Matters of Taste and Matters of Commerce: British Government Intervention in Art Education in 1835

Abstract

The creation of the 1835 Select Committee on Arts & Manufactures and its subsequent report are significant milestones in the development and history of art education in Britain. This committee raised key questions regarding the condition of the nation's art, its value to the individual, its usefulness to manufacturing industry, and art education's contribution to the country's economic success. The author argues that the current emphasis on art and design education in Britain, and contemporary calls in America for the design arts to be included in art education curricula, are legacies of ideas which can be traced directly to the work of this committee. The author further argues that rather than recoiling from the notion of a pragmatic role for art education, art educators would have a more persuasive argument for the subject's relevance if curricula were to include the study of design.