UCA Saturday clubs
November 2025
Our partner institution, the University for the Creative Arts, are hosting 3 Creative Arts Saturday Clubs this Autumn at their Farnham campus. These clubs are led by experienced creative practitioners and give you a chance to develop a portfolio of work. The programmes equip you with new skills to help build your confidence, as well as the ability to express your ideas and hone your creative practice.
All UCA Saturday clubs are free to participate in and materials are provided to anyone allocated a place. If you are taking part, you must be living in the UK for the duration of the course.
The deadline for all applications is 23:55 Monday 20th October 2025.
Date: Saturday 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd November
Year Group: Years 7, 8 & 9
Cost: Free (including materials)
Timings: 10 am – 2 pm
Location: UCA Farnham Campus, Falkner Road, Farnham, GU9 7DS
This 4 week program is full of large scale messy making and doing! Designed to expand your understanding of type, shape & colour by exploring emotion-lead abstract mark making. Then supporting you to develop your work into a unique creative point of view on visual story telling that all comes together in a final zine, which will make a valuable addition to any creative portfolio!
Ideal for anyone with an interest in design, illustration or art looking to expand their understanding & develop their portfolio!
Workshop – Week 1 – 1 Nov:
Calligraphy and Expressive Mark Making – In this session, you’ll experiment with drawing ink and unusual brushes to explore how movement, texture & contrast can capture ideas. You’ll learn techniques from both brush & nib calligraphy then use them to create bold, expressive marks full of personality and feeling.
Workshop – Week 2 – 8 Nov:
Colour, Shape and Emotion – This week you’ll play with colours in exciting new ways, using screen-printing methods (but without the screens!) to mix and move colour across the page. You’ll discover how colours can connect us to different emotions and how shapes can bring energy and feeling into your work. You’ll build on ideas from last week, learning about colour blending (gradation), flow, and movement along with our primal connection to this powerful communicator!
Workshop – Weeks 3 & 4 – 15 and 22 Nov:
Creating Narrative & Zine Binding – Over these final two weeks, you will develop simple but meaningful visual stories full of feeling! By working on top of, around & into your earlier work from week 1 & 2 with a range of multimedia approaches (such as drawing, printing or collage), you’ll explore visual storytelling techniques to show growth, change, or decline and, with tutor support, you will develop your own clear creative point of view. Finally, you’ll bring everything that you have learned together into your own zine, learning binding and folding techniques to give your work a finished look.
For more info and to book, please visit: https://www.uca.ac.uk/events/outreach/outreach-saturday-club—art–design-farnham/
Date: Saturday 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd November
Year Group: Years 9, 10 and 11
Cost: Free (including materials)
Timings: 10 am – 2 pm
Location: UCA Farnham Campus, Falkner Road, Farnham, GU9 7DS
This four-week Digital Art Saturday Club will introduce participants to the concepts and techniques of digital art, starting with an exploration of how technology interacts with contemporary artistic practices. Over the course of the program, participants will experiment with photography, stop motion animation, and the transformation of physical art into digital formats using Photoshop. The last weeks’ workshop will also offer an opportunity to refine and complete digital artworks, while exploring creative techniques like projection photography. By the end, participants will have developed a set of digital pieces for their padlet portfolios and gained hands-on experience with various digital art methods.
Workshop – Week 1 – 1 November
What is digital Art? – In this first session, we will introduce the concept of digital art and explore how technology plays a role in contemporary art practices. Participants will have the chance to experiment with a camera, helping everyone get comfortable with handling the equipment. The goal is to generate ideas for the upcoming project and create a set that aligns with each participant’s vision for the upcoming sessions.
Workshop – Week 2 – 8 November
Stop motion Animation! – In Week 2, we will dive into the basics of stop motion animation. The focus will be on creating a simple, 10-second GIF-style animation, with emphasis on learning the technique rather than complex content. Participants will take photographs that will later be assembled into a moving image. At the end of the session, everyone will receive their completed animation to take home.
Workshop – Week 3 – 15 November
Digital vs Physical – This week, we will explore the intersection of physical and digital art. Participants will create a physical collage or painted background, which they will then scan to use as the foundation for a digital collage in Photoshop. For those already familiar with Photoshop, more advanced techniques will be introduced, but everyone will receive simple guidance to ensure they can effectively work with the tools and create a few experimental pieces.
