Art Education (1946)

This pamphlet gave advice on art education in publicly-supported schools of all kinds from the primary school to the college of art.

The complete document is shown in this single web page. You can scroll through it or use the following links to go to the various sections.

I Art and crafts in the nursery and primary school (page 7)
II Art and crafts in secondary schools (13)
III The School of Art and Crafts (24)
IV The training of teachers of art and crafts (40)

Appendices

I The work of four Art Schools before the War (46)
II Premises and accommodation (50)

The text of Art Education was prepared by Derek Gillard and uploaded on 6 February 2022.

Art Education (1946)
Ministry of Education Pamphlet No. 6

London: His Majesty's Stationery Office 1946
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.


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ART EDUCATION






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Prepared by the Central Office of Information


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[title page]

ART

EDUCATION



MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

PAMPHLET NUMBER SIX





LONDON

HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE

1946 : Reprinted 1955


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PREFATORY NOTE

THIS pamphlet deals with the whole field of art education, within the national system, in which our task is twofold. It is first to raise the level of public taste and appreciation, both by cultivating discrimination and by encouraging art and craft activities as leisure-time pursuits, and secondly to provide the training required for those who may take up artistic careers, more especially in industries which depend on good design and craftsmanship.

The pamphlet accordingly covers art education in publicly-supported schools of all kinds from the primary school to the college of art. For convenience it is divided into sections, each dealing with a separate stage or aspect of education. But the interrelation of the several stages will be recognised, and particularly the need to secure the fullest co-operation between the primary and secondary schools and the art schools.

The art schools should be the centres of art inspiration and artistic activities in the areas they serve. Their influence in these directions may be expected to extend considerably in the future. In the meantime, it is hoped that the information and suggestions given in this pamphlet will assist Local Education Authorities, Governing Bodies and teachers in the work of developing art education, in its widest sense, throughout the whole range of schools for which they are responsible.

The Ministry wish to place on record their gratitude to the schools which provided the material for the illustrations, which have been selected to represent the work of average students well taught rather than outstanding work produced by the exceptionally gifted.

The pattern on the cover is taken from a furnishing fabric designed and screen-printed by a senior full-time student aged 21 in an Art School at an important industrial centre.


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CONTENTS

Page
I. ART AND CRAFTS IN THE NURSERY SCHOOL AND PRIMARY SCHOOL
The Nursery School7
The Infants School8
The Junior School10

II. ART AND CRAFTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
General Considerations13
The Teacher as Artist and Craftsman14
Pictorial Work16
Appreciation18
The Secondary Art School21

III. THE SCHOOL OF ART AND CRAFTS
The Art School and the Community; Regional Planning24
The Art School and Industry26
Relations with other Schools28
Staffing29
The Student31
Curriculum33

IV. THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF ART AND CRAFTS
40

APPENDICES
I. Description of the Work of Four Existing Art Schools before the War46
II. Premises and Accommodation50


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SECTION I

ART AND CRAFTS IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOL



YOUNG children, when they draw and paint what they see or have imagined, use signs and symbols of their own - early forms of expression akin to the idiom of primitive peoples. Understanding teachers recognise these signs and symbols as a primitive language, not always intelligible to grown-up people, and respect the sincerity with which a child, having explored his surroundings, gives form to his impressions. The teacher's role is to see that the opportunities and materials are provided which make this early experience possible, and to show sympathy with what the children want to do.

Throughout the three stages of primary education the teacher should know clearly what she wants their art education to do for the children and plan their art activities accordingly. Art education should train and develop their general artistic sensitivity, and should enable them as they progress, through experience, practice and teaching, to acquire increasing control over tools and materials. It should stimulate their creative interest - both imaginative and practical - and help them to gain self-control and poise.

The teacher's skill will be shown in knowing how to lead when seeming to follow, how to inspire without unduly dominating, when to give instruction and when to stand aside and leave the children to learn from their own self-guided efforts.

There should be no cleavage between "art" and "craft"; it should be possible for the child to use the particular method and material to which he is drawn by temperament, his need at the moment, or the stage of his development.

THE NURSERY SCHOOL

The nursery school should be a pleasant place in which the children feel safe and can experiment, play and grow up happily. It should be homelike and cheerful, with pleasant colour, friendly faces, toys and things that arouse interest and curiosity, and with the natural beauties of flowers, trees, garden and pets.

Here in his play the child will experience all sorts of æsthetic pleasures: the beauty of fingers seen under water in a bowl in the sunshine, soap bubbles, the balance of brick on brick, the satisfaction of hammering a round peg into the right round hole, the beauty of sound, the delight of making coloured shapes all wet with


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paint on a piece of dry paper. There is no question at this stage of set lessons or of looking for definite results in the shape of works of art. The teacher will want to give the child all possible experience in handling materials and using things, so that he may learn about the objects around him in a natural way. She will leave him free to pursue his activities in his own way, while trying to guide him by wise encouragement.

The child can, of course, usefully be shown how to use a tool. For example, the teacher can explain that it is not good for a brush to be jabbed down on paper so that all its bristles are fanned out, and can show him how to use it. The child's store of ideas can be increased by talking to him and telling him interesting things about the world he lives in and by directing his observation. But the teacher can best help him by leaving him as a rule to make his own use of the new knowledge he has gained.

THE INFANTS SCHOOL

Between the ages of 5 and 7 children go through a period of rapid change, growing in size, height and muscular development. This is not always accompanied by an equal development in muscular co-ordination or adjustment of vision. The natural movements relate mainly to the larger muscles, and attempts at fine control may impose strain. There are other characteristics affecting children's interest and artistic expression at this stage - their pleasure in repetition and rhythmic pattern and their healthy curiosity. At first interested in an activity for its own sake, a child later comes to value results, measured in his own terms, and is able to profit by the experiments his curiosity leads him to make.

Infants draw and construct from what is in their minds: they do not copy directly. Any attempt to make them draw directly from nature or to copy stylised interpretations of nature merely confuses them and produces results wholly insincere. While there are certain familiar ways in which young children will tend to depict a man or a tree, they use their own individual symbols according to temperament and mental image. The teacher will do best by helping the child to find his own ways of representing what he sees or hears, according to the workings of his own mind. The blue donkey and the six-legged horse are features of a perfectly natural phase of expression and no attempt should be made to force the child to realistic reproduction which can only curb or destroy his spontaneity.

Naturally the children will not all want to be doing the same things at the same time, and while there will occasionally be a place for the class lesson they should be left largely to work independently


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or in natural groups. The room in which they work and play should have in it all kinds of material for their use and they should be trained to go to fetch what they want for themselves from accessible shelves and cupboards. They should be free to express their ideas and try their experiments in media of their own choice.

The kinds of materials suggested for infants are: powder and poster paints, large brushes, soft pencils, large chalks, paper of various shapes, sizes and colours (never the limiting "drawing book"), large lumps of clay and a place for using it where mess does not matter, easels and boards, tins and boxes, bricks, fitting and sorting materials, pieces of fabric, strawboard and cardboard, dowel rods, cotton reels and cartons - in fact anything and everything that may fill the needs of the moment in a child's plan.

Infants can do more than is sometimes supposed: they are quite able to make rough constructions in wood, using a hammer and nails and a saw, or to print on fabric a simple repeating unit of their own cutting from potato or rubber, or to sew something together with coarse thread and a big needle. These kinds of activities, however, should arise from individual or collective interests and not be forced on the whole class by the teacher.

