The induction fortnight is flying by. I will be officially beginning my course next week so I have been spending the past couple of days trying to prepare myself for study. I have studied other subjects before, but not anything so expressive and personal to me. I have moments when I feel completely overwhelmed. I try to create and my mind is blank. All I am able to write about is how much I like writing, and how much I am enjoying college life. Getting a support structure in

How wonderful it is to craft imaginary people in imaginary clothes, to entertain ears with meter and rhyme, and to stitch smiles and teardrops into script. What good are any of these, though, without a stage, without a group of people to listen, applaud, and, perhaps best of all, celebrate our way with words? Enter Bookmarked Magazine. Trumpets, please! We want trumpets.

In the first of this series of posts on collaborative drawing, we discussed our drawn response to music created by exchanging a physical drawing through the post in reaction to Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. This time, we wanted to create a single drawing online while working simultaneously, albeit from different locations.

"I would say that studying with OCA quite often acted as a point of stability, so while everything else in life was changing, it was good to have a linear path and clear goals on the Visual Communications course." Read about Visual communications graduate Holly's learning journey.

"Walking in the landscape and taking photos has always seemed a natural combination to me, but last year I kept leaving my camera at home because 'I've already photographed that' (though it didn't seem to matter that I'd 'already walked there'). Needing a boost, I decided to sign up for the 10-week OCA/RPS online course Investigating Place with Psychogeography." Read Sarah's course review.

We are two BA Drawing students who have spent the past year developing three collaborative projects together. In this first post, we’re excited to share our response to Igor Stravinsky’s groundbreaking 1913 ballet score, The Rite of Spring.

We want your help in putting together an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion calendar for 2026.

OCA Painting student Roger Sidney is aged 66 years working full time as a Project Engineer in Santiago, Chile. "Level 3 has given me the confidence and opportunity to work independently finding my way with intelligent support from my tutors and peers."

Welcome to OCA's Study Tips in 5 series. In this instalment we bring you five tips to help for proofreading. Proofreading assignments can be challenging, but with the right strategies you can effectively find and correct errors.

OCA Creative Arts student Brindusa Burrows is exhibiting (H)Être - a body of worked conceived in dialogue with a 268-year old beech that was felled a year ago in her mountain village in alpine Switzerland.

OCA Students Teresa and Paul have been collaborating and would love to hear what you think!

Eleanora Alis and John are both students at the Open College of Arts. Despite never having met in person, they are now collaborating on their fourth project together.

What OCA brought was an intellectual and imaginative framework to help me develop my thinking and push the boundaries of my (at the time) early emerging practice. As a full-time worker the flexibility and approach to study of OCA was an ideal way to structure this learning and to come into contact with like-minded students and great tutors.

We have been collaborating on a project entitled Everydays since 28 Feb 2024, when we decided to take a photo every day (of anything at all!), and use it as a way of sustaining and growing our practice as well as flexing our artistic muscle daily.

"The paper, hopefully a BA, will be a reward but for me the most important aspect has been the journey, the people I have met on route and my learnings."

As a BA Creative Arts student currently working in assemblage and installation, the connection between 1980s childhood freedom and my current posthumanist practice reveals some fascinating insights about how we develop our relationship with the material world!

We're excited to announce our Summer of Sustainability 2025 event series.

We are a group of students who come together to help each other through the exciting journey of our photographic studies.

Contribute to OCA's Cabinet of Curiosity in our new collaborative project.

This post provides a summary of two of the recorded sessions that are available from OCASA’s Summer of Sustainability 2024.