{"id":2477,"date":"2020-07-08T10:39:49","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T09:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arts-uni-southampton.org.uk\/?p=2477"},"modified":"2020-07-08T12:16:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T11:16:46","slug":"fiona-sunderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/2020\/07\/08\/fiona-sunderland\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Fiona Sunderland, Student Insights Coordinator with the Arts team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/video-20200521-174618-341a3a36.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption>Fiona has enjoyed finding ways to keep busy during lockdown!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>What is your role at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/uni-life\/arts.page\">Arts at University of Southampton<\/a>?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll be working as \u201cArts, Culture and Student Insights Coordinator\u201d which is a fancy title I came up with to look cool on LinkedIn. In reality, it&nbsp;means&nbsp;I\u2019ll be working closely with&nbsp;Louise&nbsp;Coysh&nbsp;and Jen Harris in the&nbsp;University\u2019s&nbsp;Arts&nbsp;and Culture&nbsp;team, alongside our venues&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/jhg.art\"><strong>John Hansard Gallery<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/turnersims.co.uk\"><strong>Turner Sims<\/strong><\/a>,&nbsp;to look&nbsp;at how we can&nbsp;develop the&nbsp;student experience&nbsp;around the University\u2019s arts and culture offer. This involves&nbsp;supporting the&nbsp;student voice in the Heart&nbsp;of&nbsp;Campus&nbsp;project&nbsp;and city-wide cultural development. I\u2019ll be particularly focused on making sure we have extensive student consultation and input!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-7.jpg?fit=660%2C440&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-7.jpg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-7.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-7.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-7.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-7.jpg?w=1320&amp;ssl=1 1320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-7.jpg?w=1980&amp;ssl=1 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><figcaption>Performing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\/groups\/big-band\">Jazz Band<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\/places\/\">The Bridge<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>Tell us about your background. What&nbsp;do you study and how did you&nbsp;become involved&nbsp;in the Arts?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started in 2016 studying for a degree in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/maths\/index.page\">Maths<\/a><\/strong> with Music&nbsp;(which shortly became just maths). I&nbsp;was&nbsp;very into performing arts and music before joining University and, whilst not an amazing&nbsp;performer,&nbsp;I love playing a wide range of styles and instruments so was&nbsp;really excited&nbsp;to join as many of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\">SUSU<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s&nbsp;(Southampton University Students Union)&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\/opportunities\/categories\/performing-arts\">Performing Arts&nbsp;societies<\/a><\/strong> as I could.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I got stuck right in&nbsp;during my first year and had so many opportunities with the&nbsp;Arts&nbsp;here at&nbsp;the University.&nbsp;Playing with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\/groups\/symphony-orchestra\">SUSO&nbsp;<\/a><\/strong>(Southampton&nbsp;University Symphony Orchestra)&nbsp;I&nbsp;not only&nbsp;got&nbsp;the&nbsp;opportunity to play in an amazingly high-standard orchestra but also the chance to&nbsp;rehearse and perform in&nbsp;Turner Sims which was quite a step up from my secondary school hall!&nbsp;I&nbsp;also got to play in the pit orchestra for&nbsp;the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\/groups\/lopsoc\">Light Opera Society<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s&nbsp;production of&nbsp;Gilbert and Sullivan\u2019s <em>The<\/em> <em>Mikado<\/em>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;which was lucky enough to be performed in the Nuffield Theatre&nbsp;at Highfield campus&nbsp;&#8211; being my first experience in a production like that it certainly set me some high standards for what to expect&nbsp;here at Southampton. It&#8217;s for reasons like this that I\u2019m keen to make our amazing venues as accessible to students as&nbsp;possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-11-e1594200292269-1024x683.jpg?resize=660%2C440\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-11-e1594200292269.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-11-e1594200292269.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-11-e1594200292269.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-11-e1594200292269.jpg?w=1800&amp;ssl=1 1800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-11-e1594200292269.jpg?w=1320&amp;ssl=1 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><figcaption>Conducting with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\/groups\/concert-band\">Concert Band<\/a> at Turner Sims<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You&nbsp;were SUSU Vice President&nbsp;Activities&nbsp;(VP Activities)&nbsp;before you started your internship with the Arts Team. What did your role at SUSU entail?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As VP Activities&nbsp;my main responsibility was to oversee&nbsp;and&nbsp;be&nbsp;responsible for representing all&nbsp;216 societies supported by the Students\u2019 Union, covering a&nbsp;massive range of areas including Performing Arts, Volunteering, Culture and Faith.&nbsp;I was also responsible for supporting&nbsp;projects and creating opportunities related to&nbsp;Volunteering and&nbsp;Fundraising,&nbsp;Enterprise&nbsp;and Creative Industries.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A key point in my manifesto was to increase support for student groups using the professional spaces on campus&nbsp;and&nbsp;to create more performance opportunities for students.&nbsp;So as part of that I\u2019ve already been working closely with the Arts team&nbsp;to gather student input as well as put on events&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;a&nbsp;particular highlight&nbsp;was a&nbsp;Performing&nbsp;Arts societies and Turner Sims networking session&nbsp;last year&nbsp;that was a great step for getting societies more linked in with our arts venues.