Realising that art is an activity natural to young children, the teacher will make use of it as a starting-point and means of education to help children to read and write, to measure and to count. Handwriting, for example, is a primary form of art: rhythmic pattern-making with the greatest freedom of brush, chalk or big soft pencil can prepare the way. The children should learn to make large round well-filled shapes with good proportions: the size of the writing can vary according to the child's wishes, provided beauty of shape does not suffer and eyestrain is not caused. The tool used should be not too fine and should be easily held in a small hand. Children should be encouraged to sign their names on their pictures as part of the general scheme of composition, and to make their own little books with simply decorated covers. Their number work, if written down, should be set out in as attractive and decorative a way as may be with large figures and picture numbers spaced naturally on blank paper. As a rule, the children should be given the freedom of the paper without guiding lines and should form a habit of getting their lines of writing and figures straight and well-spaced, just as they would consider the arrangement of their subject in drawing or painting. Some teachers may, however, prefer to use single-lined paper.

Care must be taken that the material provided is not such as may impose a strain on the eyesight or too fine muscular adjustment. But it should be remembered that many, if not most, children find great


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satisfaction and a sense of security in playing with small things - perhaps because they seem appropriate to their own small stature. As a rule, a child will not choose or persist in an activity which causes him eyestrain or strained muscular control. In the infants school art is not art for its own sake, and success or failure is not to be judged by formal results of isolated lessons. Having made sensible provision of materials and being ready to give stimulus and guidance when really needed, the teacher may well let the children get on with their own affairs with as little interference as possible. In this way they will gain self-confidence, and develop independence and vigour in the use of materials and imagery.

THE JUNIOR SCHOOL

Sometimes in the change to the junior school all that the infants school has done is ignored; and too often the junior stage is regarded as a preparation for the secondary school, and primary skills are treated in a way which divorces them from the experience and natural development of the child as a junior. It is true that the several stages in the process of education are continuous and interrelated, but it is important to recognise that each has its own problems and presents its own opportunities.

From the age of 7 to 11 the child is developing finer muscular control and finer discrimination in sight and hearing, while his power of sustaining voluntary attention is increasing and visual memory and visual imagery are becoming stronger. Interests become more particularised and objective, and knowledge is acquired in practical ways increasingly defined and localised.

Play is still a dominant factor and means of education, but it is changing in character and becoming more individualistic and competitive. The child feels his growing powers; he wants to measure his strength and to widen his horizon. His attention is held by the things he can make and do, and his urge to construct has all the vital force of an instinct. Now is the time to let boys and girls explore some of the paths travelled by primitive men and women - to experience through experiment the early stages of the traditional crafts, such as weaving, pottery, basketry, the making of simple forms of dwelling or of means of transport. The junior can spin, weave and dye; can make pots and clay figures and take part in the baking and firing of them; can carve or construct from a variety of materials with simple tools; in fact will try his hand on anything that can be made available for him.

Handwriting at this stage should gradually become easier and more flowing, and the children will begin to appreciate its usefulness as a


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means of record and communication. The handicap of writing with a fine nib may well be deferred and the broad pen or more easily controlled pencil remain in use. In some junior schools it is the custom in the lower classes to continue the separate letter forms used in the infants school, script writing being changed to a running hand as the child progresses up the school. Where this custom is followed, it is suggested that the use of capital and lower-case letters of good form and sound tradition should continue in the art lessons, to help shape a formal hand and as a foundation for lettering later on. Letters based on Roman hand-made lettering, and careful attention to layout, will afford excellent practice in planning and design.

It is necessary to consider what part the teacher has to play in the development of technical skill. The junior child should not be subjected to the kind of logical syllabus in which the choice of subjects is designed to produce carefully graded skills. In the natural order of things and following his own instinct to construct and portray he will in fact, through trial and error, develop some skill and a measure of technique because he wants to get on with his job and to make something that satisfies him. So long as the child sees the need to improve his knowledge and skill in order to achieve his ends he will take time and trouble and will readily appeal to the teacher for help and advice. This, however, will not be enough. There is a place for class lessons in the proper use of tools, and it is only common sense to short-circuit certain processes by giving instruction in the use of tools and materials after the children have had the opportunity to experiment. In weaving, for example, children can make all kinds of primitive looms, but at the same time it gives them confidence and skill to learn certain established ways of warping, raising threads and so on, and they enjoy the stability of a well-made loom.

Drawing and painting directly from nature do not come naturally as a rule to children before the adolescent stage. The teacher can show them how to use their equipment and can help them to increase their store of images through observation, but she cannot teach them how to "draw" for they will still be drawing "out of their heads". They should therefore be left free to experiment, to use all kinds of ways and media, to draw with charcoal or pencil if they want to, or go direct at the matter with paint and brush. Observation may be guided and work encouraged and constructively and sympathetically criticised. They should not pass their lives in a class-room surrounded by the works of the previous class. A lively class of children certainly pointed a moral when they stuck a label with the words "This House for Sale" on the beautifully executed doll's house which was the result of a year's project by their predecessors.


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The classrooms should be places of real activity, and in particular the "general purposes" room should have all the fitments needed - water, gas, storage for tools and equipment, provision for exhibiting work, and furniture that can be easily moved and stacked away.

The staff of a junior school should include one member who is specially skilled in art and can help and advise the other class teachers. Or it may be possible to have a specialist in art with knowledge of young children to help or advise a group of teachers, in several schools, while teaching part-time in one of them. For the sake of the harmonious and steady development of the children it is essential that the teacher at each of the three stages in primary education should know something of the aims and methods of the schools dealing with the children at the other two stages.

The aim should be to ensure so far as possible that children on leaving the primary stage behind them will have developed sufficient interest and appreciation, and acquired sufficient self-confidence and control of materials and tools, to enable them to go ahead with the forms of art and craft work that await them in their secondary schools.




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SECTION II

ART AND CRAFTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS



SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

IT IS no longer necessary to defend the inclusion of art and crafts in the curriculum of secondary schools. Art has ceased to be simply a frill and holds its place as an essential element, in some form or other, in a sound general education. The art and craft subjects provide an outlet for creative ability, stimulate the imagination, develop discrimination in design and the sense of craftsmanship - a standard of finish and achievement applicable to all kinds of skilled work.

The answer to the question "What should be taught?" must depend very largely on the personal beliefs and interests and the practical qualifications of the art teacher himself, who will always teach with most confidence the craft of which he is master. While, therefore, there are a number of features all well-balanced courses should include, it is right and proper that the art teacher should make the best use of his own special knowledge and skill.

The following are the main general considerations governing the planning of a course:

(i) Scope should be given both for the naturally imaginative child and for the child who though not gifted artistically can learn something which appeals to his practical abilities.

(ii) Wherever possible, the pupils' work in the arts and crafts should be related to their work in other subjects of the curriculum.

(iii) The course should be planned as a whole: water-tight compartments between different art and craft subjects should be avoided.

(iv) The value of pupils working as a group should be remembered throughout. This does not preclude giving a pupil a job to carry out as his share of the work of the team.

(v) Whole classes may be expected to work at the same task during the first year or two; later, when individual proclivities are becoming marked, it may be better to divide classes into groups, to do different kinds of work.

(vi) In any case, the older the pupil the more necessary it is that he should be given a substantial job to carry through to a finish - and this will mean more individual attention.


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THE TEACHER AS ARTIST AND CRAFTSMAN

If the teacher is to use his special qualifications to the full, it is clear that the courses planned will vary, perhaps substantially, according to the nature of those qualifications.

For example:

A. Where the teacher's special interest is in pictorial art, and he possesses a good knowledge of the craft side of book production. The lower forms might start by dividing their time between drawing and painting from observation, memory and imagination, and an introduction to book crafts in the form of simple binding, lettering and lino-cut illustration. Such a course should very quickly lead to the merging of the pictorial work with the craft work; and each pupil would soon be producing whatever appealed most to him in the way of illustrated broadsheets, booklets, and so on. Skill in making Iino-cut patterns for end-papers, and Iino-cut illustrations, some perhaps printed in colour, would also be developed, and the printing of fabrics would be something to look forward to as a fresh outlet for design in a future session. Having made a start of this kind with the lower forms, it should not be a difficult matter to build on the interest so created and carry out more ambitious work to a higher standard as the pupils grow older. In a girls' school, useful collaboration might be arranged with the teachers dealing with dress and house-furnishing crafts by providing good printed textiles to be made up in their classes.

