Institute of Contemporary Arts

The Future of Art Education

Bouquet of brushes. Photo: LexnGer flickr.com/lexnger

Mergers, low staff morale, disillusioned students, poor facilities... British art schools today are buckling under lack of funding and stifling bureaucracy, yet they have never been so popular. Three panels discuss the future of art education.

1 - 2.30pm Institutions

What are the challenges and pressures facing art schools today, and what can be done to alleviate them? What kinds of facilities should they have? What should their relationship be to other institutions, other disciplines, and the commercial art scene? Are there alternative educational models? Speakers: Eliza Bonham Carter, Royal Academy Schools; Ian White, Associate Artists Programme, LUX; Adrian Lovis, Course Coordinator, BA Photography and Video, UCCA Maidstone; Sophie Baker, graduate Chelsea MA. Chair: JJ Charlesworth, reviews editor, ArtReview.

3 - 4.30pm Teaching

What should students be taught for the 21st century, postmedium art world? Is it possible to teach skills in conceptual art? Should students learn professional skills instead? What expectations should students and tutors have of each other? Speakers: Jane Lee, Course Director Fine Art, Central Saint Martins; Darren Flook, co-director, Hotel; Jonathan Miles, tutor, Critical and Historical Studies, Royal College of Art; Kit Friend, Campaigns & Communications Officer, University of the Arts London Students' Union Chair: Suhail Malik, Course Leader, Postgraduate Fine Art Critical Studies, Goldsmiths 

5 - 6.30 Policy makers (organised by Art Monthly)

Is further privatisation, corporatisation and instrumentalism inevitable or is there another way forward for art education? Attendees will have the opportunity to come along and put their questions to our panel of educational professionals and policy makers. Speakers: Michael Corris, writer and professor of fine art at the Art & Design Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University; Lisa Le Feuvre, writer, curator and lecturer on the curatorial programme at the Department of Art, Goldsmiths; Paul Gough chair of the art and design group of the Research Assessment Exercise and pro-vice chancellor at University of West of England in Bristol; Irit Rogoff, art historian and professor of visual cultures at Goldsmiths. Paul Wood, author of Between God and the Saucepan, a study of English art education from the 18th Century to the present day. Chaired by Patricia Bickers, editor of Art Monthly.

£15 / £12 Concessions / £10 ICA Members.