City and Guilds of London Art School

City and Guilds of London Art School
Type Charity
Established 1854
Principal Tamiko O'Brien
Location London, United Kingdom
Campus Kennington
Affiliations

Birmingham City University University of the Arts London

City & Guilds of London Institute
Website www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk

The City and Guilds of London Art School is a small specialist not-for-profit art college[1] in London, England. It is one of the country's longest established art schools, and offers courses ranging from Foundation, through to BA (Hons) Undergraduate degrees and MA Postgraduate courses in Fine Art and Conservation as well as the countries only Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma courses in Historic Carving.[2]

The Art School is housed in a row of Georgian buildings in London's Kennington district,[3] as well as in an adjoining converted warehouse building close to the south bank of the river Thames.

The Art School champions contemporary Fine Art, Historic Architectural Stone Carving, Woodcarving and Gilding and the Conservation of cultural artefacts as well as running an intensive Foundation course. It is committed to providing high levels of contact teaching time with artists and expert professionals from a wide range of disciplines. It aims to keep traditional skills alive while encouraging innovation and exploration and offers an important, specialist alternative to other models of art and craft higher education in the UK.

For its small size it has a large number of bursaries and scholarships from benefactors who recognise the importance of its approach to specialist education. Of the 140 students studying on its undergraduate and postgraduate courses more than 60 benefitted from some form of bursary or scholarship in 2015.

History

The City and Guilds of London Art School was founded in 1854.[4] It was known as Lambeth School of Art[5] and was based in Black Prince Road and St Oswald's Place. In 1879 the School was taken over by the City and Guilds of London Institute and acquired its current Kennington Park Road premises, becoming known as the South London School of Technical Art.[6] In 1937 it changed its name to the current City and Guilds of London Art School.[7]

In its early years the Art School's teachers and students worked closely with industrialists, particularly Henry Doulton,[8] seeking to combine artistic creativity with manufacturing processes. Students and teachers became instrumental in both the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau.[9] After the Second World War the Restoration and Carving courses were established to train for the restoration of London's damaged architecture.

During the 1960s the Art School became more of a distinctly fine art institution, and in 1971 became an independent charitable trust with the support of artists such as Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland. In 1997 and 1998 the Fine Art Painting, Sculpture and Conservation courses were validated at undergraduate BA (Hons) level. In 2000 the MA course in Fine Art was validated by the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University).[10]

Exterior at twilight

The Fine Art Department is led by artist Robin Mason and consists of the BA (Hons) Fine Art course and the MA Fine Art Course. A wide range of contemporary artists teach at the Art School including Andrew Grassie, Amikam Toren, Reece Jones, Frances Richardson, Kiera Bennett, Tim Ellis and Hugh Mendes.

The Historic Carving Department is led by Master Carver Tim Crawley who works with some of the countries most respected professional carvers in stone and wood including Nina Bilbey, Peter Thurling, Dick Onians, Paul Jakeman, Richard Kindersley, Robert Randall and Saena Ku alongside Kim Amis who teaches modelling and Diane Magee who runs the Drawing Studio.

The Conservation Department led by Dr Marina Sokhan has a number of specialist tutors who are all highly regarded professionals in their fields ranging from Gerry Alabone who is also Head of Frame Conservation at Tate Modern and Christine Palmer who is one of the countries leading gilders. Jennifer Dinsmore heads up stone conservation with Eric Miller and Urushi specialist Keiko Nakamura also teaches in to this course that specialises in the conservation of three-dimensional cultural objects.

In a 2008 letter to the Observer newspaper and Art Monthly by Graham Crowley, former Professor of the Royal College of Art, the City & Guilds of London Art School's Fine Art Department was singled out for its "magnificent job" in "maintaining the transformative power and joy of education through art".[11]

In 2009 Booker Prize shortlisted writer Tibor Fischer became the Royal Literary Fund writing fellow at the City and Guilds of London Art School.[12]

In April 2011 the magazine Modern Painters surveyed art world professionals to create a list of the top ten British art schools, resulting in the City and Guilds of London Art School coming third after the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy.[13]

The Art School has a substantial network of institutions and individuals that it works with. They provide valuable live projects, placements and other opportunities for students and include the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of London, the British Museum and Tate Modern.

Visiting Lecturers have included Norman Rosenthal, Basil Beattie, Paul Winstanley, Andrew Mummery, Alexis Harding, Gordon Cheung, Colin Smith, David Kefford, Anne Hardy, Tom Godfrey, Lucy Williams, Zavier Ellis, Max Attenborough, Chris Davies, Will Turner, Paul Becker, Francesca Lowe, Helen Sumpter, Nick Hackworth, Jonathan Wateridge, Brin Griffiths, Neil Rumming, Matthew Collings and Christian Ward.

Notable alumni

(Years are for college attendance)

Notable teachers and lecturers

References

  1. ↑ College listed age in http://london.floodlight.co.uk (accessed 5 April 2009)
  2. ↑ Courses listed on school's website (accessed 25 March 2010
  3. ↑ Artist describes location at www.geraldlaing.com (accessed on 5 April 2009)
  4. ↑ www.worldcollectorsnet.com describes potter John Sparkes leading the college in 1856 (accessed 5 April 2009)
  5. ↑ http://chestofbooks.com describes early name and history (accessed 5 April 2009)
  6. ↑ www.rodin-web.org describes name change (accessed 5 March 2009)
  7. ↑ Guildhall Library Manuscripts list name changes at www.history.ac.uk (accessed 5 March 2009)
  8. ↑ www.whitleycollection.com describes role of Henry Doulton (accessed 5 March 2009)
  9. ↑ College timeline at www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk (accessed 8 March 2009)
  10. ↑ Birmingham Institute of Art and Design validation at www.biad.bcu.ac.uk (accessed 5 March 2009)
  11. ↑ Thorpe, Vanessa (10 February 2008). "Low morale devastates art colleges". The Guardian (London).
  12. ↑ http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/current_fellows.cfm
  13. ↑ http://www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk/news/school_news/modern_painters
  14. ↑ Biography of Stephen Wiltshire in The Independent
  15. ↑ Michael Renton's obituary in The Independent
  16. ↑ Sir George James Frampton's entry at the Royal Academy Collection web site
  17. ↑ Cannon, Michael (1979). "Brodzky, Horace Ascher (1885–1969)", in Australian Dictionary of Biography online, accessed 28 September 2015.
  18. ↑ John Charles Lewis Sparkes
  19. ↑ Guardian Obituary
  20. ↑ Tony Carter at the City & Guilds of London Art School
  21. ↑ RCA website page
  22. ↑ "Artist biography;- Rodney Joseph Burn". British Council. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  23. ↑

External links

Coordinates: 51°29′14″N 0°06′26″W / 51.48722°N 0.10722°W / 51.48722; -0.10722

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