“Sir Peter Ustinov was a cosmopolitan and a true all-rounder. He was an artist and Oscar-winning actor, writer and director, stage designer and storyteller, but above all, he was one thing: a humanist who always believed that no commitment for a good cause was ever in vain.” Source: Peter Ustinov Foundation
On April 16th, we celebrate the 100th Birthday anniversary of the person from whom our College has taken the name. To honour the significant contributions that Sir Peter Ustinov made during his period as Chancellor of the Durham University. In 2003, the University changed the name of its Graduate Society to Ustinov College. Sir Peter Ustinov held the position of Chancellor from 1992 until his death.
Sir Peter Ustinov at his Installation Ceremony on 7th May 1992 said “I believe deeply in the interaction between cities or regions and their cultural or historic assets, as well as between that which falls happily on the earin this place of worship, between ancient and modern. To live with your times means to take encouragement from the past, in order to enrich a vision of the future. And one thing a University should teach above all is respect, to my mind, a far less exclusive and more useful asset than love.”
We have created a virtual gallery, where you can find references to some of his famous work and we are displaying certain quotations of him. You can also watch this at the end of this post.
We have also created an outdoor movie theatre, where you can watch one of his movies “The way ahead” and one of the versions of the red couch.
If you are visiting our virtual gallery or outdoor movie theatre, here is some useful information to navigate:
To move around the virtual gallery you can either use the arrows of your keyboard or the W, A, S, D keys.
To turn use Q and E keys or left mouse button.
On the videos you will find control that allow you to pause them and change the volume. If you want to watch the video, right click on it. When you are done, click on the icon “view” to continue moving around.
There is a chat function in case you plan to visit the gallery with your friends, so you can all share what do you think of it.
GRADUATE COMMON ROOM 