Page 30 - Studio International - November 1972

Aspects of art education 2

Inter-departmental movement within the one of guarded optimism. The same can be said conflict between art as a speculative discipline
Faculty and the Polytechnic is encouraged (and for Coventry, except for some anxiety about and technology as a practical one. For instance,
movement it certainly is : the painting bureaucratic proliferation. One lecturer when it comes to allocating resources for
department is on the top floor of the new high- summed up a feeling common in the Midlands : research, the Fine Art staff believe that their
rise arts block and the sculpture is in the 'We were not fully consulted during the area is regarded as a 'soft' option. A project on
basement). In the past there used to be two developmental planning stage. Accordingly we (say) water resources is more likely to attract
junior research fellowships at £800 p.a., but had to adjust to the technical colleges, rather than support from the committee responsible for
they have been replaced by one resident artist at the other way round'. In general, though, the funds than — to cite a recent case — a proposal to
£1,600 p.a. Plummer hopes to break down the balance has been redressed as the old Colleges of set up links between art/design and the social
isolation of his Faculty with the city and citizens Art and Design learn the rules of educational sciences.
of Coventry. A new Department of Extension politics and start to acquire a taste for the game. Also the department has been involved in two
Studies has been formed to further this aim. After all, except at Nottingham, they are the bitter disputes with the Polytechnic
His solution is different to that of largest and most prestigious members of each administration: one arose from the
Wolverhampton and would, I suspect, receive Polytechnic grouping and, accordingly, are able unwillingness of the director of the Trent
little support in Birmingham. Courses for to exert a decisive influence on events. Polytechnic to accept two students who had
adults, short refresher courses for teachers and, Nottingham is, in fact, the great exception. applied for a transfer from Coventry following
perhaps, even a part-time Dip AD course are At the Trent Polytechnic, the technological the Art Theory crisis, although the department
under active consideration. disciplines are dominant (there are large itself was quite happy to do so. Secondly, an
The Fine Art Department at Nottingham is departments for Engineering and Science, internal disciplinary matter, involving some
in sympathy with Coventry's reaction against Environmental Studies and Human Sciences) students and a technical assistant who drank
intellectual and aesthetic indiscipline. However, and the School of Art and Design is the odd man some alcohol on the premises and destroyed a
Bill English, the Head of the Department until out. The Fine-Art staff are demoralized : 'They few items of work by another student,
he left in the summer to become Principal at think we're a bunch of cowboys'. Although the threatened for a time to lead to a full-scale
Norwich College of Art, argues that it is financial situation is adequate, it is occasionally Polytechnic enquiry into the running of the
necessary to keep a range of options open. difficult to obtain funds for materials not department.
Students determine their fields of interest, but traditionally associated with painting and The final point raised in the document
only after a tough and thorough informational sculpture. The administration appears to be published at the Birmingham College of Art
grounding in their first year. The tutorial system top-heavy and communications are confused. and Design in I968 concerned the role of the
last year operated on a yearly basis, but is likely The real problem, however, lies in the Art History Department; and indeed one feature
to be reformed. Formal project work is as far as
possible avoided. The success of the course
depends very much on the rigour with which
the staff conduct it.
An important factor in the development of art
teaching in Further Education, which was
external to the dynamics of the revolt in 1968
and its aftermath, but nevertheless exerted a
powerful influence on both, has not yet been
discussed. While the rebels in the art colleges
were demanding more institutional autonomy
and democratic participation, the Labour
Government of the day was introducing its
scheme for Polytechnics. Before the sit-ins were
over, it was already clear that any bargains
struck would be worthless if they did not
coincide with the arrangements that had been
made for the new order.
Both Fine Art staff and students were
dubious of the benefits of polytechnicization.
The aim of bringing together science and art,
the so-called Two Cultures, appealed to some,
but to the majority seemed simplistic and
impractical.
In the upshot, the sceptics have, by and large,
been pleasantly surprised. Most of their worst
fears about the consequences of loss of
autonomy have not been realized. At
Birmingham, financial allocations to the Fine
Art department have been sharply increased. At
Wolverhampton, the Polytechnic offers a
chance for the artist to break out of his
traditional isolation and the general opinion is

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