of the Pilgrim Trust ‘Recording Scotland’ Collection, a Second World War initiative designed to produce employment for artists and create a pictorial record of a Scotland currently under threat of enemy action or of loss of traditional industries. Seven students from Art History, Psychology, International Relations and Modern Languages researched the contributions of women artists to this important pictorial archive of Scotland. They produced a Exhibit display with biographical accounts of the women artists (https://www.exhibit.so/exhibits/x2HLSfSxlepWJFbjMETI) and they set up an instagram account where they share the research they conducted on these artists (https://www.instagram.com/recordingscotland?igsh=MmFtMnZlOGU0MGgx).

Art & Wellbeing

Sponsor: Dr Emily Hanson

Project Coach: Renato Trotta

With an emphasis on disability in art, the team curated an online exhibition after reading and discussing the topic, as well as learning firsthand how to design more accessible digital and physical exhibitions (https://artandwellbeing.omeka.net/ ). The six students who participated came together with a range of interests, some with no experience in art history, and a few brought their own experiences of disability to their reflection on the themes and the practice of making more inclusive exhibitions. Their exhibition design allows for visitors with vision impairment, for example, to experience it, through the implementation of audio recordings of visual descriptions. They also created an instantly indispensable resource: a glossary for disability-related terms and a list of further resources, which can be used to better inform our learning and teaching.