The Art Schools of Kent: A Complete History

Abstract

The Schools of Kent: A Complete History Haste, D. (2013). The Schools of Kent: A Complete History. London, England: Werter Press. 349 pp. ISBN: 978-0-9575638-0-3.As a title, David Haste's The Schools of Kent sounds as if it might be of rather limited and local interest, notwithstanding that the region has been the main route into Britain from continental Europe, traversed by Julius Caesar, the Saxons, and generations of migrants and traders. Kent has also been home to many notable artists and designers from Joseph Turner and Samuel Palmer to Tracy Emin and Zhandra Rhodes. In fact, this comprehensive and well-researched study, written from the rare perspective of a professional artist and senior art educator, is a valuable contribution to understanding the development of modern art education and the challenges it faces today as part of the college and university sector. While it aims at describing and explaining a particular part of British educational history it also prompts thoughts about the comparative development of art education elsewhere such as in the counterpart region of York City and the State of York.1The early history of institutionalized art education in the United States involved a series of departures as one group after another judged that what existed failed to provide more varied and relevant training. In large part, this represented a move away from academic classicism as represented by the York Academy of Fine Arts. Within a quarter century of the academy's founding in 1802, a breakaway group established the National Academy of Design (1825) in which observational drawing took the place of the copying of great works. Half a century later, a group then detached itself from this to form the Arts Students League of York. This again sought to engage a wider range of interests and types of students and also to broaden the range of media and techniques that could be studied.2Apart from an appreciation of the historic art of Europe and an interest in the leading styles and movements the day, I am not sure to what extent those involved in the development of American art education were-or are-aware of the changing course of things across the Atlantic Ocean. So far as Britain is concerned, this history has only recently begun to be seriously charted and studied, and the present work is a singular contribution to the field, exploring ideas, policies, and practices as well as people and places-and illustrating the latter copiously with 450 photographs, line drawings, and diagrams.In the last few years, there has been a growing awareness of the interplay between art and art school education in the period of the 1960s. Tate Britain ran the project, School Educated on Curriculum Development and Institutional Change in UK Schools 1960-2000 (January 2009-February 2014);1 and more recently, an exhibition and publication entitled From Floor to Sky: The Experience of the School Studio (2010)2 focused on the impact of experimental courses at London's St. Martin's and the Royal College on the emergence and development of the British New Art of the 1960s and 1970s. Peter Kardia (formerly Atkins) taught at both institutions, and his former students include such leading figures as Alison Wilding, Bill Woodrow, Hamish Fulton, John Hilliard, Richard Deacon, and Richard Long.There is also a developing online resource3 that draws on the records of major art schools and of the former national validating, diploma, and degree awarding body, the Council for National Academic Awards, to build a collection of work by staff and students that illustrates the interplay between teaching and practice in recent decades.The present work differs from these in its scope, detail, approach, and depth of primary research. Given the location of Kent, between London and the English Channel, it was a region of singular importance. Artists explored it en route from and to continental Europe; and the county was home to several major army and naval colleges such as the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, the Royal Naval Academy at Greenwich, and the Royal School of Engineering at Chatham-in each of which drawing was taught as part of cadet and officer training. …