The possibility of the pupils using the skill they have acquired to contribute to all kinds of activities connected with school life in general, and with other subjects of study, such as history and geography, will be obvious. If a small hand-press and the necessary equipment for printing can be secured, then indeed the art and craft course will have established itself most fully as a means of relating work done in school to practical activities in the outside world. The boys or girls who have personally planned, printed, illustrated and bound a book, or played a part as a member of a team which has produced one, should have an informed outlook on the varied and vast output of the great industry of printing which plays so large a part in our lives. It may also be hoped that their appreciation of the written language will have been stimulated at the same time.

B. Where the teacher, while reasonably skilled in drawing and painting, is chiefly interested in the textile crafts, and has a thorough knowledge of dressmaking and design, of weaving and of embroidery. From the early stages, such activities as embroidery, the making of soft toys and


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of puppets offer great opportunities for the creative impulses of children. Puppets, especially, offer an outlet for their sense of character and appropriateness in devising and in dressing them. The making, however, of things of practical use as well as puppets and toys should not be neglected, and the development of the crafts associated with needlework and dressmaking offers endless scope: quite young children can make delightful woven scarves and other small articles of dress, and can be taught how gay embroidery may be used in dress and in household articles. The course can be planned from simple beginnings to larger undertakings in the later stages where ambitious standards can be aimed at both in craftsmanship and in design. At the same time, drawing and painting from observation and imagination may be taught, not only for their own sakes, but in order to provide a flow of inspiration in design for textile crafts. As time goes on the pupils will sort themselves out, and some may gain more by concentrating on the crafts which specially appeal to them for their practical value, while others, who have a taste for drawing and painting, may spend a larger proportion of their time on work of a pictorial kind. Girls, after being in the hands of a teacher of the sort now under consideration, should have received a real impetus to appreciate colour, style and texture in dress and furnishing, and to look for good standards of workmanship, as well as to make the most of whatever gifts they themselves possess.

C. Where the teacher is expert in the crafts of woodwork and light metalwork or silversmithing. The importance of teaching boys to use tools in order to plan and make simple articles of daily use in wood and metal needs no emphasis. The value of such an education, in the confidence to be derived from learning to carry out a thoroughly satisfactory practical job and to appreciate the need for good proportion and the right use of materials, is clear, as is the usefulness of an understanding of traditional methods. The relationship of such work to daily needs and daily life in the school, as well as to the whole business of living, presents a fascinating range of possibilities to the competent teacher. When work of this kind is carried on in a boys' school side by side with a course run by a pictorial and bookcraft teacher of the kind first described, a rich education in art and craft as a whole can be provided.

D. Where the teacher possesses a knowledge of drawing and painting, combined with the instincts and training of a sculptor. A course divided between painting and drawing from observation, memory and imagination on the one hand, and modelling and carving on the other, may lead to most inspiring and satisfying achievements, especially in


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the later stages. Carving in wood or stone, and modelling, have a great attraction for many boys and girls, and provide an excellent medium for the development of a real appreciation and understanding of beauty in form and in material. Although there is scope in such a course for making things of stone and wood to serve practical uses, the products of carving and modelling may take the form of objects of artistic interest rather than of practical use. Carvings of animals, which have sometimes been successfully done with living creatures as models, are one example. There is, however, the likelihood that any teacher endowed in the way suggested will also have a strong interest in the craft of pottery. Here, much can be done, in school, which will in a true sense educate the pupils by developing their craftsmanship and their ability to appreciate form and material while they are practising a craft which has a clear bearing on the needs of daily life. This has proved feasible without very elaborate equipment. A great deal can be achieved by making built-up articles and articles pressed in moulds, without a potter's wheel. If one can be provided, however, it is bound to create interest and will give a chance to the more able pupils to exercise a most satisfying form of craftsmanship.

PICTORIAL WORK

While in the foregoing the emphasis has been on craft work rather than on drawing and painting, there can be no doubt that drawing and painting are of great importance for boys and girls, since they provide a unique outlet for creative and imaginative abilities as well as a useful training in observation.

By the time that pupils who have been encouraged to draw and paint with freedom in the primary school have reached the age of 11, their ability to record their impressions from memory and observation, and their confidence in doing so, should be ripe for development side by side with their creative ability.

Some children will be intensely interested in painting their impressions of the visual world, and will have developed powers of realism from an early age. Others, differently gifted, will continue to take real pleasure in painting in a less realistic way. But both may produce work rich in colour and imagination. In the teaching, the two aspects should not be thought of as separate. The best subjects are, indeed, generally taken from the pupils' everyday life, whether in town or country. Some may profitably tackle fanciful subjects, but the danger is that pupils will fall back on their memory of pictures and illustrations rather than rely on their observation and create something which is really theirs. An example is the tendency found,

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in paintings by girls of everyday scenes, to produce figures in a fashion-plate style though the rest of the composition may be rendered straightforwardly as the result of direct observation. The cure for this particular evil is for the pupils to draw and paint one another, and thus find their own way of drawing and painting figures.

Describing a picture, so that children may see the subject complete in the mind's eye before starting to paint, is a method which has been successful, especially with children who have not been in the habit of working from imagination and find it hard to know how to begin. There is, however, a great deal to be said for the pupil inventing his own composition, whether it be based on something he has seen and wants to paint, or on an idea given to him by the teacher. In any case, it is desirable to make sure that before he begins he has a clear idea of the whole picture he is going to paint.

The importance of finding really good subjects for drawing and painting from sight cannot be exaggerated. While treatment will vary according to the age, and even more according to the natural ability of the pupil, sympathetic interpretation of the subject should be the first aim. This applies equally to drawing and painting from one another, and from plants and still life, and to outdoor sketching.

Although elaborate study from the model is out of place in the secondary school, pupils should be encouraged to use the figure freely in their imaginative work, and plenty of drawing and painting of one another from sight and memory will give them confidence to do so, as well as teach them to observe action, proportion and character.

Boys and girls should be allowed media to work with which make it easy for them to secure an effect satisfying to themselves: powder colours, for instance, which produce a rich effect more easily than ordinary water colours. There is a wide range of tools and materials which may be used in addition to powder and water colours, and variety in media should be encouraged. Close relationship should be established between the instruction in drawing, painting and modelling, and the practical work in crafts. To make lino-cuts based on studies and on imaginative compositions is bound to be useful, and there is no reason why lino-cuts should not be large in scale, just as much as paintings.

In pictorial work, practice, which involves considerable mental effort, is just as necessary as it is in any other branch of the curriculum. There is no reason, however, why the pupil should not feel the same zest in working from observation as in imaginative work. If he has fully realised the need for acquiring further knowledge, his drawing and painting from observation becomes purposive, and he begins to help himself. He will see that learning to observe and memorise is


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essential to the development of his capacity for imaginative expression.

The notion that most boys and girls lose creative ability at about the age of 13 need not be taken too seriously. Under good teaching, pupils who have some natural ability for pictorial work should add technical accomplishment while retaining their imaginative powers, and the rest should find really satisfying work to do in craftsmanship, which will provide a training in good artistic judgment as well as in construction.

