DMU Art and Foundation Show 2023 ends on a successful note

by Katie McKenna

The DMU Art and Design Foundation Show 2023 has concluded after a six-day run.

The annual show, which ran from May 19 to May 25, was described on the official event website as a “celebration and exhibition of outstanding student work produced on the Art and Design Foundation course” and was staged in the Vijay Patel Building on the DMU campus. 

Multiple students who had their artwork displayed as part of the show agreed they felt the event was overall a success. One such student, Savannah Irving, believed that the event was “more than a success” in her eyes. 

Savannah’s piece (pictured) is titled “Primordial Soup” and was produced as her final major project over the course of eight weeks.  

The project had students produce a piece in response to a theme of their own personal choosing. “I wanted to explore themes of interconnection,” Savannah said. 

“A lot of primary research was involved. I studied the physical body and the interconnections between the parts that make it up, which then led to me leaning further into aspects of nature and biology.” 

Savannah fondly discussed the time she was able to visit a microbiology lab for research purposes and was grateful for the opportunities that working on the project was able to provide. 

When talking about the then-approaching end of the exhibition, she stated that it “went by so quickly” and that she “didn’t want it to end.” 

She also praised all her peers who also got to display their art in the show, stating that “everyone did so well.

“It takes a lot of courage; a lot of people end up exploring intimate subjects and themes in their projects.

“I’m proud of everyone.” 

Eurovision DMU organiser says event surpassed expectations

By Nisa Dari

Loving it: students enjoying the Eurovision party at DMU (Pic: Aga Wajrak)

One of the organisers of the Eurovision song contest party on the DMU campus has said that it was so successful they will raise their expectations for next year.

The Eurovision event was held at the De Montfort Student’s Union (DSU) building, with a big screen on Saturday, May 13, for students to come and watch the grand final.

Lee Paxman, the head of income generation and enterprise at the DSU, said: “We set quite low expectations and it beat those expectations in regards to attendance.

“The most successful part of it was the ease it could be run.”

The DSU is planning to provide food and drinks for students next year as he said the team had not realised students would request any.

“I believe one table left halfway through the scoring and that was probably because the UK wasn’t doing particularly well.

“But 95 per cent of the people who attended stayed until the end of the event which gives you the impression they enjoyed it.”

This year’s Eurovision song contest was won by Loreen of Sweden and Käärijä of Finland was runner up. Mae Muller from the UK, who was one of the favourites, finished second from bottom in the final.

Andrew added: “The reason the UK didn’t do well is because of stage presence.

“Sometimes the result is what it is, there’s no underlying current behind it.”

The theme ‘united by music’ was to show how everyone is united with Ukraine due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Beat the table tennis pros to win cash at DSU

by Aiden Slattery

Advertising and marketing communication students have planned a fundraising table tennis event at the De Montfort Students’ Union building tomorrow (Tuesday May 23), with a small £2 entry fee you stand to win cash prizes.

Two professional table tennis players will be at the event, if you manage to beat one of these pros at their own game, you could win a cash prize up to £10!

The venture was organised, amongst others, in order to give the advertising and marketing communications students a chance to develop their event organisation skills.

One of the students who worked on the event Richard Davies said: “I hope that this event can supply other students some entertainment and joy in his particularly stressful time in the run up to the end academic year.”

UN representative discusses DMU’s sustainability goals with students and staff

By Amina Ali

A United Nations official has highlighted DMU’s impact on sustainability following her visit to the university. 

Inspiring: Jayashri Wyatt discusses her thoughts with a DMU audience (redpix.co.uk)

The visit highlighted the university’s’ initiatives using the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to push students and educators to use education as a force of good. 

“What universities are doing and what DMU is doing specifically has impact on the ground for the 25,000+ young people who are studying on that campus and it’s just so edifying to see,” said Jayashri Wyatt, the Chief of Education Outreach in the Outreach Division of the UN Department of Global Communications.

DMU has several projects for the improvement of the curriculum in line the SDG’s such as Decolonising DMU which aims to challenge racism and build an anti-racist university as well as DMU Sustainability which is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its activities at local, regional, national and global levels.  

During the visit at the end of April, DMU’s Media Discourse Centre and its students engaged in conversation with both Ms Wyatt and Carlos Islam, (UN Public Information Officer,) about their opinions, experience and education of the world of media. 

Referring to journalism and film, Ms Wyatt said: ““We live in a time of enormous misinformation and disinformation.”

“Information integrity in telling stories that are respectful and factually correct about the subjects are key.”

She added: “I’d love to come back to DMU—I had an incredible visit and the university hosted us in such a hospitable way.”

“We very much look forward to continuing our partnership with De Montfort University and universities from all corners of the world.” 

If you would like to learn more about SDGs, visit: https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals. 

First time rower wins gold in championships for DMU Rowing

By Jess Bourne

First year De Montfort University student, Lizzie Webster, has won first and second place medals at the British University Championships (BUCS) Regatta.

Winner: Lizzie Webster warming up for the race during a competition day.

The event was held at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham between April, 29 and May, 1 and universities from all over the UK attended.

The BUCS consists of head-to-head races against six other teams.

Lizzie, 19, said: “I went to a taster session out of curiosity and then I was asked back.”

The regatta was her first-time rowing competitively.

In April, ahead of the race, the team were training on the River Soar in Loughborough, learning all about the technical aspects of rowing.

She took part in the Beginner Women’s single, Beginner Women’s double and Beginner Women’s Quad.

She added: “I was most nervous for the single race. It was not knowing what to expect as I had never done it before.

“I won the semi-finals, and it gave me the confidence to win the final.”

During the competition days, there was constant rowing, and all the teams were supporting each other during the races.

She also said: “I can’t believe I won because I wasn’t expecting to.

“My legs and lungs were burning.”

Lizzie hopes that she will be able to win senior BUCS Regatta medals in the future.

She added: “There’s never something you can’t work on.”

DMU also came fifth in the Beginner Men’s 4x (A Final) and sixth in the Men’s Lightweight 4x (A Final).

DMU Rowing are now looking towards the Metropolitan Regatta in June and the Henley Women’s Regatta which takes place on the River Thames.

Information about DMU Rowing can be found on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.