Congratulations to the students finishing their studies, it was wonderful to celebrate the hard work and achievements at both graduation ceremonies.  

School of Arts and School of Conservation celebrated on Saturday 6 July within the beautiful grounds of West Dean creating picturesque backgrounds for plenty of photo opportunities. This year's Honorary Fellow and keynote speaker was Eva Rothschild, who specialises in sculpture. Her works are held by major public collections including MoMA, New York, Arts Council of England, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Tate, and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Rothschild was awarded the 13th Robert Jacobsen Prize for sculpture in 2019, among other awards spanning her career including Oslo Gardermoen Airport, Oslo, Norway, 2016 and Tate Britain Annual Duveens’ Commission, Tate Britain, London, 2009. It was a delight to be joined by Eva who presented the degree and diploma awards.  

University of Sussex Pro-Vice Chancellor Robin Banerjee joined us to award the Vice Chancellor's prize, which was won by MA Metals Conservation graduate Denise Carapiet. Chair of the Board of Trustees Professor Paul O’Prey awarded the Trustees Prizes to MA Books Conservation graduate Jonas Olssen, MFA graduate Sally Nettleton and BA Craft Practices - Clocks graduate Eliza Smith.

For our KLC School of Design students, graduation was held just around the corner from our London campus at the Art Deco building, Senate House. We welcomed students, tutors and a whole host of design industry professionals as well as family and friends to celebrate the achievements of our Interior and Garden Design graduates.  

This year's Honorary Fellow and keynote speaker was Darryl Moore who is an award-winning garden and landscape designer and writer. He is the author of Gardening in a Changing World: Plants, People and the Climate Crisis (Pimpernel Press). He is Director and Co-Founder of the innovative urban landscape organisation Cityscapes, realising creative approaches to greening city spaces through novel design ideas that ensure ecological, economic and social sustainability. 

Member of the Board of Trustees, Caroline Griffith presented the Trustees’ Prize for the School of Design, which was won by Diploma in Garden Design graduate James Kemp. Prizes were awarded to students at the ceremony and BA (Hons) Interior Design graduate, Mary-Jane Vaughan, won three awards; Light IQ Award for Lighting Design, Grand Designs Award for Contemporary and Creative Design and lastly, the BIID Award for Outstanding Design.  

We hope all our graduates have enjoyed their time at the College and that you have made many friends and happy memories that will last a lifetime. As a graduate of the College, we would like to welcome everyone to the West Dean Alumni, a global community spanning all seven continents of the world! Tap here to join!