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Inside the EKC Dover College End of Year Art Exhibition: A celebration of student creativity

8 July 2025
Explore the creativity of EKC Dover College students at the End of Year Art Show, with standout projects featured in Cene magazine.

A showcase of creativity at EKC Dover College End of Year Art Exhibition

Students from EKC Dover College’s Creative and Design courses came together this July to exhibit their incredible work at the End of Year Show.

Held annually, the exhibition is a celebration of everything our students have achieved throughout the academic year. This year’s show took place in the Welcome Building on Thursday 3rd July, and was attended by friends, family, and stakeholders from the local creative industries.

Jacob Weeks, Programme Director for Art and Design, explained the importance of the event:

“The exhibition is really a celebration of all the students’ work that they’ve made over the year. It includes some projects for clients which we’ve worked with, including Kent Crisps and Blaze Signs, as well as their final major projects, which are what they’ve spent the most time developing.”

“It’s a chance for students to show off their work to parents and to all our stakeholders, because we work with a lot of different companies throughout the course.”

Two images, first is a window coloured in saying "Welcome to our art exhibition" second is visitors standing talking around the artwork.

One of the students showcasing her work was Nicola Terry, who’s studying on the Level 3 Art and Design course. Her project explored the power of advertising and its impact on consumers.

“My art is about marketing – how adverts use bright colours and mascots to lure people in,” Nicola said.

“I started with an Andy Warhol-style print that evolved into protest t-shirts. I even created a fake product called Lemon, which I made deliberately bad and really low-budget using AI-generated images. I filmed it using a camcorder to give it a grainy, low-quality feel, then turned the footage into frames to make it look like an animation.”

“The key message is that media uses flashy lights and bright colours to get people’s attention. People spend their money on things they don’t need. It’s all nonsense – they just want your money.”

2 images, first is Creative and Design student, Nicola, looking at the camera with her artwork on a table and a easel. Second image is a close up of her resist coloured prints in frames on the table.

For Amy, a Level 2 Art and Design student, her project explored a much deeper and more visceral theme: fear.

“My exhibition is all about fear,” Amy explained. “We learn a lot on the course, and you can use any medium you want such as ceramics, photography, print, etc. We’ve got loads of different equipment to help us create what we imagine. “I spoke to a lot of people and did surveys to ask what their biggest fears were. One thing that came up a lot was things near your eyes, so I took a photo of my friend holding a needle close to her eye. It’s meant to make you feel uncomfortable when you look at it and I think it came out quite well.”

“If you walk into the exhibition space, it’s almost like insanity. Everything in there represents fear in a different way.”

Two images. First is a close up of the artwork for "Fear" with various pieces including a clay face, writing written is red to look like blood and photos of blood covered ears and a butterfly. The second image is a further away photo of all the "bloody" red words written all over the walls and a canvas of a girl holding a needle really close to her eye.

George, also from the Level 3 Art and Design course, used his work to raise awareness of mental health, drawing from his own experiences.

“We do one of these exhibitions every year, it’s part of the course. It’s a great way to bring everyone together and show off our skills. It’s such an open, welcoming, and lively event, and I love that.

“My project is all about mental health – specifically how different disorders are portrayed. I decided to focus on my own. I have GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) and suffer with depression. I wanted to show how anxiety feels to me – like my heart is being squeezed, everything becomes a blur, and I become confused and don’t know where I am.

“I used real pill boxes, the ones I take every day, as part of my piece. That’s where my title 9:15 comes from. It’s the time I take my medication every morning.”

A photo of George and his artwork in the background of a canvas, pillboxes that have been coloured and have eyes on them and a red heart stuck to the wall.

George’s commitment to the course shines through in more ways than just his artwork.

“I live on the Isle of Sheppey and travel here every day. I leave my house at 6am to get to college – that’s how much I love this course. I’m even doing the extended year. It shows how good this course is, and how much it means to me.”

In addition to being featured in the exhibition, some students – including George, Nicola, Ruby, and Amy – were also recognised by Cene Magazine, an independent and multi-award-winning publication that highlights subcultures and creative talent across Kent. Their work was showcased in a special feature celebrating emerging artists from the region.