Congratulations to the artists of collective Outset who have received fantastic feedback from their debut exhibition which was held at Basecamp Middlesbrough – a local independent space music, arts food & drink – this month which included a variety of work and styles including sculpture, painting and abstraction.

We caught up with collective artist Ellie Cutmore to find out about the exhibition, collective and what it’s like to study our fine art degree, read on to find out more!

Tell us about Outset collective!

Outset is a collective of Level 5 Fine Artists from Hartlepool’s Northern School of Art campus. We are a whole class that have worked collaboratively throughout the year to curate, fundraise and market for our end of year exhibition.

Tell us about your recent exhibition, the works included and your own submission?

Our exhibition, Outset was held at Base Camp, Middlesbrough on 9th-11th of March. For most of the class, this was the first major exhibition we’ve been a part of and were very very excited to showcase our professional practice. Being a large class, there was a lot of variety of work created and on display at the exhibition, from portraiture and landscapes, to abstraction and sculpture. There is 20 people in the outset collective and everyone’s work is completely different. Personally I am a photographer and abstract-landscape painter and my work included in this exhibition involves monochrome paintings of photographs I have took of urban landscapes.

Let us know about any other projects you or your collective is working on?

So far as Outset, we don’t have any projects that we are working on yet. We will most likely come back together as a group next year for our degree show. Although within Outset we have two collectives, Evoke and Marra who both have upcoming exhibitions and events.

Any advice for creatives starting out?

For the last two questions, I have asked members of the Outset group to answer as well:-‘My only piece of advice is to follow what you want to do, don’t listen to the people who try and put you off following creative careers.’-‘Do what you enjoy, people can give you advice but at the end of the day it’s your work, keep it true to you’-‘Always try new things, you might surprise yourself’-‘The northern school of art is special to me as because it is only a small college, I get a more personalised experience and although I live in accommodation, it’s not too far from home so I don’t get home sick.’-‘It’s pushed me to create things I’m proud of which is important to do as a young artist’

You can keep up to date with outset collective by following their Instagram feeds, @outset_northernart, @evokecollective8 and @marracollective.

If you are interested in Fine Art we offer a fantastic, well established programme of study. You can find out the detail here.