Training in a sense of colour and texture is a matter on which much has been said and written. Skilful teaching, while not imposing any rigid formula, will ensure that pupils do not produce work which is disagreeable in colour. Good colour cannot be achieved by rules and theories, it depends on the growth of sensitivity through sustained observation and practice. The painting of flowers and attractive groups of still life, as well as outdoor sketching, is a most valuable means of teaching pupils to observe and record subtleties of colour and texture and of increasing their appreciation of colour relationships. And the practice of crafts, especially those in which beautiful colours and textures play a prominent part, such as embroidery and weaving, in itself constitutes a training in colour and texture. The school garden, or the flower borders round schools where there is no space for a garden, should provide rich resources for the enjoyment of beauty.

Play production offers a good opportunity for co-operation between the art and craft teachers and the teachers of other subjects. Constructing and painting the scenery and the making of costumes and other properties bring in many sorts of craftsmanship, and the association of play production with other branches of education provides both staff and pupils with most valuable occasions for collaboration. The choice and study of plays, and the experience of acting, dancing and making music, will all be illuminated and enriched by good design and craftsmanship in costumes, scenery, properties, lighting, etc. The production of puppet plays (whether in the form of marionettes or glove puppets), which incidentally requires special knowledge of model theatre technique on the part of the instructor, is a valuable activity. It brings in a wide range of work, including the designing of model stage settings - in itself a valuable outlet for design and an activity which may be successfully introduced independently of the actual staging of a play full size or in miniature.

APPRECIATION

Only very few of the pupils in any secondary school are likely to make their livings as artists, but all may take pleasure in visual beauty


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and should receive every incentive to do so. The need to teach boys and girls to take an interest in good design in daily life in this wide sense has been emphasised earlier, but nothing has yet been said on the way in which this task should be tackled, except in so far as the actual making of things by the pupils leads to an appreciation of good standards in design and craftsmanship. It is probable, however, that special methods will have to be adopted in order to help the pupil to relate the experiences gained in his art and craft lessons to his environment.

The romantic view that art can only exist in Bohemian disorder, if true at all, is not to be applied to education. While an art room is primarily a workshop and must not be dominated by a fussy insistence on tidiness, the general appearance should serve as an example of good design, which implies orderly arrangement for a specific purpose. The habits instilled in the art room should be such as to help the pupils to realise the value of order and fitness in general, and of their bearing on efficiency and on the speed with which things can be done. The influence of the art training should show itself in dress, in the interest taken by the pupils in the arrangement and decoration of the school, in the planning and upkeep of school gardens and grounds, in awareness of their environment - its buildings, industries and natural surroundings.

Architecture provides the most obvious examples of good and bad design which are daily before us, and a real contribution can be made by the art master who can open the eyes of his pupils to the characteristics of buildings and sharpen their interest in those which are comely and well suited to the purposes they serve. Town and country offer fields for day-to-day observation and discussion based on visits to buildings both old and new, and local examples may provide a starting-point for study of the styles of architecture of former ages and other countries. The study of contemporary developments is bound to fascinate senior boys and girls, and it will be all to the good if they are given the opportunity to hear a talk by an architect or an expert in town and country planning actually engaged in the job of designing and planning houses and their surroundings.

An interest in architecture as such has the additional advantage that it opens up a desire to know more about the many crafts and branches of manufacture associated with architecture. For example, one or more periods may be spent in some local church in which architecture can be studied for its historic and æsthetic qualities and also as an example of functional design. But in addition there will be ample evidence in stone and wood carving, glass, tiles and lettering, of the vigorous and expressive quality of the work of the craftsmen of past


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days, who worked not as a people set apart and labelled as artists, but with the lively and robust imagination of men who knew their materials and tools and enjoyed their mastery of them. The development of the domestic architecture of a village or town may be studied with a view to tracing the relation of style to methods of construction, proximity of materials, and the modes of life imposed by the social and economic conditions of the periods. A map of the town can be made and used for discussion of town planning, and the senior pupils should be capable of making a more detailed study of the relation of design to reconstruction. An academic study of the history of art or architecture, of the examination syllabus type, is too unreal to be of value to secondary school pupils, who should study the history of the past as a guide to the problems of the present and the future, not merely for its archæological interest.

Time should be given to studying and discussing the design of everyday things, such as furniture, pottery, glass, dress, motor-cars and shops. Some kinds of examples can be borrowed so that they may be handled; others, such as examples of engineering design, or of architecture, must be studied from photographs.

The basis of all these discussions will be the collection of illustrations which each school should build up. Small exhibitions changed frequently provide good propaganda. Some schools have already formed admirable collections of illustrations representing past and present examples of painting, sculpture, etc., and also of design and craftsmanship covering a wide field. The post-cards and booklets published by the Victoria and Albert Museum and by the British Museum usually form the foundation of such a collection, while photographs from current periodicals provide useful examples of contemporary design. The episcope is valuable in making use of such illustrations and a film projector may be of great service if suitable films can be obtained, such as films illustrating animals and people in movement and the making of things by hand or machine.

At the top of the school, where pupils remain until they are 17 or 18, there is a real opportunity for approaching the teaching of "appreciation" or "discrimination" from a theoretical point of view. The older boys and girls will be ripe for it; moreover, some of them may by then have dropped practical art and craft activities carried on in school hours in favour of other branches of study for which they have greater natural ability, and it is important that they should not lose touch with art and the crafts and what they stand for in life. Here again, each teacher of art and craft subjects, whatever they may be, will do well to make the best use of his or her own special interests


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and abilities in collaboration with teachers of other subjects, such as music, dancing and drama. Talks to the sixth form on (1) music, (2) drama and (3) architectural and allied crafts, on a weekly rota, provide a fitting crown to a practical course. The co-operation of manufacturers may sometimes be obtained in arranging for boys and girls to visit works and in adding to the school's collection of well-designed articles of daily use.

The special problem of art and crafts in the sixth form was dealt with in the pamphlet "The Organisation and Curriculum of Sixth Forms in Secondary Schools", published by the Board of Education in 1938, and the considerations there set out remain valid. It is suggested there that a pupil strongly gifted in art and craft and intending to take up a professional artistic career might suitably spend part of his time in a convenient art school. The advantage in this is that staff and facilities which do not exist in the secondary school for certain branches of study will be available in the art school, where he will, moreover, measure himself against art school students.

Pupils who have become interested in art and crafts in school hours will often want to carry on more work of this kind out of school. The younger will mostly want practical work, and here is a good chance for organising puppet groups, lettering squads for school notices, and other communal work. The older will often want to know more about art, crafts and industrial design in a general way; for them, useful lectures and discussions may be arranged. Some pupils, whose time-table does not include art-room periods, may keep in touch with this side of things through such out-of-school activities. Visits to places of interest, and sketching excursions, are other possibilities. The boarding school naturally offers great opportunities for boys and girls to follow up artistic interests out of school; but much can be done in day schools - during lunch-hours and week-ends, and sometimes during periods given over to optional activities - and the discussion of spare-time work done at home will prove to be a useful stimulus.

THE SECONDARY ART SCHOOL

In areas that are the centres of industries dependent on good design, such as pottery, textiles, furniture, glass, silversmithing and architectural metalwork, it may well be desirable to provide a secondary education largely based on art interests and associated specifically with the arts and crafts. This may be the case, too, in other centres of population where, although there are no specific local industries of the kind mentioned above, there are opportunities for those who have had an appropriate schooling to be employed in posts in industry


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and commerce which call for artistic ability, such as advertising design, display, interior decoration and painting and decorating.

The need for an education that will enable boys and girls to take up with confidence posts of a particular kind in industry or commerce, and will provide employers with recruits likely to prove satisfactory, is obvious. More important, however, is the need to provide, for boys and girls with aptitude for the creative arts, a general education that will foster these aptitudes, school their emotions and stimulate the imagination, and enable them later to find satisfaction in employment suited to their abilities.