Workshop – Week 4 – 22 November
Exploring Digital Art further – The final session will focus on completing digital art pieces and compiling them into a digital portfolio. If time allows, participants will also have the opportunity to explore projection photography. This involves photographing objects with projections onto them, which can be tailored to complement their projects. The goal of this session is to refine artworks and experiment with new creative techniques for participants to showcase their work.
For more info and to book, please visit: https://www.uca.ac.uk/events/outreach/outreach-saturday-club—digital-art-farnham/
Date: Saturday 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd November
Year Group: Years 9, 10 and 11
Cost: Free (including materials)
Timings: 10 am – 2 pm
Location: UCA Farnham Campus, Falkner Road, Farnham, GU9 7DS
Character Design to Motion
Over four weeks, students will experience the full journey of animation turning an idea into a character and a character into motion. Starting with sketching and exploring personality, participants will then take their designs into digital form, learning the essentials of clean-up and colour. From there, they’ll discover how to rig their characters for movement and finally produce a short-animated sequence to showcase their work. Alongside practical skills, students will gain insight into the kinds of roles found in the animation industry, from concept artist to animator, and leave with the confidence to keep developing their own projects beyond the workshop.
Workshop – Week 1 – 1 November:
From idea to character – explore creative thinking and sketching techniques to design original characters with personality and style.
Workshop – Week 2 – 8 November:
Digital clean-up and colouring – learn how to refine and polish character artwork on a drawing tablet using Adobe Animate, preparing designs for animation.
Workshop – Week 3 – 15 November:
Rigging and movement tests – discover how rigs work in 2D animation and try out simple motions to see how your character comes alive on screen.
Workshop – Week 4 – 22 November:
Bringing it all together – animate a short looping sequence or walk cycle and share your finished work in a supportive showcase with the group.
For more info, visit: https://www.uca.ac.uk/events/outreach/outreach-saturday-club—animation-farnham/
UCA’s Saturday Clubs are suitable for students who are studying or have an interest in creative subjects and would like to develop their skills and portfolio. Applicants applying must be able to attend the full programme.
The aim of the Saturday Club is to provide an opportunity for young people to access free art & design tuition within a higher education environment to support them in the development of their portfolio of work. The Saturday Club is also designed for students who may not otherwise have the chance to access such an opportunity.
All students living in the UK are eligible to apply, but priority will be given to applicants who meet one or more of the following criteria:
- are the first generation in their family to study at higher education level (e.g. Degree, HND, HNC)
- are currently eligible for Free School Meals
- come from a neighbourhood with low overall progression rates to higher education (determined by postcode using POLAR 3 data)
- are from a black or minority ethnic background
- are in, or have lived under local authority care
- have caring responsibilities for a family member
- have a disability
- attend a KaMCOP, KMPF or HEON partnered school (a list of eligible schools is included on the UCA Saturday Club webpage)
- live in HEON or KaMCOP target postcode area
- have not previously attended a UCA Saturday Club programme
- have applied to study the Extended Diploma in Art & Design at UCA and have been referred by a UCA Academic
- Allocation will also be based on your personal statement, where we would like to see an evident passion for the subject and an interest in studying a creative subject at a higher level.
- This information will be gathered via UCA’s Saturday Club programme application form and will be assessed by the University’s Outreach Manager and Outreach Officer.
- Once the application deadline has passed, we will consider all applications against the priority criteria listed above to determine who will be offered a place. A decision will be sent in writing to confirm whether a place on the programme has been secured, and successful applicants will be asked to confirm their place in writing. Where the programmes are oversubscribed, unplaced applicants who meet the criteria outlined above will be kept on a waiting list and allocated spaces should they become available.
- If an applicant decides not to accept their offer, they must inform the Outreach Manager via email as soon as possible so spaces can be reallocated where possible.
To apply, please complete the application form for the Saturday Club you’d like to attend:
https://www.uca.ac.uk/study-at-uca/outreach/saturday-clubs/
The deadline for applications is Monday 20th October 2025
If you have any questions about the events, please contact the team via: outreach@uca.ac.uk
