The fourth IGNITE Festival of Creativity is scheduled to take place May – July 2022
The IGNITE Futures Website, Shortlisted for “Digital Innovation of the Year 2021” at the Times Higher Education Awards, has helped to showcase the work of more than 600 students and resulted in the creation of new graduate jobs.
“It has transformed the very nature of the traditional arts degree show, and created an interactive portal that connects our creative industries with new and emerging talent.”
A unique degree show
The programme will deliver a showcase that includes 30+ city-wide degree shows open free to local businesses and the public, IGNITE Futures, the spectacular website for businesses to explore hundreds of graduate profiles, helping them to engage and employ emerging creative talent, IGNITE Plymouth Futures, a community focused high-street gallery, studio, and event space open to all, which will present, amongst other content, IGNITE Future Careers, a schedule of talks for businesses and Alumni to share information and experiences to potential employees, freelancers and those looking to start up their own businesses.
“Creative skills aren’t just needed in the arts and media sectors, that is the great value of the IGNITE website; it offers a portal that connects people with the creative talent of graduates who can add value to a wide range of industries. It is an incredibly efficient way of connecting people, whether as a means of generating employment or kick-starting community campaigns.”
IGNITE transformed the city of Plymouth into a living gallery
For the 2021 IGNITE Festival of Creativity, the spectacular website was one of a number of key innovations. With help and support from organisations including Real Ideas, Plymouth Citybus, Barclays, Open Media, Drake Circus, the Plymouth City Centre Company, Oyo Hotels, Ocean Studios, and Plymouth Arts Cinema, graduating students from Plymouth College of Art and University of Plymouth transformed the city of Plymouth into a living gallery, hosting more than 70 public exhibitions at multiple sites across the city.
“We were delighted to be able to support the festival, which fits in perfectly with our aim of bringing new life to the city centre and finding new uses for empty shops.”
The exhibitions were attended by thousands of direct visitors
From immersive animations and cutting edge fashion design to contemporary illustration and timeless glass and ceramics, the exhibitions were attended by thousands of direct visitors and public installations seen by tens of thousands of people in Plymouth’s city centre. Work by graduates was showcased across the sides of public transport led by Citybus, inside Barclays Bank, at the Market Hall in Devonport, on digital screens outside the Barcode, inside Ocean Studios and across the local waterfront.
“We have seen IGNITE evolve to offer both a physical and digital celebration to great success. We created a unique spin on the traditional arts degree show with online technology working in tandem with physical community engagement. As a result, we have been delighted to surpass our expectations and achieved a massive footfall of tens of thousands of people during the festival and more importantly IGNITE has been successful in creating new jobs for creative graduates.”
What happened in 2021?
When life returned to some semblance of normality in 2021, the Ignite Festival of Creativity delivered a unique spin on the traditional arts degree show through online technology working in tandem with physical community engagement
Read on about 2021IGNITE is supported by Plymouth City Council as part of the iMayflower project, and by The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who fund the Cultural Development Fund (administered by Arts Council England).