Looking forward

The MAC is fortunate to be located close to the Belfast School of Art and have benefited incredibly from the continued engagement we have with both staff and students.

This year at the MAC, we hosted an amazing series of interventions by the students from the MFA course in response to our exhibition 'On Refusal'. This experience was to be repeated with an MA takeover by the students from the Art Therapy course responding to Mark Garry's exhibition which, due to our closure, sadly did not happen.

In common with all institutions, UU are having to adopt and respond to an ever changing situation. The coronavirus has caused mass disruptions worldwide, and Schools of Art are no exception to this. As a near neighbour, we at the MAC are very aware of the devastating effect this has had on the BA Fine Art and MFA class of 2020, with the cancellation of their year shows.

This has lead us to think about how we might support the students and staff at UU who have supported us. We have decided that the first exhibition we will host when it is considered safe to re-open the MAC to the public will be a presentation of work from this year's BA Fine Art and MFA graduates, which would have formed part of their final year shows.

We will work closely with tutors who will make a selection from students work for the exhibition, and whilst it will not replicate how their final shows would have been, we hope it will none the less be a celebration of the achievements of the class of 2020.