Cambridge School of Art and Mill Road Businesses Collaborate

Many Mill Road businesses welcomed 1st year students studying on the BA Illustration and the BA Illustration and Animation at Anglia Ruskin University's Cambridge School of Art into their premises for a 6 week drawing project. Each student was given one business to focus on so that they could get to know the people who worked there and feel able to record the space and place in their sketchbooks.

As Mill Road has so many independent businesses that it provided the students a variety of differing environments to record, so each student was able to come back to the group with drawings of different types of places and stories to tell about the people who they had met. At the end of the six weeks we had drawings of the Bookbinders, charity shops, bookshops, antique shops, grocers, hairdressers, florists, cafes, and the pub. Each place was so different in feel from the next that the students had to work to capture the 'personality' of the each business, something that is impossible in larger high street stores and made it a much richer experience for the students.

Mill Road is an area with a strong sense of community in which the local, independent businesses play a key role and, for many of them, it was this idea of community that led them to agreeing to work with the students.

Abdul of Al Almin explained:
"In every community you need to mentor the future generation. If you want to encourage participation in the local community it is important to engage with young people during their education. I feel we need to contribute now to ensure that this is fed back into the community later."

Limoncello owner, Steve Turville agreed:
"We were more than happy to welcome Cambridge School of Art students as we love to support local artists and have collection of artists' work in the shop. It fits well with our ethos as a business and we like to support the local community."

Tony of The Six Bells was similarly enthusiastic:
"The students were all really nice and really keen. I haven't seen their work but am looking forward to seeing it at the exhibition."

By the end of the 6 weeks students had sketchbooks of drawings of each business, paintings and hand-made puppets based on people they had met in each location. The generosity of the Mill Road businesses was invaluable to the success of this project. There were 40 students new to Cambridge and to being away at university for the first time.

Lecturer Pam Smy said:
"As tutors we knew we had given the students a tricky project to work on and weren't sure how comfortable they would feel having to draw in a particular location where they would be forced to not only meet, but to record, the working lives of local business people. The fact that the Mill Road businesses were so accommodating and welcoming to every one of the 40 students is a real testament to the warmth of the community here."

The students are celebrating their work with an exhibition at the Black Cat Café on Mill Road from Friday 19 November to Wednesday 1 December.

Please click images to enlarge.

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