OQ Diane Barlow (Mrs Maclean) was recently honoured by the University of Hertfordshire in a naming ceremony, whereby a new student residence was named after her – the group of buildings round an open grass area being named Maclean Court.

Diane completed her Fine Art degree at Hatfield Polytechnic (now University of Hertfordshire) in 1985, having graduated in Modern Languages at UCL almost 30 years beforehand.  Diane commented “student accommodation is pretty luxurious these days compared with the bare essentials we had to put up with in my youth!  I feel deeply honoured”.    

 

Diane is a sculptor and environmental artist and has exhibited her work widely in the UK and overseas, with many of her sculptures being held in public and private collections.  It was Diane’s ‘Open Book’ which was chosen for the Queen to gift to the City of Paris in 2014 to mark the enduring friendship between Great Britain and France and commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy.  Queenswood is also lucky to have one of Diane’s sculptures hanging in the centre of the ABC Building.