We have a new candidate for the OCASA Textile Representative role and I am very pleased to include Annette Bruton’s biography and election statement below. If there are no further candidates for the role by the 17th September then Annette will become the new Textiles Representative:
Annette Bruton- Election Statement
Background
I am a constant and restless learner. I have worked in education for my whole career and am still excited and in thrall to the power of learning. I have worked with textiles my whole life. Like many students who come the OCA to study textiles I learned crafts from those around me as a child and studied art at school and informally beyond. I believe there is no wrong path in education and that whatever the direction or what you study you can always come to your hearts desire eventually. I left school wanting to go to art school but no-one I knew had gone that path before. Now many years later I am finding my way onwards from that point and in some very surprising ways.
I work full time in a further and higher education college. I have spent my working life in public service and I think that is something to be proud of. I am part of a creative family with a husband who is a writer and teacher and three grown up sons all involved in the arts. I work in Edinburgh and live in the Scottish Borders. Like many OCA students I find I have to bend the laws of physics to get enough time to fit everything in. I am a level 2 student and started studying with the OCA in 2013.
Election Statement
When I found the OCA I couldn’t believe my luck. There it was – the opportunity to study and work at the same time and in exactly the area of the arts that I love: textiles. I now have the experience of working through level 1 and understanding the way the OCA works and what it is that students need both in terms of direct support from the OCA and the equally important help and companionship of fellow students in a virtual environment.
I have taken the opportunities available to go on study visits and meet other textiles students and have been welcomed on to other visits with students and tutors of drawing and painting. While we do most of our meeting up in the virtual world, meeting and hearing the stories of other students first hand has given me a great insight in to how others think and learn.
I have personal passion for the power or co-operation and co-production of students and their college. We often talk about partnership working: when it really works well it produces the best possible student experiences and I believe I have the right kind of positive attitude and practical problem solving to support my course mates and the college in equal measure.
OCA students are busy people but making sure that we have representation and a voice is a key motivator for me in putting myself forward for consideration as textiles rep. I believe I can build on the experience as an OCA student to date to help others with problems large and small and ensure that the voices of textiles students are influential in change.