In some junior art schools the teachers of English, history, geography, mathematics and other "general" subjects are successful in making the most of their pupils' artistic bent by encouraging illustrations to written work, by making a strong feature of the art and crafts of the periods and countries studied, by setting subjects for essays of a kind likely to arouse the enthusiasm of the youngster with artistic interests, by setting arithmetical problems in the form of calculations likely to be required of a designer, and in many other such ways. Thereby the pupils learn more history, geography and arithmetic, and are given more incentive to express themselves clearly in writing and in speech.

While the approach to the subjects studied in the secondary art school may usefully be biased as has been suggested, yet in the first two years the subjects themselves will be those studied by children of 11 and 12 in secondary schools of all types. From the age of 13 onwards, a growing proportion of time may be given to art and craft activities. The importance for all of a good all-round training, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, in art and craft subjects apart from any vocational bias will be paramount. An even balance should be kept between the more general and the more specialised types of work, and the stages at which specialisation may be emphasised should be carefully determined. In some areas, specialisation for groups who will enter particular occupations, as craftsmen or as designers, may usefully be arranged in the later stages of the course.

The secondary art school should enjoy its own identity and a vigorous corporate life will be very important. Nevertheless, it is desirable that it should be closely associated with a college or school of art. Teachers, as well as workshops and equipment for specialised work, can be shared. Such arrangements will not only make for economy in staffing and equipment, but will mean a close bond between junior and senior schools. The most flourishing Junior Art Departments have owed much of their success to the fact that they were part and parcel of a parent art school, and the secondary art


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schools of the future must not become isolated from the senior institutions. The contact with senior work is in itself a most valuable thing for the juniors.

An annual enrolment of two forms is in general the desirable minimum for a secondary school, but for a secondary art school, with its clearly defined aim, a two-form entry may not be necessary. The school should, however, be large enough to form a community of its own. Where numbers do not justify a separate secondary art school, consideration should be given to including an art group in a school which provides for other kinds of education. Here again, the art school should come into the picture by providing teaching and workshops.





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SECTION III

THE SCHOOL OF ART AND CRAFTS

THE ART SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY;
REGIONAL PLANNING

EVERY art school must be adapted to the needs of the area it serves. For example, the school which provides for a thickly populated manufacturing area with staple industries dependent upon good design and craftsmanship, while not neglecting the cultural side of its work, should concentrate on the special requirements of local industry. The successful development of this part of its work should react favourably upon the other work of the school as a whole and will give it a distinctive character. On the other hand, the small school in a residential area may be expected to develop strongly the cultural aspect while at the same time meeting the needs of its industrial students.

Just as important as the efficiency of each single art school is the relation of all the art schools in an area to one another, and to schools and classes of other kinds. Effective co-operation will enable the art school to extend its influence, will lead to better staffing and higher standards of work, and, above all, will ensure that each student receives the kind of instruction best suited to his needs and to the stage at which he has arrived. The advantages of regional organisation will be dealt with under several of the headings which follow later, but it may be useful here to summarise briefly the chief features to be looked for in a good scheme:

(1) The formation of a regional committee, including the principals of the art schools. This committee should meet at each school in turn, to enable all concerned to get to know the resources of each school at first hand.

(2) The making of a survey of the industrial and other needs of the area in so far as they can be met by art education, and the planning of future developments in relation to the area as a whole.

(3) The establishment of a central college of art and crafts for the region, or, as has been done in one area where that proved impracticable, the division of functions between the few most important schools of art.

(4) The establishment of friendly relations between the art school and all other types of institution which can usefully be


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linked up with it - by the organisation of special courses for teachers, or of joint courses (with technical institutions, for instance); by sharing staff with other schools and institutions, or in other ways.

(5) The sharing of staff (especially professional and industrial specialists) between several art schools, and the employment of the principals or members of art school staffs to advise on the teaching of artistic subjects in other schools. In short, a plan by which the right man or woman will be found in the right place.

(6) The concentration of students ripe for advanced work, or requiring highly specialised instruction, in the schools best able to provide for them. This calls for fees, travelling allowances, etc., to enable all such students in the region to attend the right school or schools.

(7) The issue of a joint prospectus or handbook setting out very clearly the whole range of full-time and part-time courses and subjects provided by the art schools and classes in the region, for the benefit of all teachers and students as well as the general public.

If these features be included in a regional scheme, all the schools concerned, each with its own clearly defined job, will be doing more effective work, both within their own walls and by links with other schools and classes, than if they remained in isolation: at the same time each school should be fully able to maintain and develop its own characteristics.

The reference to a joint prospectus brings us to the question of giving publicity to the work of art schools. Too much advertisement can scarcely be given to the work of a really good one, and such a school will find a hundred convincing ways of making known what it can do. The successful careers of past students and the reputation which members of the staff can command as practitioners, or successful participation in local artistic enterprises by students and staff, will reflect credit on the school. Moreover, the stimulus which may be given to students by such undertakings as the making of costumes and settings for a pageant or painting decorations in a local school or hospital is bound to be of real value in their education as artists. The same is true of exhibitions of art school work, which are of great importance. Experience shows that they can be planned in such a way as to be of real interest not only to the students and their friends and relations, but to the public - including the business man, who, it may be hoped, will wish to see what contribution the school can make to his problems. What is more, no lively school considers


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that it is doing its job until those who are interested in artistic matters, although they may never become students in the regular way, look upon their local school of art as a centre where they can make some acquaintance with the best contemporary work and where there will constantly be something in the way of lectures and exhibitions, as well as social activities, likely to interest them. Such a school will keep closely in touch with its old students, who may be expected to form the nucleus of a group of interested people of this kind even if they no longer attend the practical classes.

To show what was being done shortly before the war, an Appendix (Appendix I) has been added in which is described in some detail the scope and organisation of four existing schools serving different types of locality.

THE ART SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY

The outbreak of the War roughly coincided with the centenary of the state-aided art school as we know it to-day in this country, and it is interesting to reflect that a hundred years ago committees were recommending the setting up of schools of art which should be something more than academies of fine art and should render real service to industry. If the members of those committees were to come back to earth and see some of the most successful schools to-day, they would no doubt be gratified to find that so much is now being done in them for industrial needs. They would certainly be not a little surprised at the practical form which that work takes, because, while the advocates of the "industrial" art school in those earlier days felt that the schools should make a contribution to the improvement of design for manufactured goods, they do not all seem to have realised that to teach design on paper alone was of little use. The old "National Competition", which included an exhibition of designs done by art students, did nothing to change this attitude except in so far as it drew attention to the inadequacy of an easel and drawing-board training for the designer for manufacture; and it was left to a few far-seeing people in the schools themselves to realise that the proof of the success of a design lay in the making, and that it was through practical work in the material that the designer should be educated. This method was adopted by pioneering schools such as the Colleges of Art at Birmingham and Leicester and the London Central School of Art and Crafts. It is certainly true that to-day there are schools up and down the country where the lead given by well-qualified artists and craftsmen who are acting as instructors has resulted in a genuine quickening of interest in good design on the part of those already employed locally in branches of industry and


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commerce in which artistic considerations are important, as well as in providing a realistic training for those who intend to enter such employment.

Unless, however, the confidence of the man of business has first been secured, all efforts by art schools to give constructive help to industry and commerce are bound to be stillborn. When the business man is satisfied that the school is out to help him and his employees, and that those in it are ready to seek his advice on industrial and commercial needs, there is a reasonable chance that the industrialist will play his part by recruiting those trained in the school, and also by releasing his employees for further training during working hours. When it has first been established that students can be turned out well fitted to earn their livings in the industry in question, the art school is in a fair way to know that the industrialist is likely to appreciate a good lead in design.

