Setting your own rules

By Maria Gregoriou

If you are a new graduate of the applied arts, or if you are wondering what life will be like after your school days are over, then the round-table discussion entitled

Doing away with the Main Man at the University of Nicosia on Saturday may answer some of your questions.

For people who are more inclined to enjoy the arts rather than anything to do with business, the world has always been a little more difficult. With the economy the way it is today, this difficulty is becoming even more apparent as jobs in more conventional areas are slim, never mind in the fields of the arts.

Increasingly graduates from the broad area of design and the arts have met this challenge by diversifying and by adopting their skills to meet new existing markets of employment or even creating new hybrid practices, thereby developing inter-collaborative processes for working across the creative disciplines either as individuals or as part of a team.

It is also the case in such instances that creative panache is necessarily accompanied with entrepreneurial savvy and practical management skills that are learned as part of the need to survive and succeed.

This discussion, which will involve academics from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus University of Technology, Frederick University and European University Cyprus and professionals working in the area of Applied Arts, will touch on these difficulties and highlight a way forward.

The event will be from 10am until 12.30pm, followed by a lunch break until 1.30pm, and then all involved will meet again for conclusions and showcasing of any proposals.

Doing Away with the Main Man
A round-table discussion among academics about life after graduating from university with an applied arts degree. February 28. University of Nicosia. 10am-2pm. In English. Tel: 22-842200

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.