I have long wanted to do an episode on the subject of art education but have found it difficult to decide how to focus a discussion. It’s a huge subject, ranging from teaching school children art, to the work of art schools in the development of artists and designers, to questions about who now gets into art school and the costs of an advanced art education and about why art education is important anyway.
As mentioned in this episode, while art education in some schools is well resourced, the statistics indicate that at GCSE and A Level Art is in severe decline, with schools prioritising STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). Last year, fewer than 5% of students took Art A level (the lowest level since 2010).
To kick off this discussion, which Arts First will return to in future episodes, we consider how art education, and more specifically art schools, work towards the development of young artists. This in itself raises broad questions which we tussle with in this slightly longer than usual episode.
Art schools train budding artists and foster their talent, creativity, discipline and inspiration. The curriculum ranges across fine art, crafts and design — in theory and in practice. Arguably there is a duality within the process of art education. To justify their existence (at least in terms of funding), art schools may feel the need to highlight their use value — the way their work contributes to the economy and/or social good. The Royal College of Art, for example, currently celebrates on its website, being winner in a global ‘design for betterment challenge’. And it’s a fact that art schools, via the artists and designers they train, probably contribute to the quality of our daily lives in ways that most of us take for granted — in the design of our environs, our clothes, our machines and many of the things we see and use. But art schools also teach fine art, which historically has tended to be at the centre of the idea of ‘art for art’s sake’. Schools of Art and Design now tend to resist the way, in the past, art forms were constituted in a high to low hierarchy with fine art at the top and craft and design below. So how do they help young people choose their art disciplines and develop as artists who can flourish whatever form(s) they choose?
Our contributors to this discussion have direct and varied experience of art education. They all make varied and nuanced observations, so the episode offers important insights into art education today. The following summary provides just brief touch points from the speakers. It really was a fascinating discussion!
Gregor Claude, art teacher at Coopers Company and Coburn School in Upminster, talks about how he wants to teach his students that being human is an adventure, and that art education can help them learn how to see and to think about what they see. It can develop in them an appreciation of what it is to have an aesthetic mode of engaging with the world.
Eliza Bonham Carter is a Royal Academy artist and Head of Royal Academy Schools*. Explaining the unique character of the Royal Academy Schools, she believes art school can offer artists a period of time to develop their understanding of their own personal approach to art, rather than being limited by preconceptions of what an artist is or should be. Art school is an opportunity for artists to develop a way of living through art, sustainable discipline that can carry them through the rest of their lives.
Two students, Tacita Twaddle (who is pursuing an interest in sculpture) and Eliza Friend (who is interested in a career in fashion) tell us about their experiences of their art foundation courses at University of the Arts London, opening up possibilities for working in the arts.
NQT (newly qualified teacher) Anna Keenan, who did part of her BA in Art History, explains why she thinks art history should play a more central role in education because of what it reveals about the human existence and achievements of the past.
Finally, Colin Searls and Niall Crowley provide insights from their experiences of art school in the 1970s and 80s:
Colin Searls went to art school in the 1970s and experienced some of the changes prompted by the art student revolution of the 1960s; he explains the pivotal role of the foundation art year (or two years), an innovation of the late 60s. Foundation courses provide the opportunity for students to discover for themselves what is involved in the different disciplines within art and design.
Our very own Niall Crowley attended art school in the 1980s. He felt challenged by the commitment required by the Foundation Course he took when he was 18. Although the experience transformed him he didn’t continue on to art school for another 10 years, when he took up a History of Design degree course at the University of Brighton. But like Anna, he felt doing History of Art would have better satisfied his desire for deeper knowledge about art.
The discussion continues around the various issues raised in their opening remarks. Sadly we had few technical problems with the sound at the end, so this conversation is a bit curtailed. However, really this was just a starting point and we are very keen to return to this topic in the not too distant future, so please offer feedback on the issues you think we might address.
*This article provides background on Royal Academy Schools.
N.B. This is a video episode but starts off for the few seconds as audio-only as we had a few technical problems. We hope it doesn’t spoil your enjoyment of the show.
