Meet the new Arts Ambassadors: Ben McQuigg (again…)

After a year of arts ambassadoring, I decided that just wasn’t enough so here I am again for round two. The past year has been opened my eyes up to the arts so much through this job.

I have done a lot of work on the social media that the team runs, covering Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even a couple of Snapchat takeovers on the main University of Southampton account. At the beginning of 2018 I helped with the launch of Studio 144, the new hub of the cultural quarter in Southampton City. I made a video tour starting from Southampton Central Train station going past the various arts and cultural landmarks on the way to Guildhall Square where the new NST City and John Hansard Gallery buildings are located. Then once the spaces were open I created interior tours showing some of the theatre and most of the new exhibition that was on in the gallery. I was lucky enough to talk to Michael Ockwell, the CEO of the Mayflower theatre, something I will never forget. Learning about his life and his journey up until this point was incredible and he has to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.

This year I have a couple of ideas, one of which is to more closely bring together STEM subject students and the arts. Though most of the students involved in the arts on Highfield campus do vastly different degrees, I would like to focus more on my department, engineering, to try and draw a closer connection between the two. Especially when doing degrees with long contact hours and hard content, I use theatre and music as a way to find an escape from work and I believe many students could benefit from the same thing.

Personally throughout the year, alongside my Aerospace Engineering degree, I decided to be involved seven shows with Showstoppers throughout the year. Though this was very stressful at points, I would not have had it any other way. At the beginning of the year I had my first taste at being the solo Musical Director (MD) on a show, the Freshers’ show Fame. I then played as part of the pit band in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, which was MD’d by my good friend and mentor in the society Joe Barr. Just before easter I had my first outing with the tiny white stick of unimaginable power, stick conducting our production of She Loves Me.

Alongside the cast, production team and band there are the unsung heroes of the student performings arts, Stage Soc. They provide all the technical support to our shows, running the sound, lighting and set, a small but dedicated team. After easter I decided to join “the dark side” as video designer for American Idiot. Whilst I have done tech in the past, this was my first time being solely on the tech team as video designer. We had 5 screens set up on the stage all playing different feeds at the same time, a technical challenge in itself. On top of that I made around 13 different videos to be played throughout the show. Along with Gem Tunley I co-Md’d and AMD’d (assistant musical director) and originally written musical Mr Grin and the 24 Hour Show 2018 respectively.

 

Once term had ended, of course I had to find some way of keeping myself busy so back in February I decided to agree to take a show up to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Trail to Oregon. In addition to this we organised a preview at The Other Palace in Victoria, London. We then sold out our first preview and were offered a second preview the following day, which we then promptly sold out as well. You could say that was a bit of a suprise and something we were not expecting at all. At the Fringe we did a two weeks run consisting of 12 shows. By the end we had sold 97% of our tickets as well as getting two 5 star reviews, something we were very happy about.

This year it’s safe to say I have cut down on the musicals, I am still planning to be part of a couple of pit bands and I am one of the MDs for the Showstoppers’ spring show slot, Sweeney Todd, something I am very excited about. Looking past university I have applied for an MA in Musical Directorship at the Royal Academy of Music and will be applying for the same course at Mountview.

I cannot wait to continue on my second year as an Arts Ambassador at the University of Southampton, the work the arts team does for both do for the University and Arts organisations within it is simply invaluable, and seeing the passion of everyone that is part of it, whether it be a gallery launch or crafting a tweet to get the word out there, it is simply inspiring.

Arts Ambassadors is a paid opportunity, supported by the Careers and Employability Service’s Excel Southampton Internship programme, University of Southampton.