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do the arts mean to you and what role do the arts play in your life at the University?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can honestly say that the arts have played at least as big a part (if not bigger) in my life at&nbsp;University&nbsp;as my studies have.&nbsp;I\u2019ve probably spent more time in rehearsals than I have in lectures.&nbsp;Coming to a new city for&nbsp;university and&nbsp;not knowing anyone can be really daunting, and it can be&nbsp;really hard&nbsp;to find a community,&nbsp;but for me being a part of&nbsp;the societies really helped me find friends&nbsp;and shaped my time here. I don\u2019t know what&nbsp;I would have done with all my time if I hadn\u2019t had rehearsals most evenings and shows on so many weekends (studied perhaps).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think a key thing for me is how much I\u2019ve developed as a person through all the&nbsp;involvement.&nbsp;I&#8217;ve not just grown as a musician but,&nbsp;from being so involved, I\u2019ve developed&nbsp;all sorts of skills from having to arrange concerts, manage my time, lead meetings, etc. I think&nbsp;whilst my degree is why I came to Uni, the majority of the things I\u2019ve learnt and will take away from my time here have been&nbsp;from my involvement in the Arts and societies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-e1594200703715.jpg?resize=660%2C440\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-e1594200703715.jpg?w=938&amp;ssl=1 938w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-e1594200703715.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/149\/2020\/07\/MicrosoftTeams-image-e1594200703715.jpg?resize=768%2C513&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><figcaption>Fiona with the band for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.susu.org\/groups\/lopsoc\">Light Opera Society<\/a>&#8216;s performance of <em>The Mikado<\/em> at Nuffield Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>You\u2019re going to be working with the Arts team for the next 3 months. What do you hope to achieve during your&nbsp;time here?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s certainly a weird time at the moment and some of the things I would like to see happen are going to be slowed down. My hope is that&nbsp;I\u2019ll be able to get a really solid foundation of student input around what&nbsp;is&nbsp;wanted&nbsp;and needed&nbsp;from our arts and culture offer and make sure it is&nbsp;central to&nbsp;shaping&nbsp;and directing&nbsp;the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/uni-life\/arts\/arts-strategy.page\"><strong>University\u2019s&nbsp;Arts&nbsp;and Culture&nbsp;strategy<\/strong><\/a> going forward.&nbsp;I\u2019m particularly keen to advocate as much as possible for increased student usage of the&nbsp;venues&nbsp;and will&nbsp;be looking at how our student societies can get the most out of&nbsp;these.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What are your plans following the internship?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll be returning to being a student again \u2013 this time studying for a MSc in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/engineering\/what_we_do\/biomedical_engineering.page#overview\"><strong>Biomedical Engineering<\/strong><\/a>. I\u2019ll of course be continuing my involvement with arts being&nbsp;Music&nbsp;Societies&nbsp;Rep, sitting on the Turner Sims Strategic Board, and being on several of the band committees!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong>Keep up to&nbsp;date with news from our venues:<\/strong><br><br><strong>John Hansard Gallery:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/art.us2.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=f9e3c672a18d1a241c13a8dd6&amp;id=aa8d23a70c\" target=\"_blank\">Mailing List<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jhansardgallery\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter&nbsp;<\/a>|&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/johnhansardgallery\/\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/johnhansardgallery\/\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a><br><strong>Turner Sims: &nbsp;<\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.turnersims.co.uk\/contact-us\/sign-up\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mailing List<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/turnersims\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurnerSimsSouthampton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/turner_sims\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a><br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/arts-uni-southampton.org.uk\/#SupportSotonArts\"><strong>#SupportSotonArts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is your role at&nbsp;Arts at University of Southampton?&nbsp; I\u2019ll be working as \u201cArts, Culture and Student Insights Coordinator\u201d which is a fancy title I came up with to look cool on LinkedIn. In reality, it&nbsp;means&nbsp;I\u2019ll be working closely with&nbsp;Louise&nbsp;Coysh&nbsp;and Jen Harris in the&nbsp;University\u2019s&nbsp;Arts&nbsp;and Culture&nbsp;team, alongside our venues&nbsp;John Hansard Gallery and Turner Sims,&nbsp;to look&nbsp;at how &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/2020\/07\/08\/fiona-sunderland\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Introducing Fiona Sunderland, Student Insights Coordinator with the Arts team<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,262,24,8,266,194,25,14,9,247],"tags":[5,65,388,6,382,390,22,384,4,77,387,215,214,23,385],"class_list":["post-2477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert","category-creative-industries","category-internship","category-music","category-nuffield-southampton-theatres","category-performance","category-southampton","category-student","category-theatre","category-turner-sims","tag-arts","tag-arts-at-university-of-southampton","tag-concert-band","tag-culture","tag-fiona-sunderland","tag-light-opera-society","tag-music","tag-societies","tag-southampton","tag-student","tag-student-clubs","tag-students-union","tag-susu","tag-theatre","tag-vp-activities"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc9CSZ-DX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2477"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions\/2492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/arts-at-unisouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}