A common practice which often leads to good results is the formation of advisory committees, containing representatives both of employers and of employees, in relation to industrial and commercial activities. These committees provide opportunities for the industrialist to have a say in planning courses of study for trade students.

A very useful contribution can be made by the industrialist in taking students into his firm for part-time works experience during their training, for it is of the greatest advantage to the intending designer to have had the experience of working under actual industrial conditions as part of his course. Some successful experiments of this kind have been made, and it is much to be hoped that the practice will grow.

In the foregoing paragraphs the need for the school to have in mind the industrial and commercial aspects has been strongly emphasised, but it is clearly the duty of the art school at the same time to set the highest standards in design and craftsmanship. Given the right sort of accommodation, the school provides the right environment in which to strive after perfection, and it might indeed be held that the main reason for the existence of art schools is that they should bring to bear on matters of design in industry and commerce the fund of artistic knowledge acquired by the designer in the study of purely artistic problems. This is clearly brought out in a practical way by the useful and happy co-operation which may be found existing between the members of the staff who have been trained primarily as artists and the instructors whose background is chiefly industrial. Printing and book-production generally, painting and decorating, cabinet-making, and the metal, jewellery and dress trades, are among the branches of work in which this should occur.


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RELATIONS WITH OTHER SCHOOLS

The principle that art education should be considered as a whole, and that the work in the art school should be linked to that done in primary and secondary schools, is clearly recognised where the principal of the art school, as in some areas, acts as adviser on art instruction generally. Whether he be given any such official status or not, however, it is clearly important that he should establish good relations with head masters and head mistresses of other schools, for a more enduring link can be forged by good personal relations than in any other way. They are bound to have a useful effect on the arrangements for recruitment to art school courses, whether full-time or part-time, and on the provision by the art school of the right kind of classes for teachers in other types of school, a matter which will be dealt with more fully later on.

The place of the art school in relation to the training colleges is dealt with under the heading of the training of teachers.

Turning to the important question of the relations between art schools and technical schools, the first thing to be borne in mind is that, while in the large majority of cases the school of art is self-governing, it is sometimes part of a larger institution providing for many branches of further education.

There are held to be advantages and disadvantages in either case, which will not be discussed here. The following considerations, however, demand notice. Where the art school is not self-governing, it is essential that the head of the art school should be given the right measure of independence. He must, for example, be encouraged to make personal contacts with representatives of the business community and outside bodies generally. He should have proper access to the governing body; and discretion in the appointment of art school staff and in drawing up the curriculum for the art school in the light of his professional knowledge and experience. On the other hand, it must be recognised that the principal of the whole institution is as much responsible for the full development of the art school as of any other department in the institution. Finally, the accommodation for all branches of work coming under the art school ought, as far as is practicable, to be grouped together as a unit.

Students whose needs can best be met by their taking joint courses, in which they study some subjects in the art school and some in the technical school, should receive every encouragement to do so, and arrangements should be made to ensure that this occurs. The organisation of a "board of studies" for each branch in which such joint courses are arranged has proved useful. The various teachers

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concerned sit on the board, and their business is to plan the courses. It is important to distinguish here between the student who is primarily technical and attends certain classes held in the art school, and the art school student who takes some work in the technical school. Examples of both categories are to be found, for instance, in certain textile courses, and their needs are clearly different. It is necessary, in planning such joint courses, to avoid the mistake of isolating design on paper from practical work in the material. This can be done by the right kind of collaboration between teachers, by the provision of suitable equipment in each institution, and sometimes by the sharing of staff and equipment. Elaborate machinery is required by the art school for the training of employees in such ubiquitous industries as printing and in certain localised artistic industries, and it may often be justifiable to supply the art school with some equipment, of a simple nature, apart from that already provided in the technical school, in order to bring reality to the teaching of design for branches of industry with which both art and technical schools are concerned.

It is not within the scope of this pamphlet to deal specifically with the teaching of architecture to professional students or with the organisation of a school of architecture, but the advantage which has been found to accrue from the close association of a school or department of architecture and an art school should be noted. Whether or not the two schools come within the same institution and are under the same principal, there will be numerous opportunities for courses, for both art students and students of architecture, embracing subjects taught by members of the staff of each school. For example, it is a great advantage for the drawing and painting student, as well as the design student, to learn something about buildings from a professional architect; and it is very good if he can be given this instruction side by side with architectural students proper, since each type of student, with differing abilities and standpoint, is likely to stimulate the other. Conversely, the art school has much to offer to the future architect in providing him with instruction in design and colour, as well as in drawing and modelling, under teachers specially qualified to give it. There will also be an opportunity for architectural students to practise craftsmanship in such media as stone and wood, should it be desired to give their courses a practical side.

STAFFING

Good accommodation and equipment are necessary if the best work is to be done. But by far the most important thing is good staffing. Not only must individual members of the staff be well qualified, but


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the balance of the staff should be held, both as to the various types of ability the school's work demands and as to the number of full-time and part-time teachers respectively. In some London schools, it has been possible to make excellent arrangements by largely employing the services of practising artists and craftsmen as part-time teachers, but it is by no means so easy to do this in other parts of the country. A nucleus of full-time teachers, or of teachers who spend long enough in the school to know the needs of individual students and keep a close watch on their progress, is in any case always likely to be valuable.

Among the part-time teachers are generally found the trade instructors, most of whom will be employed in industry. Beside having a thorough knowledge of trade practice, the successful trade instructor will be one who appreciates good design; without the ability to do this, neither can he give the right type of teaching to his pupils, nor can he co-operate advantageously with the rest of the staff. Fortunately, there are to be found some excellent instructors of this kind, as well as principals and leading teachers who have been able to recognise their merits and at the same time to give them a useful lead in artistic matters.

It is not always easy to secure a well-qualified part-time teacher, either for trade or other subjects; and this emphasises the need for pooling the full-time art and craft staff in any area where the needs of several schools, art schools and others, may best be met by sharing the services of a team with suitably varied qualifications. For example, in an area where there is a comparatively small art school, the appointments to the art staff in primary and secondary schools have sometimes been made with an eye on the ability of those teachers to deal with special branches in the art school as well as to give good service in the schools to which they are primarily attached. A scheme of this kind can have very useful results, and there are further possibilities in sharing staff with training colleges at suitable centres.

It is most desirable to secure teachers who are specialists in the subjects they teach, and in particular those who have had actual experience of industrial conditions; especially when they will be called upon to deal with trade students or those intending to enter industry as designers or craftsmen. It is also much to be desired that a teacher of industrial subjects should at the same time be engaged, at any rate to some extent, in practice as a designer or craftsman.

Teachers dealing with industrial subjects at provincial centres where important staple industries have been developed should be encouraged to keep constantly in touch with contemporary ideas by visits to London or abroad. If the school is to give a lead to industry in the matter of design, this is absolutely essential.


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All members of the staff, whether full-time or part-time, should receive encouragement to undertake private work of their own. The artist or craftsman who does not keep his mind alert in this way is bound to become stale and his usefulness as a teacher will deteriorate accordingly.

The amount of actual teaching which may reasonably be required of each teacher should be clearly understood. Certain teachers - those, for example, of dress and allied craft subjects - may be expected to spend some time in purchasing materials and in arranging for their storage and distribution, apart from their normal duties of preparation and teaching. Individual time-tables, too, should be arranged in such a way that the teacher, full or part-time, may be able to rely on a reasonable period of time during which he will have an opportunity to carry on his own private work. In small schools an effort should be made to avoid imposing an excessive amount of evening teaching on full-time teachers. Teachers who work four or five evenings a week will naturally lose contact with the normal amenities of life.

