What is it about?

The 1965 ‘new’ Chelsea School of Art on Manresa Road (off the King’s Road in London), was a purpose-built art school and came directly out of the 1960 Coldstream Report, which recommended the Government “should give high priority in building programmes to the requirements of schools which will run the new diploma courses…”. It established Chelsea as an independent art school, in contradistinction to what was to become the prevailing pattern of art schools folding into polytechnics during the seventies. The architecture of the New Chelsea visibly descended from the Bauhaus, exhibiting as it did a clear modernist aesthetic. In this way it can be viewed as the manifestation of a pedagogical idea, and concurrently the building imposed a structure upon the activity within, as the ‘studio system’ in painting was established, whereby rooms were permanently occupied by artist/teachers representing opposing artistic approaches and students gravitated, or were placed, and pledged allegiance to one or another mode. To build an art school, especially one of such iconic modernist design, can be seen as a utopian act on the part of Lawrence Gowing, the school’s Principal. Chelsea, now part of the University of the Arts London, moved from this building in 2005 into the old Millbank barracks next door to Tate Britain (an architectural award-winning conversion). The ‘old’ building, left empty and derelict for 5 years, was finally demolished in November 2010.

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Why is it important?

This research opens up questions about the relationship between buildings and pedagogy, pertinent at a time when flagship art school buildings such as Alsop’s for Goldsmiths and the King’s Cross development for Central St. Martin’s are appearing.

Perspectives

I am art school educated myself, and have worked in a variety of buildings as both a painting student and a lecturer in art history. This research came out of the Tate 'Art School Educated': Curriculum Development and Institutional Change in UK Art Schools 1960-2000 Research Project (2009-2014); further outcomes can be be found in the book: http://shop.tate.org.uk/art-history+reference/the-london-art-schools/invt/17246

Dr Lucy Harriet Amy Howarth

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This page is a summary of: Art School Building: the Old/New Chelsea, International Journal of Art & Design Education, June 2014, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/j.1476-8070.2014.01767.x.
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