The Systems of Teaching Art & Design – a brief historical overview 1837 to 2008

1711: Academy of painting and drawing set up by Godfrey Kneller
1734: Royal Academy founded by Joshua Reynolds
1837: Government School of Design established in London; Prince Albert was particularly influential in the creation of schools of Art in the UK.

'The first School of Design was founded in 1837, with the aim of raising the standard of British manufactures by improving design. The same spirit of reform underpinned the 1851 Great Exhibition, which included what were seen as some of the world's finest manufactures. Owen Jones helped select objects from the Great Exhibition to be included in the School of Design's teaching collections. He then used these 'best examples' to develop key principles for the School's teaching programme.'
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/paintings/features/owen-jones/The%20Government%20School%20of%20Design/index.html

1842: Dyce, W. 'The Drawing Book of the Government Schools of Art & Design Part 1'

'In his introduction to the latter, he described the basic steps for the early training of students in drawing. Step 1 was to copy 'combinations of right lines and regular curves'; Step 2 was to copy these geometrical diagrams of Greek ornament, such as the acanthus leaf shown here; Steps 3 and 4 were to study their ornamental shapes in two or three dimensions, working from drawings and casts.'
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77344/print-lithograph-elementary-outlines-of-ornament/

1850's: The 'South Kensington System'; 23 stages of learning; Copying from reproductions; Copying from casts; Drawing from observation; Drawing from nature (included a small amount of drawing the nude at Stage 13 as it was considered potentially morally harmful); Only from Stage 13 might students use media other than pencils and then under strict guidance

'The full course was divided into twenty-three stages, most with several sections. Different types of students were to take different combinations of stages: "machinists, engineers and foremen of works" should take stages 1–5, and then skip to the final 23rd stage, "Technical Studies", whilst designers and "ornamentalists" took most stages.

'There were several types of students, pursuing different courses: the "general students", who paid no fees and were given a small living allowance, training to be teachers of art (though many ended up elsewhere), the "National Scholars" intended for industrial designers, and fee-paying students, pursuing a course more oriented to the fine arts. Latterly these were in fact the majority.[37] Women pupils were taught at least partly separately, and their life classes consisted of drawing a man wearing a suit of armour. The Royal Academy Schools did not accept women students until 1861, although there were other alternatives for women. The female school, under Royal patronage, became a rather fashionable place for young ladies, able to support its expansion by society fundraising.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burchett#The_South_Kensington_system http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/2009/the-developing-process http://library.rit.edu/Images/ritphotos/screen/00533.html

1870: Ruskin becomes Slade Professor at in Oxford; Introduces his own system; 2 levels - Undergraduates on top floor - ' The Upper School/Professors Class' - ' Lower School' for the Working class/artisans on the lower floor.; Ruskin's system was still centered on copying

'You may give any of the students who wish to show me their power, whatever natural object you think proper to paint, provided there be no attempt at composition or picture making.'
http://ruskin.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/info/colhist.php

1901: Sunderland School of Art established.

'As well as a Fine Art curriculum, it also ran classes in Painting and Decorating, Stone and Wood Carving, Photography, Millinery and Dressmaking.'
http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/university/history

1917: Wentworth Thompson, D. (1992) 'On Growth and Form' John Tyler Bonner; Wentworth Thompson was a Scottish embryologist; The book advocated structuralism as an alternative to ' urvival of the fittest' and used the inherent concept of design and pattern in nature and mechanics as a basis for his argument; Influence on Richard Hamilton among others

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Growth-Canto-DArcy-Wentworth-Thompson/dp/0521437768

1920's: ' The Basic Course' is developed by Paul Klee and Johannes Itten as the German Bauhaus where students ' develop fundamental artistic and creative feeling and thinking'

http://www.modernism101.com/itten_design_form.php

1930's: Gropius and Ballet Joos emigrate from Germany contribute to the growing interdisciplinarity and performing arts at Dartington as a central aspect of education within a community.

' Education and the arts activities were to be provided to enrich the personal opportunities and cultural life of the community, together with the essential services of water and electricity and new houses built for those working on the estate.'
http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?JavaScriptEnabled=1&Template=display&InsertPage=history

1932: Sunderland School of Art moves to Ashburne House
1933: Black Mountain College founded as a liberal arts school (USA) in which interdisciplinarity is embraced

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain_College

1950s: Richard Hamilton, Victor Pasmore, Tom Hudson lead the Basic Design Course at Kings College at Newcastle University; They publish: ' The Developing Process'; Has elements of ' On Growth and Form' combined with the interdisciplinarity of the Bauhaus.; Students are encorouged to explore pattern and form from nature - programme of studied is liberated from a dependency on figuration; '...Pasmore preached what he practiced, and, with Richard Hamilton set up The Developing Process, the basis of today's English art foundation courses. As Pasmore explained, the two men believed that, to provide an open beginning rather than an end, education should no longer be divided into the separate departments of painting, sculpture and architecture' [...] each category is carried out in all three forms by the same student. An exercise in the partitioning of space, for instance, begins in the division of a two-dimensional area (drawing) and develops into actual three-dimensional structure (architecture). Similarly a project in shape making and shape relationship begins in two dimensions (drawing or painting) [...]'

http://london.keepthinking.net/biennale/people/id/victor-pasmore http://www.fineart.ac.uk/collection/pdf/walker.pdf

1957: 'Photography in Art Education' by David Manzella, asst. Prof. Art Education (Southern Illinois University); http://www.jstor.org/stable/3184542
1958: William Coldstream is Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Art Education (1958-71)

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300102437

1960: First Coldstream Report initiates the introduction of teaching art & design history into art schools
1960 - 78: First courses in Film (documentary) developed in the Slade school of Fine Art
1961: Dartington College of arts officially opened.
1962: St Martin's School of Art introduce 'The Progressive Sculpture Course' as part of its Diploma in Art & Design - emphasis on 'ideas of making' and subsequently on the making of ideas

http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue9/yearlockedroom.htm

1969: Sunderland Polytechnic established incorporating The Technical College, School of Art and Sunderland Teacher Training College
1970: Second Coldstream Report introduces 'complementary studies' and expands much of the first report to add further credibility to studio practice
1980s: Unitisation in HE Art & Design. This produced much debate as the creative process of student artists was seen to be placed under threat by over-determining units of study.
1990s: Modularisation in HE Art & Design. This effectively naturalized ' unitisation' as the norm.
1992: Sunderland Polytechnic gained University status.
2000: Prince Charles created the the Prince' s Drawing School in Hoxton to preserve the teaching of academic drawing.
2006: The Prince's Drawing school received a donation of £85,000 from The Princes Charities Foundation; http://www.princesdrawingschool.org
2008: 'What is the Future of Art Education?' 2 linked public debates organized by art Monthly at the ICA (London) and Ikon (Birmingham); http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/arteducation.htm

Questions?

What major changes or developments in HE Art Education have you perceived during your teaching practice?

'...is further privatisation, corporatisation and instrumentalism inevitable or are there alternatives? What is the Future of Art Education?'
http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/arteducation.htm

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