Contours in Colour
The Edge, University of Bath - 30th June to 12th September 2015
Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery - 17th September to 1st November 2015
Alan Cotton: An Artist who Inspires Creative Minds
It is a great privilege to have Alan Cotton's Retrospective Exhibition as the first major show in the new gallery of The Edge at the University of Bath. The Edge is our extraordinary centre for the arts and for executive management education, opened in May 2015 by the Chancellor of the University of Bath, His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex. The Edge has been a long time in the making and, during that time, Alan Cotton has been a great champion for it and for the arts here at Bath. Alan and his wife, Patricia, have become valued members of the University's community. It seems totally right that his should be the first major exhibition staged in The Edge.
Alan Cotton became an Honorary Professor of the University of Bath in 2011. Since then, as part of the extensive programme of work co-ordinated by ICIA, he has delivered lectures and seminars on a range of subjects, including on the importance of creativity in the lives of children and young people and the value of renewing and refreshing personal practice for art teachers. In particular, his practical support for visual art work created by our students has been a tremendous success. It has been a unique opportunity for students in our University, which has no formal academic programmes in art, to work with one of Britain's greatest living landscape painters.
Alan Cotton embodies many of the qualities that we would like to instil in our students. His integrity, energy, and capacity for hard work and startling innovation make him a great role model. We seek to offer our students a nurturing environment for enterprising minds. Our students like to be challenged and we like to support them to take risks and try new things so that they have every chance to achieve their full potential. Quintessentially, Alan Cotton has spent his life as an artist willing to seek out new environments and different challenges in order to be able to represent and translate them in his work. The result is paintings that capture the imagination and inspire creative minds.
I am proud to have this retrospective of his work at the University of Bath.