A morning with Professor Michael Pennie

One of the privileges of working on the BSU Archive is meeting a wide range of people, and hearing their stories and memories. Everyone we meet during our research has had a long, interesting and varied life, despite sometimes believing that the opposite is true. And everyone we talk to can illuminate the past for us, in a way that a historical document can never do.

Professor Michael Pennie

This week I have had the honour of meeting Professor Michael Pennie, who has observed artistic life here for half a century. First at Corsham Court in the 1960s, and then at Sion Hill in the 80s and 90s, and more recently back at Corsham Court, he has been teaching and practising the art of sculpture over five decades of change and development.

Michael talked to me about his work and about life at the Court during the Bath Academy of Art days. We also discussed his personal memoir of a life in art, which he is currently writing, and the possibility of adding this memoir to the BSU Archive when it is completed.

Michael's memoir, in preparation

This work, entitled 'Michael Pennie: Sculpture - Making and Teaching' takes the form of a treasure box of individual memories, written about his work, his exhibitions, former students and colleagues, all of which are gathered alongside rich images of artists and their work. Digital technologies also offer the potential for wider audience engagement, and this also formed part of our discussion today.

I was then taken to see Michael's studio in the basement of Corsham Court, where he described the discipline of daily creativity; even at the weekend he spends every morning in the studio, surrounded by his work and tools, drawings and sculptures. In fact his work is dotted all over Corsham Court, in public rooms, in the gallery, and in the grounds. I have walked past them many times, appreciating the art, without realising that the artist was in our midst.

The Basement Gallery, inside Michael's studio and an example of his sculpture

It was a fascinating morning, and yet another reminder of the rich seam of creativity which exists at our university.
I hope to continue mining this seam for some time - who knows what will be discovered next?