The Beacon Projects – marking both the University’s 50th anniversary and looking forward to its next 50 years – have been showcased to staff and students.
Around 150 staff and students attended the Beacon Tea Party in the Colyer-Fergusson Building on 11 May. The event included displays on each of the 12 milestone projects, with project leads on hand to provide more detail.
Attendees, including the Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Denise Everitt, were able to see models of the Crater Theatre and the new Tensegritree architectural structure. They could also watch a live demonstration of K-MOOCs, Kent’s pilot massive open online course, which is already fully subscribed with 500 participants.
A bronze bust of TS Elliot by Jacob Epstein and first editions of Ara Vos Prec and Four Quartets, were on display as part of the Philanthropy at Kent Beacon Project. The British Stand-Up Comedy Archive had a colourful display detailing in-conversation events coming up and an expanding archive collection.
Visitors could also find out more about other projects including Diplomacy@Kent, which has seen a number of high level diplomats visit the University this academic year. There was information too on the Beacon Observatory, which has recently been erected on campus, and the self-guided audio tour, an app which should be available before the new academic year.
A sports psychologist was on hand to discuss the Beacon for Endurance research and a team from Kent Business School was able to describe the scope of the Hong Kong & China Business hub. Displays also featured the cross-disciplinary activity being undertaken by the Beacon Institute and the International Festival of Projections, due to take place on campus next year.
To find out more about each of the 12 Beacon Projects, and the teams behind them, see: www.kent.ac.uk/beacon. All the Projects will again be on display as part of the University’s 50th Festival, which is taking place from 4-6 September.