Xiaohongshu
Meet your 2026-7 Arts Officer!
Hi - I’m Ruby Gilmore and I’m your Arts Officer this year! That means I represent all the students who participate in the arts as an extracurricular here at UCL. I make sure your voices are heard and the things you really care about are being addressed. I do this by communicating with artsUCL and SU staff, representing the community at the Activities Zone and voting on student panels. So, if you have any ideas about how we can improve our community, please let me know!
How have I been involved in artsUCL?
During my time at university, I’ve been involved in artsUCL as a performer, committee member and on production teams across many societies, but particularly Musical Theatre Society. My favourite production I’ve been involved in was definitely Sister Act last year in the Bloomsbury theatre where we won “Best Bloomsbury Theatre Production 2026”. Student productions are so fun and have such impressive teams working on them, which is often over 100 people with Bloomsbury shows! So, if you’ve ever considered joining cast, band, stage crew or any kind of production team role (like set building, prop making or marketing) sign up- it has definitely been one of the highlights of my time at University!
What are my initiatives for the year?
I ran for Arts Officer to improve two areas in our community and these are access and collaboration.
- Access: As an access student I am really passionate about increasing the socio-economic diversity within artsUCL- it’s a characteristic that isn’t visible, so it’s easy to overlook how lacking it is in our spaces. I want more people from backgrounds like mine to feel comfortable pursuing higher education and by extension the arts here at UCL. To increase this diversity I’m targeting the root of the problem which starts at school. Underfunded arts and careers programs in non-fee paying school sometimes result in students being under confident in both these areas. My access initiative “Advance UCL” will blend academic support with an introduction to our amazing arts community to address this and get participants excited about University, student life and the arts. The scheme welcomes students from non-fee paying schools from years 11-13 and offers them subject specific talks for admissions support and the opportunity to see a student show and hear more about the arts here at our university. I have founded and am leading the initiative with the support of artsUCL and the SU. I hope this scheme can make an impact no matter how small on this issue within our community in the following years.
- Collaboration: we have so many fantastic opportunities within our arts societies here at UCL; however, I would love to foster stronger ties between the societies in my time as Arts Officer. I want to encourage more collaborations in big projects and events, and I’m planning an event of my own later in the year to further improve this! So keep an eye out!
My biggest tip of the year?
My biggest tip for the year is to get involved in anything that interests you, wherever you can! This could be trying a new skill like attending a drawing class with artsUnlocked or playing right to your skill set by participating in a student film. A good strategy for getting involved in Term 1 is to try something familiar and then something new!
Definitely try to make the most out of all of the opportunities available to you - whilst balancing your degree! If you're feeling overwhelmed by choice, that’s okay too! You can find a list of all the societies available to you on the artsUCL webpage so have a browse and choose something that really excites you. We have such a broad community so you’ll definitely find your niche and your people.
If you have any questions or ideas don’t hesitate to email me or grab me if you see me around campus! You can reach me on [email protected]. See you around!
