Gate detail, Lancaster art school. Photo: Matthew Cornford
There were more 150 art schools in this country in the mid-1960s. Most of them are now closed or absorbed into other institutions and the buildings repurposed, remodelled or demolished. What did it mean to have an art school in every town and what can we learn by discovering their fate?
Exhibition notes for The Art Schools Of North West England, 2018
I’m playing catch-up, having been distracted by a big project, but wanted to plug this great exhibition which is on at Liverpool’s prestigious gallery Bluecoat until March next year.
//Students Lorna Ough, Kit Powell, Manon Parry and Kristen Bullivant selling the No Future t-shirts and copies of The Art School & The Culture Shed at Central Saint Martins last week. Photo: Matthew Cornford//
Matthew Cornford, co-designer of the Malcolm McLaren art school tour t-shirt with John Beck, has sent another shot of the shirts being sold at last Friday’s event Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible.
//Central Saint Martins student poster feature college head Jeremy Till//
//Discussing the McLaren/Westwood fashion legacy with writers Lou Stoppard and Dean Mayo Davies//
//Neville Brody’s logo for the 2016 celebration was unveiled for the first time at our event on Friday//
Our event Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible on Friday night was an out-and-out success, attended by hundreds from all walks of life, including students of London’s Central Saint Martins for whom it was primarily organised.
We were honoured that the London Mayor’s Office selected Be Reasonable to unveil Punk London, the year-long calendar of exhibitions, gigs and events in the capital in 2016.
More details will be forthcoming at the end of the month; the GLA’s ‘cultural partner’ Marcus Davey of Camden venue The Roundhouse gave a few hints and showed for the first time the logo designed by graphic artist Neville Brody.
//Brighton students sold Beck + Cornford’s No Future t-shirts//
//Page from McLaren’s mid-70s notebook shown as part of Paul Burgess’ presentation//
Exciting: just received this from John Beck and Matthew Cornford, the masterminds behind the No Future t-shirt which commemorates Malcolm McLaren’s attendance to several London area art schools in the 1960s and early 70s.
//Students modelling the McLaren tour t-shirt. Photo: Matthew Cornford//
Art schools are places of possibilities, which is one of the reasons we chose the title Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first Sex Pistols gig at Central Saint Martins in London’s King’s Cross this Friday (November 6).
John Beck and Matthew Cornford’s intelligent and measured book The Art School And The Culture Shed may be a slim volume but it packs a hell of a punch in locating the ravages wreaked on our cultural life over the past 20 years by privatisation, the failings of local councils and town planners and the depredations of property developers.
//Left: Moseley School Of Art, closed 1975. Right: The site of Sidcup School Of Art, occupied since 2010 by a Morrisons and a car park//
