Art Education - a-n The Artists Information Company

Alternative art education: Kirsty Ogg, New Contemporaries
In 2017, New Contemporaries, an annual exhibition of emerging artists from UK art schools, opened up its application to include artists from alternative learning programmes. Director Kirsty Ogg discusses this decision, the changing climate for emerging artists in the UK, and what artists really need to develop and challenge their practice. Interview by Michaela Nettell.

Alternative art education: choosing a programme that’s right for you
Alternative art education programmes come in a range of formats, from entirely self-organised to more structured offerings. Lydia Ashman hears from seven artists who discuss how they chose a programme which would develop their practice and fit with their lifestyles, and offer advice on selecting the right one for your needs.

Alternative art education: Turps Art School
Turps Art School was founded in 2012 as a medium-specific art school providing year-long studio and distance learning programmes for painters. Co-founder Marcus Harvey talks to Michaela Nettell about the ideas and values behind the school.

Alternative art education: School of the Damned
School of the Damned is a free year-long alternative, and unaccredited, art school. Each year a new student group comes on board and collectively devises and develops their programme of learning. Laura Davidson finds out more from members of the founding cohort, Class of 2014, and the Class of 2018 graduating students.

Jeremy Deller, Bridget Riley and Gillian Wearing among artists calling for better access to creative education
An open letter from the Creative Industries Federation is calling on the government to address a crisis in creative education in English schools.

Michael Rakowitz explains why he’s withdrawn from the Whitney Biennial
More News In Brief: Maryland Institute College of Art apologises for racist past; Hertfordshire County Council reveals plans to auction 90% of the works in its collection.

Poppies sculptures to be installed in London and Manchester to mark 100 years since the Armistice
In Brief: news briefing featuring national and international stories including: Art dealer Mary Boone pleads guilty to tax evasion charges; Labour Party pledges to put creativity “back at the heart of the school curriculum”; and New York gallery Greenspon cancels show by alleged Neo-Nazi Boyd Rice.

John Calcutt, former head of Glasgow School of Art’s MFA, dies aged 67
Tributes have been made for the writer and teacher John Calcutt, who was programme leader of Glasgow School of Art’s influential Master of Fine Art programme from 2007-2017.

A Q&A with… Sally Stenton, Artists Access to Art Colleges placement artist
Between October 2017 and April 2018 Sally Stenton spent time at Anglia Ruskin University, using its facilities and developing a conceptual work that connected the university’s art and science departments. Pippa Koszerek catches up with the artist to discuss her residency and its impact on her ongoing practice.

Ten artists selected for alternative learning programme Syllabus IV
The national programme, which this year is delivered in partnership with Wysing Arts Centre, Eastside Projects, Iniva, S1 Artspace, Spike Island, and Studio Voltaire, provides learning for artists over a ten-month period.

Glasgow’s CCA to remain closed until end of August; Germaine Greer claims ‘we should stop teaching art’ in schools
In Brief: News briefing featuring national and international stories including: Artemisia Gentileschi masterpiece becomes only 20th work by a woman owned by National Gallery; Arts Council England launches Impact and Insight Toolkit; artist to receive $3.5m from US Postal Service for copyright infringement; French president Emmanuel Macron to reform country’s artist residencies.

Glasgow School of Art fire: city council officials claim building can be saved from demolition
The latest updates after Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building is devastated by fire for the second time in four years. Including: British and Scottish governments pledge to support restoration, Glasgow School of Art contractor previously condemned for fire safety failings, plus were lessons learned from 2014 fire?

Glasgow School of Art fire: a tragedy that demands answers
As numbness turns to anger following Friday night’s fire at Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building, Chris Sharratt hopes that the building can rise again after this second even more devastating blaze.
Devastating fire rips through Glasgow School of Art for second time
A fire, which appears to be much worse than the one in 2014, has gutted Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh building which was set to reopen next year.

The new Royal Academy: no imagination or cost spared in David Chipperfield upgrade
Designed by David Chipperfield Architects and costing £56m, the Royal Academy’s newly renovated Burlington Gardens site opens to the public today. Fisun Güner finds that even the toilets are elegant and sculptural.

Columbia University MFA students demand tuition fee refunds; Art UK launches project to digitise 170,000 sculptures
In Brief: News briefing with national and international stories, including: protesters occupy Brooklyn Museum to highlight issue of gentrification and decolonisation; French museum discovers most of its collection are counterfeit works; Grimsby-based artist Annabel McCourt to present site specific performance at Dakar Biennale.

The Next Term Festival at Rogue Artists’ Studios: “What is the future of education?”
Taking place on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 March, the artist-run Next Term Festival in Manchester brings together local communities, artists, educators and policy makers to celebrate creativity and debate the future of art in schools.

Alternative art education looks to the future as AltMFA launches new publication
This Might Be The Future, funded by an a-n artist-led bursary, stems from AltMFA’s year-long ‘The Future’ programme and features a pleasingly chaotic collection of contributions that AltMFA co-founder Louise Ashcroft describes as a “clear reflection of our values in an object”. Laura Davidson reports.

Hepworth Wakefield campaign and exhibition aims to get art back into schools
Taking its inspiration from the 1940s’ School Prints project featuring works by artists such as Picasso and Henry Moore, prints by Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten, Haroon Mirza and Rose Wylie will be sold to fund learning programme that will help children engage with art.

2017 – How was it for you? #8: Anna Colin and Laurence Taylor, co-directors, Open School East
Beginning with a move from East London to Margate, 2017 has been an eventful time for Open School East that has included becoming an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation in the 2018-22 funding round. With the accessibility of art education becoming an evermore vital issue for the visual arts, its co-directors look back on their first year by the sea.

Art books for Christmas: UFO art, ethical upcycling and culture as weapon
Looking for art-related books for Christmas gifts? Here’s eight ideas, including a phenomenal and phenomenological novel, a sumptuous survey of contemporary clay and ceramics, and an international exploration of artist-run art schools.

New era for New Contemporaries as submissions welcomed from ‘alternative learning programmes’
The annual exhibition, which has showcased work by new and recent fine art graduates since 1949, has announced that 2018 submissions will be open to artists from non-degree awarding art education programmes.

‘Devastating’ decline of arts in schools surges on
Entries for GCSE arts subjects are down 9% on 2016, while entries for EBacc subjects are up 9% in the same period. Arts Professional’s Christy Romer reports.

Revisiting Walthamstow: “This is what you can do with art education – let’s value it”
A new exhibition and free pop-up summer school from Create London and the William Morris Gallery celebrates the cultural and educational legacy of Walthamstow School of Art, which from 1957 to 1967 became a hotbed of artistic ideas and talent. Lydia Ashman talks to two of the people behind the ‘Be Magnificent’ project.