Garmin Software: Art Colleges

Friday 23 November 2012

Art Colleges

The artist Michael Craig-Martin warned that art colleges in the UK are in danger of losing their pre-eminence during a symposium held at the British Museum in London yesterday (7 November). Craig-Martin, who was speaking in the debate “Art Without Frontiers: Where Next for the UK on the World Stage?”, said that even though museums and the market are booming in London, “art education has been excluded” from the mix.

“Pre 1990, art colleges [in the UK] were at their peak,” said the emeritus professor of art at Goldsmiths, University of London. “All the things that made the richness on which creativity depends have been significantly altered.” Most successful artists working today who come from a lower middle-class background would be deterred by tuition fees of up to £9,000, he said.