THE STUDENT

The art school deals with a group who are in the main very much like any other group of young people, but it is certainly as true of students in art schools as of those in any other kind of school that they will vary greatly in temperament and outlook and that too much thought cannot be given to their individual idiosyncrasies by those who are put in charge of them. The "genius" who is "born but cannot be made" is bound to crop up from time to time in art schools, as in other institutions, and it will be the duty of the school to recognise him when he appears, to give him the best opportunity he can be given in that school and to see to it that he is passed on to a more advanced institution for further study when necessary. But the main business of any school is to cater for the average student.

Candidates for admission who hope to be able to earn their livings through their artistic ability will, naturally, be discouraged from joining the school at all if they are clearly unsuitable; but there will always be doubtful cases. In any event, it is wise to arrange for students to join for a probationary term in the first instance. To pass in review work previously done by a candidate for admission will give an indication of his quality; but experience shows that a skilfully planned entrance test, especially if it be designed to bring out the candidate's real potentialities rather than allow him to serve up something that he has worked up for the occasion, gives a more useful insight into the student's abilities.


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Apart from the full-time student who aims at securing a job on leaving the school, and the part-time student already employed in industry who seeks to improve his ability to do his job, there will be a wide range of students who come to the art school purely with the object of cultivating their artistic abilities for their own satisfaction. These students may be relied upon to bring enthusiasm to their work, but some may lack confidence in their own abilities and will need plenty of sympathetic encouragement if they are to make the most of them. Among these students will be teachers in primary and secondary schools, of whom more will be said later.

Arrangements for the award of scholarships, free places and maintenance deserve careful consideration in relation to local circumstances. Here good regional arrangements may be a great help. Entrance scholarships are desirable, because without them some students might be unable to come to the school at all. On the other hand, the award of certain scholarships at the end of the first year or even later has sometimes provided a useful incentive to students already in the school, and the student's promise can be better assessed at this stage. Some authorities have arranged for the remission or reduction of fees under special circumstances, full-time students for example having their fees for day classes reduced if they have reached a certain standard, e.g. passed the Ministry's Intermediate Examination.

It is the duty of the principal and his staff to have a comprehensive knowledge of the openings for young people who have had an art school training, and they should keep in close touch with the employment officers of the Ministry of Labour and National Service. They must know to what extent students who have taken senior full-time courses, as well as juniors, may look forward to suitable posts in local firms, and they should also have in mind the artistic careers offered in a wider field. While no student should be allowed to enter for, or to continue in, a course which is intended to lead to a calling for which he does not show sufficient aptitude, it is by no means easy for a student, or for his teachers, to know in what direction his strength will lie until after he has worked for some time in the school. Each student's progress must therefore be watched and he must be encouraged to take the course which is most likely to develop his abilities to the full and lead to a suitable career.

The occupations which the young person trained in the art school may take up are very diverse. The junior student is likely to be recruited either to a craftsman's job in such industries as painting and decorating, cabinet-making, printing, dress or millinery, as a draughtsman or assistant in a design studio, or, more rarely, to retail distribution. The senior student, after a full course, will naturally aim at


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a post for which his ability as an artist, coupled with his knowledge of technical matters, will best fit him or her, whether in the practice of art, perhaps as a designer for industry or commerce, in the teaching of it, or in both.

The school which has been successful in placing its students can always be depended upon to have kept a register of the present occupations of past students, in spite of the well-known difficulties of keeping in touch with students after they have left.

CURRICULUM

In planning the curriculum, the principal will have in mind the goals at which students of different types may reasonably aim, whether a job to be secured or an examination to be passed, or both. The stages through which students of different types may be expected to progress will also be an important consideration. At one end of the scale there is the full-time student who intends to become a designer, and who ought to have an education which will not merely help him to secure a post but will have provided him with enough knowledge and experience to enable him to make full use of his powers of invention after he has taken it up. At the other end of the scale are the equally important trade students already in employment, who must be given what they can reasonably be expected to digest at a pace at which they can absorb it.

The full-time student is often tempted to take a post as soon as he can get one, because he wants to start earning a living without delay. While this is quite understandable, it is nevertheless most desirable that such students should be encouraged not to leave the school before they have completed their full courses. It will certainly be to their own interest that they should have had a thorough grounding; moreover, the presence of a substantial group of advanced students in the school acts as an incentive to the others and is likely to result in a better standard of work all round.

In planning courses for full-time students intending to become designers for industry, it is necessary to bear in mind that, so far as manufacturing industries are concerned, there is evidence that the highly specialised designer is not always likely to be able to make a good living. Such a designer should be skilled in more than one branch, both for the reason just given and because versatility is in itself a good thing. The more a student learns about branches other than that in which he is a specialist, the more useful knowledge he will be able to bring to bear on his special subject. The designer for machine-produced goods manufactured by modern methods will need to have a real understanding of the possibilities of plastics and other


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synthetic materials, as well as of the many processes of fabrication now employed in factories.

It is sometimes asked how far giving individual students jobs to get on with is better than trying to fit them all into a regular course. The answer is that if a course is really progressive, sufficiently comprehensive and has the right measure of elasticity, then all should be required to stick to it. It has often been found useful to set the same problem or subject to all members of a class, each of whom will tackle it at his own pace; but in later stages the scheme of work may well include specific tasks for individual students which will need a considerable amount of time for their completion. The need for giving the student a chance to use his own initiative, and thus to avoid "spoon-feeding", is evident.

The curriculum of the school as a whole should be so planned that both industrial and other students can easily be catered for without having to create very small groups. A curriculum so arranged is bound to benefit both the industrial students and the others; but it is equally important to avoid the mistake of trying to force trade students into classes in which they feel all at sea, simply in order to overcome difficulties in the time-table.

A student should learn to carry through a piece of work to its conclusion in a meticulous manner; on the other hand, plenty of creative exercises of a free type should be given to stimulate his inventive powers. The student of silversmithing, for example, should carry out a considerable amount of work in the material, but if he is not to be encouraged to make any designs at all on paper unless he is to carry them out subsequently his inventive powers are likely to suffer.

Insistence on the costing and timing of work in courses connected with trade practice was a characteristic of many of the successful Continental schools, and there is good reason to feel that there is room for more of this kind of thing in our country. It should not be overdone, however, for it might lead to a neglect of the opportunities offered in the schools for carrying out work at a pace which would not be economical for production in industry, but which is necessary for useful experiment in craftsmanship and design.

In a small school, where the numbers in any one category do not justify the formation of separate classes, one teacher may have to deal simultaneously with students studying different subjects, and with those who are at different stages; but the occasions necessitating this should be kept down to the minimum, for the sake both of the teacher and of the students. This particularly applies to the work of trade students. In a large school where there is a substantial number of such


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students, it is easily possible to arrange for each "year" to be dealt with separately. The arrangements for the admission of students and the planning of the work as a whole should always be such that, as far as possible, teachers will not have to deal at the same time with students at different stages and with a miscellaneous collection of students each of whom wants to be taught different things. Good schemes of regional co-operation under which all students requiring special subjects attend suitable schools go far to solve this problem.

A word about individual as against collective methods of instruction. A great deal of the instruction in art schools should be individual in character, but there are certain subjects such as perspective, anatomy and the early stages of design which may be dealt with as class subjects. Drawing and painting may call for both class instruction (often in the form of demonstrations) and individual instruction, the latter more especially in the later stages. Collective methods are often needed to ensure that the students in each group follow a progressive course and do not omit to study all the necessary branches.

The number of students with which one teacher can be expected to deal depends upon the nature of the work, and may also depend to some extent on the number of hours a week spent on it. The stage of the student's progress has also to be considered, for advanced students will generally need longer periods of individual attention than others. Naturally, larger numbers can be included in a group dealt with by class instruction than by individual instruction. A teacher may be expected to deal adequately with, say, fifteen students in a life class lasting for two and a half hours, if he is to help each individually, whereas twenty might not be too many for a class in elementary design. In the case of crafts where much detailed individual instruction is necessary, especially in the later stages, twelve may be a reasonable number for one teacher, but the number will vary according to the type of work and the amount of time given to it. In no case should a craft teacher ever be required to tackle a class of more than sixteen students.

