The great thing about the OCA is the association you have with the tutors and the peer group you belong to on your course. Whether in a formal tutorial or a peer group discussion, talking together allows new ideas and perspectives to be identified regarding the particular work you are engaged in.

This two year course has been a very intense time of practical therapy, resolving many issues from my past; but also a time of total joy being immersed in all aspects of contemporary art. From now on, I intend to continue with practicing art in the present, having finally resolved the past.

Read the next instalment of Nina's blog to discover how she has come through a tough personal period and has September in her sights.

Presenting our student story from Maggie, an MA Fine Art student at the OCA. "I work as an artist from my studio in Yorkshire, UK. I am a painter/printmaker, interested in the cultural landscape of the Humber Region. My work is based on practice-led research."

As a rural, white, woman of European settler ancestry, my online gallery connects to my studio and physical gallery on Mayne Island along the southwest coast of British Columbia in Canada. Using a nature-centric, reparative and autoethnographic practice-led research lens.

Presenting the student story from our MA Fine Art student- David Crawford. "My experience with the OCA has assisted me in becoming a more reflective and ambitious practitioner, who is now willing to take more creative risks."

My name is Christin Penz, and I’m studying the Creative Arts: Dimensions Unit 1.3, where I continue to explore language, participation, and installation as part of my artistic practice.

For those who have been following this thread, this is the third of our commentaries on the theme of collaboration.

The Student Voice Festival began this week and it has been brilliant. I even facilitated an event myself, which was fun (and a learning experience!). I had forgotten how difficult I find it to encourage discussion in a way that feels natural. We had a dozen people in the forum each day, and a handful of posts throughout the week. Read the next instalment of Nina's blog here.

This week has been a rollercoaster, and I ended up feeling burnt out. I thought a long time about whether I want to write about my experience, but ultimately feel like it is important to acknowledge that life can get in the way of study. And life really got in the way this week. Read the next instalment of Nina's blog.

In July 2025 we published a post about our Everydays project which had been running since February 2024. A lot has happened in the last year so we thought we would publish an update! The Everydays project has gone from strength to strength and in the last year we have had 20 people contribute to the project - some everyday and others when they can.

I cannot believe I am only in my second week of my foundation course. I feel like I have done so much writing already. Read the next instalment of Thoughts of a Foundation Student by Nina.

"I officially enrolled on my unit of study this week so I began my first activity a few days ago." Read the next instalment of Thoughts of a Foundation Student by Nina.

Dorian Carter is completing the final unit for Stage One Creative Writing, but has managed to find the extra time to write, redraft, submit and be part of editing a collection of short stories, which will be published on the 20th of June. OCA tutor Nina Milton asks Dorian more about their journey to success in this post.

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.