T-minus 2-days and counting. 8.30 pm. I set up the room for the day’s MA Vocational Practice presentations:

9.00 am. Kick off! I’ve looked forward to this assessment. Regardless of whether the student was studying full-time or part-time, they manifested a maturation of confidence, a clarity of intent, and a professional awareness that would have been foreign to them at the end of the first semester. A pronounced individualisation is also evident. Each now defines themselves against the others. I’m also witnessing the evolution of some of the next generation of art school teachers. It’s very encouraging.

11.00 am. During the break times and lunchtime, I circulated the studios and galleries  — now, merely observing finalisations and confirming decisions. The distinctive ‘feel’ of this year’s show is now discernible. Tomorrow will be the final day for installation. At the end of which, the doors of the ark will be closed:

1.00 pm. A run-around to photograph typifying incidents of action and effect. I’m trying neither to give too much away by showing the work hung nor repeat motifs published earlier in the week. In both these respects, tomorrow’s harvest will be a challenge:

6.20 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. An evening of ‘varieties of administrations’, as they’d say in the New Testament Church — following up emails, issuing advice, finalising tasks that had been begun in spits and spats during the day, and taking initiative.

11.00 pm. ‘The night watch’. A time for diary catch-up and putting things in order.