GLAD Conference 2008
- Author:
Professor Simon Lewis
Pro-Vice Chancellor and Head of College, Art and Design and Built Environment
Professor of Painting
GLAD Conference 2008
Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th September 2008
Nottingham Trent University, Bonington building, City campus
In June 1970 the Department of Education & Science published a report entitled ‘The Structure of Art and Design Education’ [ISBN 112701884, published by Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1970]. The report commissioned by the then Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher, was compiled by a joint committee of the National Advisory Council of Art Education and the National Council for Diplomas in Art and Design under the Chairmanship of Sir William Coldstream.
The purpose of the report was to map out the future direction and structure of art and design education at a pivotal moment in the development of the higher education sector in the United Kingdom, at a time when the independent and autonomous local authority funded and focused art schools began to be absorbed into the new polytechnics alongside local technical colleges and teacher training provision.
The report that runs to 55 pages and some 166 paragraphs, when read with hindsight, makes for instructive reading and a sense of considerable déjà vu for anyone who has been engaged in the higher education sector for art and design during the last nearly 40 years. The then new diplomas in art and design (DipAD) introduced in 1965 are reviewed in depth and a series of far reaching educational proposals made for their further development to achieve parity and ultimately conversion to Bachelor of Arts qualifications in the early 1970’s.The report focuses on much that is familiar to those who have followed the debates around fitness for purpose; employer engagement, widening participation, regional and...