Page 15 - Studio International - March 1973

This conflict is an outward expression of the Financial cuts representatives of Local Authority Associations
internal adjustments being made by the middle under the chairmanship of the Department of
classes to enable them to survive a little longer. in art education Education and Science. They have recommended
to local authorities that the Delaney formula
Propositions As financial policies affecting art education are be implemented as a means of rationalizing
There is no question of our supporting the seemingly arbitrarily implemented across the staff-student ratios in institutions of further
so-called liberal section of the middle classes country, it is apparent that art education as it education, excluding the universities. The
against other sections. We must fight against the has been known for a decade or more is in the Delaney formula is a means whereby, in
state of dependence bound up with the economic process of being shattered beyond recognition. recognition of the diversity of educational
and social conditions described here, which The educational philosophy in respect of fine activity, class teaching, laboratory work, etc.,
divide artists and make it impossible for them to art, exercised through the Diploma in Art and a formula was arrived at which rationalized
have even partial control of the use made of Design courses introduced in September, 1963, particular educational needs into two
their output. at its best could be seen as the serious staff-student bands, or ratios. Art education
It is through the humbug of exploitation encouragement of the individual to develop together with other creative disciplines falls into
described above that the private circuit defines particular, peculiar and personal attitudes which the lower band.
the existence and the limits of its public. It is are identifications of the sources and processes The formula is arrived at by comparing
through direct and open contacts that the of creative activity. Professional artists were numbers of people. Part-time staff hours are
existence of a different and much wider public encouraged to involve themselves through the added up and divided by 18, which translates
is becoming evident at this very moment and on development of part-time teaching as a vital part them into full-time appointments. All full-time
the following principles : direct contact with the of the educational structure. Extensive support appointments are added up and the total is
public; circulation of information; fairer systems, new buildings, libraries, art history and divided into the number of students arriving at
economic systems; fight against speculation in general studies programmes etc., were developed the recommended ratio of I — 7.5 — 8.5, the
rarity value and signatures. as requirements of the National Council of lower band of the Delaney formula.
x. We invite plastic artists to let us have their Diploma in Art & Design to further the aims of The Pooling Committee has recommended
addresses, with instructions on how to contact developing individual consciousness. As more to local authorities that the Delaney formula be
them without interrupting their work (by letter, and more information was accumulated and implemented over a period of the next four
telephone, day of the week, time of day, etc.). became available, so a multiplicity of attitudes years. Maidstone College of Art, offering
As soon as we have completed our card index towards art activity grew in the art schools. It Dip. AD courses in three areas, has been
the public at large will be informed (in the coincided with dynamic extensions of what art required by Kent County Council to make the
press, and by active circularizing) where they was conceived to be, how it might be made, following cuts over the next four years in order
can get free information on how to contact what might be used in the making of it, and who to comply. Kent County Council accepted the
artists. might relate to it. It coincided with explorations Pooling Committee's recommendations and
2. We invite all those who want to help us in into developing the public's contact with it. implemented the formula, beginning Spring 1973.
our current efforts to alter the present structure With hindsight the outcome of the Maidstone College of Art reductions in staffing
of the market to join us in: opening places international confrontations between Full-time staff to be reduced as follows
(non-commercial, public or private, temporary authorities and resurgent creative actions in
or permanent) for artists to show their work, 1968 was a turning point.
where there will be no commercial barter of any Now, five years later after the abortive
sort; bringing together a public (outside the attempts in some British art schools to loosen the
circuits, no private view, no publicity about the authoritarian grip and extend democratic
work, the name or the aesthetic) to discuss practices, the cycle has come a full half circle.
questions raised about the market and the Bureaucratic conservatism, inherently located
distance which it puts between the public, the in the hierarchical systems of authority, is
work, and the artist; defining criteria for decimating art education, among other areas of
assessing prices (for new works as from now) higher education, to conform with
i.e. to draw up a compromise between the needs bureaucratic norms imposed through the Local
and the resources of the public on the one hand, Authorities Association Pooling Committee
and the working and living requirements of under the chairmanship of the Department of
the artist on the other; determining the least Education and Science.
prejudicial forms of economic exchange (e.g. In view of the implications of the Pooling
direct sale, collective buying, control of middle Committee's recommendations as they are Maidstone's example could become the
men, circulation of works, etc.); after a likely to affect art education on a national scale, pattern set for the rest of the country: i.e.
necessary period of confrontation, evolving with it would be interesting to know exactly what drastic staff reductions, in particular part-time
the public the practical scheme(s) best suited to consultations were made with either the staff, in order to achieve the recommended
the application of the forms of exchange as National Council for Diploma in Art & Design ratios. Some authorities might consider raising
defined. or other art educational specialists, if any. One student numbers in order to conform to the
Within this scheme, or these schemes, of the most disturbing features of this situation ratio, but this would in itself create problems
`aesthetic understanding' will further determine is the extent to which radical decisions are being of developing the facilities in order to
the choice of a public partially liberated from taken by bureaucrats quite arbitrarily, either accommodate student needs.
the weight of dealing and speculative in ignorance or with a cynical disregard for the The recommended implementation of the
preoccupations. nature of the activity or for the people who are Delaney formula by the Pooling Committee
Artists and public interested by these being so summarily manipulated. Further, with seemingly without any particular regard for the
initiatives can contact us now at: F.A.P., the disbandment of the National Advisory development of art education over the past ten
65 avenue Bosquet, Paris 8e. q Council on Art Education there is no years or so, and without regard for the drastic
independent body in a position to advise the implications of its effect on the future of art
Minister of Education. education, is one which needs to be carefully
FAP is available from Front des Artistes Plasticiens,
65 Avenue Bosquet, 75007 Paris. Price INF. The Pooling Committee consisted of considered. It is fundamentally flawed. El
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