A STUDENT has hit out after his final art project was allegedly censored due to his previous criticism of his college.
Chris Tregenza was a third year art student at Nottingham College, where he was due to display his hard work in a final show last Wednesday, but was left stunned when his work was allegedly censored.
Chris from Nottingham, Nottinghamshire had based his work on a previous incident in November 2021, when he was allegedly suspended after questioning the college’s metal detecting security measures.
After airing his grievances on social media, Chris claims he was soon investigated and later suspended for non-compliance – an action that was soon revoked but has since led to his artwork’s censorship.
The incident that the controversy has stemmed from allegedly involved the college’s metal detecting system, which Chris explains was monitored by a police officer.
If the system beeped as a result of an object being detected, Chris claimed that the student in question would then be searched in public by untrained college staff.
He further claims that the searches had not had a thorough risk assessment conducted in line with the college’s search policy, which allegedly states that searches must take place in a “secure and confidential area.”
Chris also claimed the college was in breach of their own policies surrounding the unwarranted search – which was to be independent of the college but instead was conducted by the college itself.
Chris claims that the “unjustified search” was racially discriminatory towards “non-white” people, arguing that he walked in with craft knives but had been let through without a single search.
On the other hand, Chris alleges that other students of different ethnicities were seemingly picked out and searched due to their skin colour.
As a result of the alleged incident, Chris said that he shared his grievances on social media – an action which soon led to him being investigated and later suspended for non-compliance.
Despite the incident, Chris says he was allowed to return to the college after allegedly threatening legal action.
He has now used his experiences as an inspiration for his final project which details fighting fascism, as well as Chris’ college experience.
However, he claims that the college has now made attempts to conceal the incident, censoring his entire final project work.
These works include a simple picture of the alphabet and a photo of Queen Victoria – despite only two of the 32 pages of his project detailing the metal detecting events.
He further says that the college gave no other reason to censor the work other than having “no context” and that they have since requested Chris fork out £180 to make their requested changes.
However Chris has since refused, resulting in his artwork being taken down in its entirety.
Having still managed to complete his degree, Chris now believes that the college made attempts to conceal the truth with their censorship requests.
Speaking to Chris today, he claimed: “Outside college [that] morning was a police car because inside was a knife arch, operated by a police officer.
“When the arch went beep, the student was then searched by college staff in the presence of the officer.
“According to the staff member I spoke to, when it’s busy they select at ‘random’ who goes through the arch – no records were being kept of who was or wasn’t scanned or searched.
“At least some of the staff involved were not trained. This all took place in public. At no point during the process were students advised of their rights nor told that they could have a student rep with them.
“I, a middle-aged white man, wasn’t selected to be scanned but people who looked different from me were.
“After a discussion with some staff, I went up to my studio space and sent a tweet highlighting how useless the arch was.
“Three hours later the Head of Something, the Head of Something Else and a security guard turned up and immediately demanded to search me.
“Skip forward to this year and for the final project of my degree, roughly 50% of my total marks, I produce two booklets.
“One is about my work photographing fascists called Us & Them. The other is about my time in college, called & We.
“Obviously, in writing about my time in college I covered the incident where I was suspended.
“It was a two page spread in a 32 page booklet which overall was very positive about the college and yet they banned the whole booklet unless I censored it.
“The college censored the work because it highlighted mistakes by senior people within the institution.
“Several junior staff members said they were worried about showing the work because they feared repercussions including the closure of degree level art courses.
“My degree has now finished so there is nothing the college can now do to me.”
A spokesperson for Nottingham College said: “Chris has recently completed his degree studies with us in our art and design school and has recently exhibited his final year project.
“At no point has the College attempted to censor Chris’ artwork and the College has placed no restriction on Chris’ ability to exhibit.
“His class tutor did however ask that he remove or redact the names of two staff members who were named, in full, in the exhibition but who had not given their permission.
“We expect all our students to follow data protection legislation and a code of ethics and Chris’ tutor asked for Chris to comply.
“Chris participated in the end of year exhibition and his work was reviewed by examiners this week. We wish Chris luck with his final marks and wish him the best for the future.”
