MA Events & Experience Management students (19/20) at the RA, photo by Sara Linden
The MA Events and Experience Management students at ICCE were invited by The Royal Academy of Arts to create an experience for their Late event Barcelona Modernisme night. The students took inspiration from the ongoing Picasso on Paper exhibition and created an immersive experience – The Goldsmiths Paper Café.
Photo by Walice Wang, MA EEM student
Having worked closely with the Royal Academy event manager Imogen Willetts, and with guidance from course director Sara Linden, the concept was created by the students and developed during several months. On Saturday 15 February it was time to present the finished experience to the Royal Academy Lates audience of 1,200 people!
Students had made use of their creative and artistic talent to design a paper workshop set in a Barcelona fin-de-siecle café, where all the utilities were made out of paper. The visitors could create their own collages, in the spirit of Paolo Picasso. Four actors – dressed in elaborate costumes made out of paper – hosted the event, and helped to get the creative juices flowing.
Actor wearing Picasso costume, photo by Justine Trickett, RA photographer
The Paper Café provided a cosy and intimate atmosphere within the sold-out Royal Academy event, which took place over two floors and included experiences ranging from immersive theatre to dancing to Spanish guitar music. Visitors to the Paper Café threw themselves enthusiastically into the paper art making – and its popularity meant that there was never an empty seat around the café tables.
Students preparing the event, photo by Walice Wang, MA EEM student
Collaborating with The Royal Academy of Arts provided a unique opportunity for the Events and Experience Management MA students to directly apply their knowledge to a practical project and showcase their talents.
Alessandro Pisu, senior events manager at the National Gallery, who has previously worked with the EEM MA students on an assignment, visited the event with a guest. He said: “I greatly enjoyed our time at the Paper Café of the Royal Academy. We thought the students transformed the Belle Shenkman Room in a way that was both creative and in line with the rest of the RA Late. It was a real treat to be part of it!”