Page 12 - Studio International - December 1971

Power without authority doubt that in fact the cause of most of the
failings lies with the methods, or lack of methods,
in art and design education used to single out those who are to be in a
position to advise the Secretary of State, for
this predetermines the nature of the advice
eventually received. For example, it would be
interesting to know how our famous suspension
mechanical engineer Mr Alex Moulton came to
be on the National Advisory Council on Art
Education in 197o. Was it perhaps a predicted
upsurge in the development of Kinetic Art ?
Or was he in fact a member of an advisory
committee on Engineering Education who
had inadvertently strayed into the wrong
committee room at the Department of
Education and Science ?
The permanent advisory service available to
government Ministers is the Civil Service, and
therefore if Ministers act unwisely (as the
Over the past few years what has long been one present and former Secretaries of State would
of the calmest of educational pools—art and appear to have done in certain matters regarding
design education—has become progressively art and design education) one would be correct
stormier. First there were the Guildford School in searching in that area for possible reasons why
of Art staff sackings; then there was the this has happened. The imposition of the
Hornsey College of Art affaire; after this came moratorium on the growth for Dip AD courses
the joint report of the NACAE and the NCDAD by Admin. Memo. No. 4/65 is an example of
—badly received by art teachers and art Ministerial action based on the advice of the
students alike; and this was followed by Department of Education and Science.
Circular 7/71 which merely made matters To a lesser, and more intermittent, extent the
worse. More recently came the mass resignations Secretary of State is advised by the National
of members of the NCDAD Fine Art panel. A Advisory Councils on the various branches of
sorry mess which makes one wonder where it will education. These Councils are, however,
all end. somewhat in the same position as Ministers, for
One of the most disquieting features of the while the soundness of their conclusions is only
destructive controversies taking place as good as their collective wisdom, much of the
concerning art education, is that greater attention advice and information on which they too rely
is mistakenly being given to the effects of is provided by the Department of Education and
decisions which either have already been taken, Science. In situations like this, information is
or which it is proposed should be made on power, and can result in Councils—like
matters concerning the structure of art and Ministers—being inadvertently reduced to
design education, than to the various agencies becoming rubber-stamping mechanisms without
which are able to initiate them in the first place. knowing a darn what the hell they are about.
For example, we should not now be debating For example, when the recent Report of the
whether or not Fine Art should have been placed Joint Committee formed from the National
in Polytechnics—or whether there is a finite Advisory Council on Art Education (NACAE)
thing called Fine Art anyway—but rather how and the National Council for Diplomas in Art and
it came about that the debate was not adequately Design (NCDAD) was presented to the NACAE
conducted before they were placed there. If it is, —on which I am a member nominated by the
rightly or wrongly, believed by large numbers of ATTI —for approval, I found myself unable to
responsible educationalists to have been a vote on the issue as no summary or analysis of
wrong decision, then something is fundamentally the evidence which the joint committee had
wrong with the way in which our decision- received and could reasonably be expected to
making procedures operate. Unless these are have guided it to its conclusions, was presented
rectified, we may confidently expect that similar with the joint report. If it had been so presented
situations will recur, bringing with them other the Council members would have found that the
actions and proposals which also operate report ignored evidence given to it by the ATTI
against the wishes and welfare of those directly and the National Union of Students. It seemed
affected by them. to me that the Council was not being presented
The responsibility for the shortcomings in with sufficient information properly to evaluate
our art and design education planning apparatus the report. Although the Council nonetheless
lies legally with the Secretary of State for found no difficulty in accepting the report, it is
Education and Science. However, as—with our not surprising that both the ATTI and the NUS,
long established love of the amateur —we never when later asked by the Secretary of State to
seem to require our government Ministers to comment on the report, along with other
have any profound or detailed knowledge of the professional educational associations, roundly
affairs and purposes of the government condemned it. It was equally not surprising that
departments which they administer, there is no the majority of the Council, not being aware of

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