Three honorary awards to be conferred at University of Chichester graduation ceremonies 19/10/10

Three experts in the fields of music, children’s services and sport will be recognised at graduation ceremonies organised by the University of Chichester this week.

Andy Brown, the founder and leader of the London Metropolitan Orchestra, will be conferred with an Honorary Master of Arts degree, while Dame Gillian Pugh, former chief executive of Coram Family, a leading children’s charity, and Professor Celia Brackenridge, the first Chair of the UK Women’s Sports Foundation, will both be conferred with Honorary Fellowship awards.

The trio will receive their awards alongside around 1500 students who have completed their degrees at the University of Chichester. They will formally graduate at ceremonies taking place at Chichester Festival Theatre on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 October 2010.

Further details of honorary awards:

Honorary Master of Arts – Andy Brown (Ceremony 1: Friday 22 October, 10am)

Andy Brown founded and leads the London Metropolitan Orchestra, a multimedia orchestra which employs London’s best musicians renowned for their virtuosity. LMO is one of the finest film recording orchestras in the world, having recorded more than 250 films and worked on many of the greatest Hollywood films.

Andy grew up and went to school in Chichester and is clearly one of the world’s leading film music conductors, having worked with all the major Hollywood studios and worldwide record companies since the orchestra was formed in 1994. The LMO is now working with an exciting younger generation of composers and Andy Brown gives generously of his time to work with and inspire students in the University’s music department.

Honorary Fellowship – Dame Gillian Pugh (Ceremony 4: Saturday 23 October, 10am)

Dame Gillian Pugh retired in 2005 as Chief Executive of Coram Family, a leading children’s charity which aims to develop and promote best practice in the care and support of very vulnerable children and their families. She has published widely, including London’s Forgotten Children: Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital (2008) and Contemporary Issues in the Early Years (5th edition 2009). Gillian chaired the Advisory Committee for the Cambridge Primary Review and is a co-author of the final report Children, their World, their Education (Routledge 2009). She was a member of the LGA Narrowing the Gap project team, and is chair of the National Children’s Bureau. Gillian is President of the National Childminding Association, a member of the Children’s Workforce Development Council, is on the Board of the Training and Development Agency for Schools, is visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, and an advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee for children, schools and families. She has recently been appointed to the Family Justice Review panel. She was awarded the DBE in 2005 for services to children and families.

Honorary Fellowship – Professor Celia Brackenridge (Ceremony 6: Saturday 23 October, 2pm)

Professor Brackenridge is internationally respected for her work investigating issues of abuse and harassment in sport, and for her extensive and significant contribution to child protection. She was programme consultant to the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission Consensus Statement on Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sport (2007) and to the UNICEF working group on violence against children in sport (2007-2008). She serves on the Research Committee of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers and chairs the Research Task Force of the NSPCC/Sport England Child Protection in Sport Unit. She is also a child protection tutor for Sports Coach UK and for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. Professor Brackenridge was the first Chair of the UK Women’s Sports Foundation, she chaired the Leisure Studies Association from 1993-1995, edited the journal of Leisure Studies from 1995-1997, has published extensively, and is a former international athlete and captain of the England and Great Britain women's lacrosse teams.

Alison MacLeod from the University of Chichester interviews Hanif Kureishi

Hanif Kureishi CBE (b. 1954) is a novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, film-maker and, according to The Times (2008), one of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945″. As a short story writer, he explores a heady range of subjects, including race and religion, love and sexuality, and the power of culture and the imagination.

Kureishi was born in Kent to an Indian father and an English mother. As the child of a mixed-race relationship, he grew up with a keen awareness of racism and ‘otherness’. His award-winning novel The Buddha of Suburbia opens with the now famous line, ”My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.’

Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School (where David Bowie had been a pupil previously). Later he read philosophy at King’s College, London, and in 1982 was appointed Writer in Residence at the Royal Court Theatre. In 1984, he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay at a time when the young Kureishi was still living in council accommodation in London. He is now the author of over twenty major novels, story and essay collections, plays and screenplays, and his work has been translated into thirty-six languages. For his services to literature, he was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) and was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts des Lettres.

Alison MacLeod is the author of The Wave Theory of Angels (Penguin 2006) and Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction (Penguin 2007). Her next novel is published by Hamish Hamilton (Penguin) in 2011. She is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester (UK).

Read interview with Hanif Kureishi

Using the arts to care for people with dementia 08/10/10

Care for people with dementia has been given an artistic twist by a senior lecturer at the University of Chichester.

Jill Hayes is the author of The Creative Arts in Dementia Care – Person-Centred Approaches and Ideas, designed to be a guide for health professionals and researchers, care providers, arts organisers, independent artists, as well as for families of people with dementia.

Jill, a senior lecturer in dance and counselling, decided to write the book after completing a research project in 2009 on a similar topic through the University.

Jill said: “The physical care of people with dementia is of vital importance, but so too is their emotional, social, mental and spiritual wellbeing. The creative arts are gaining increasing recognition not only as a tool for delivering effective person-centred dementia care, but also for attending to soul as well as body.

“I want to encourage those who care for people with dementia to develop their own creative skills, and this book provides a creative map of care with easy-to-follow examples and detailed case studies.

“People with dementia matter. They have feelings which need attention, and this can be given through the arts. The arts can be a way of communicating with people with dementia when words fail.”

The book, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, will be officially launched at an event on Friday 25th November 2010 at Felpham Memorial Hall, where an invited community of friends, social work, health care and arts for health practitioners will join with people with dementia to try out some of the techniques in the book. A highlight will be songs performed by Sarah Povey, whose reflections on her long career as a voice movement therapist with people with dementia have a central place in the book. For more details of the launch please contact: saj.povey@virgin.net or for more details on the book or to order, visit http://www.jkp.com/.