College Students Take Part in Exhibition

Year 2 Graphics students have been working on a collaborative brief with a brand-new artist run space in Skipton. In addition. Craven College Instructor/Technician Matthew Magnus has some of his own work in the exhibition!

Short & Few Studio is preparing to open the doors to its first exhibition Perspectives on Place, bringing together work by artists Matthew Magnus and Zoe Louise Platt alongside emerging artists from Craven College.

Founded by artist and educator Zöe Louise Platt, Short & Few Studio brings together artists, communities and creative organisations through exhibitions, workshops, and collaborative projects.

Taking place on 7 and 8 November 2026 and coinciding with the winter edition of North Yorkshire Open Studios, the free exhibition – housed at Crescent House on Keighley Road – will showcase printmaking, photography, collage and graphic works exploring how artists observe, record and respond to their surroundings.

Matthew Magnus will present Folded Ecologies, an ongoing exploration of landscape and materials through printmaking, photography, and laser-cut pieces. His work embraces experimentation and discovery, allowing materials and processes to shape the final outcomes.

Zöe Louise Platt will exhibit Am I Still a Tourist? a screen-printed artist’s book created during a residency in Valencia, Spain, in October 2026. The work reflects on travel, everyday routines and the familiarity that develops through spending time in an unfamiliar place.

Joining them are our students who have developed work through a collaborative project with Short & Few Studio, gaining experience of working with an arts organisation and exhibiting alongside practising artists.

Zöe Louise Platt said, “Opening our first exhibition is a very exciting thing for Short & Few. We want to create a space where people can come together through art, whether that’s to make their own work, learn something new, share ideas, or experience an exhibition.

“It’s been really fun working with Craven College. Giving students the opportunity to develop and exhibit their work alongside practising artists is exactly the kind of creative exchange we want to encourage. We’re looking forward to welcoming more of the local community into the space.”

Matthew Magnus added, “My work is an ongoing enquiry into the landscape, the materials, and the possibilities of the work itself. The work is not fixed and carries traces of the decisions and discoveries that produced it, while also opening up new questions for the next stage of the process. Between intention and discovery, a continual dance between directing the material and being directed by it. It continues to grow through making, questioning, and responding. Working with, rather than on, revealing possibilities that could not have been anticipated at the outset. In this sense, the work reveals itself gradually.

Through drawing, folding, and working with charcoal, graphite, paper, and fabric, I explore how the physical landscape of North Yorkshire might be represented not simply as an image, but as something active, changing and alive. I am drawn to the tension between fragility and strength. The strength of the land and power of the river and its capacity to shift, erode, fracture and regenerate. By using physically fragile materials I aim to symbolise the vulnerability of the land and river as human activity becomes the dominant influence on the earth’s climate, ecosystem, and geology.

Education is a core part of my practice as an artist with many of these processes and techniques being developed and built into the art and design program at Craven College.”

Exhibition details

Perspectives on Place
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November 2026
11am – 4pm both days
Free entry

Short & Few Studio
Crescent House, Keighley Road
Skipton, BD23 2LP
Opposite Morrisons Daily.

Find out more about Short & Few.