It is important, even in the small school, to group the work in departments by associating together related subjects. Convenient methods of dividing up the work will depend on the size and scope of the school and on its character, and may vary widely from place to place, but the following groups for associating certain branches of craft and of design for manufacture suggest themselves:

(1) Printing, design, drawing for reproduction, press and machine work for the letterpress, lithographic and other printing processes concerned, with illustration and publicity; book-binding; calligraphy; photography.

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(2) Dress and allied crafts; millinery, embroidery (hand and machine), lace-making.

(3) Textiles, woven and printed; hand-made rugs.

(4) Sculpture and modelling; pottery; tile decoration; plaster-work; stonemason's work; lead-work; wood-carving.

(5) Goldsmithing and silversmithing; jewellery; die-sinking.

(6) Furniture; upholstery.

(7) Interior decoration; painting and decorating.

(8) Light metalwork and light engineering production, including plastics.

A department of drawing and painting will always be an essential element in an art school. Students who are already specialising, or who will specialise, in any of the branches listed above will require plenty of instruction under the teachers in this department in order that their artistic education shall be soundly based on the ability to draw. The influence of the staff of the drawing and painting department should be most valuable throughout the work of the school as a whole. The department which includes modelling and sculpture should similarly exercise a widespread influence, and all students will benefit by a course in that department.

The groups enumerated above may often be combined - for example (2) and (3) or (6) and (7). There are also branches of work not mentioned there which may be variously allocated - for example, shop display, which may be associated either with (1) because of its connection with design for publicity or with (7) because of its connection with interior design and decoration.

Subjects such as stained glass and table glass, and carpet design, which are catered for in certain schools and localities only, have been omitted from the list. Where such an industry is strongly developed the art school may properly provide a special department to serve its needs.

The exact scope and duties of a head of department should be clearly defined; that is to say, he should know which classes come under his control, and which students are primarily his responsibility although some of their work may be done in other departments.

Trade courses may require to be planned so as not to clash with seasonal activities in industry. For instance, window display classes held in the Christmas term should be finished off in good time to enable the students to be free when they are most needed by their employers.

On the amount of time to be allocated to different subjects, it may first be said that short periods are of little or no use in the advanced study of crafts. A useful guiding principle is to allow for periods of


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continuous work long enough to ensure that something definite may be accomplished but not so long that there will be danger of monotony. In the system adopted at the Ecole Boulle in Paris, described in "Industry and Art Education on the Continent"*, highly specialised trade subjects are intensively studied in the afternoons, while the mornings are devoted to work of a general character.

The first-year course, particularly for full-time students, should be wide in scope, and crafts should invariably be included, both in order that the student may at the beginning of his career create for himself as wide a background as possible, and that the staff may have the best opportunity to find out where his strength lies. For example, a girl who in her first year has had some experience in embroidery, weaving and dress design will be none the worse for the knowledge of texture, colour and line she has thus acquired should she finally decide to become a painter and illustrator. Again, a boy may enter the school intending to take up painting, but on being required in his first year to make some study of modelling, carving and pottery, may unexpectedly find that he has a marked ability in these directions. Students who have taken first-year courses broadly planned are bound to feel the advantage when they specialise, and the new scheme for the Ministry's Art Examinations, which took effect in 1946, has been framed with this in mind. It is important, however, that students should not be allowed to remain too long in the more elementary courses.

Linking up the work of the school with industrial practice by arranging for students to work part-time in industry has already been mentioned. The advantage to the future teacher who may have to deal with industrial students, as well as to the future designer or craftsman, is abundantly clear; and experience has shown that a period of work under industrial conditions is in itself valuable, quite apart from the particular future occupation. Some successful arrangements have been made which involve works experience for so many days a week during part of a junior course, generally in the second and third years, in addition to further work in industry during part of the summer holidays; similar arrangements have occasionally been made for senior students. On the other hand, some think that for a student to have several months of continuous industrial experience, either during his course or at the end of it, is the better method. However this may be, those in the schools will readily agree that if the manufacturer is willing to grant facilities for students to secure works experience it will not be for the schools to make limiting conditions. The system

*Educational Pamphlet No. 102 (Industry Series No. 14). H.M. Stationery Office, 1934.


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which has long existed by which the Royal Institute of British Architects insist on the candidates for their final examination having had six months' practical experience in an office is a significant example of an arrangement of this kind. Visits to works in order to observe industrial processes have been found useful, especially to full-time art students lacking previous acquaintance with industry. For the student who intends to become an industrial designer, real works experience is, of course, very much to be desired.

It has already been pointed out that the school of art can make a very useful contribution to the teaching of art and crafts in any other type of school. One way to achieve this is to institute special classes, at the art school, for teachers. The most successful classes of this kind are those where the instructor really understands the problems of the school from which the teachers come, and can at the same time set a high artistic standard. It has often been found that, say, 5.30 is a more convenient hour for such classes than the usual evening hours. Many teachers who have been attracted to the art school by this type of class have subsequently joined classes in crafts, or other types of work according to their interests, to improve their ability as practitioners and therefore as teachers. Full-time short intensive courses for teachers have proved useful, even if they involved some inconvenience during the time that the course was in operation. Another method which has been tried with considerable success is for the teachers to be released in order that they may attend a certain number of classes in the daytime during school hours. The art school should be prepared to offer assistance in regard to specific problems of teaching art and crafts in primary and secondary schools, in improving the individual teacher's own ability as a practitioner and in widening his knowledge of artistic matters generally.

Something, too, can usefully be done for buyers and "middlemen". They are not as a rule likely to attend classes in practical work, however desirable it may be that they should, and it remains for the school to adopt other methods of approach. Two may be mentioned, both of which have been tried with success. The first is through a course of public lectures of a kind likely to be specially interesting to all those engaged in the distributive trades, in whatever capacity; and the second is through special courses for buyers, etc., in particular branches, the school having secured the support of the local business interests. It is all-important that in courses of both types, since both are bound to consist largely of lectures and demonstrations, the instructors should have a first-rate knowledge of the matters with which they are required to deal, and the ability to present their material attractively and convincingly.


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All art students, full-time or part-time, should be encouraged to appreciate and enjoy fine specimens of the arts of all periods, including their-own. The most effective way to do this is constantly to put good examples before them in connection with the practical work which they are themselves doing in the school; and there is also a place for courses of lectures, especially when illustrated by really good lantern slides and reproductions, and for organised visits to galleries and museums as well as to places of historical interest which are also of artistic interest. The resources of the whole staff of an art school can be brought into play in such a way that each teacher will have an opportunity to give every student in the school an insight into the branch in which that teacher is a specialist.




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SECTION IV

THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF ART AND CRAFTS

IT WILL be clear from what has already been said that the first qualification for the teacher of art and craft subjects is that he should himself be a competent practitioner. This does not apply so much to those who will deal with younger boys and girls, though it will be all to the good if they, too, are something of artists themselves.

But a practical qualification as an artist or craftsman will not in itself suffice to make a teacher. Some rare spirits have a natural aptitude for teaching, and need less help than others in learning how, as teachers, to make the most of what they themselves know and can do as artists. But even those rare spirits will be all the better for some useful experience with classes before they settle down to teaching posts, and there can be no doubt that all intending teachers should take every opportunity to learn something about the ways of children and to appreciate the point of view of boys and girls.

The artist or craftsman who will teach older students in art schools would not, on the face of it, appear to need much in the way of "pedagogics", yet there is a great deal for him to learn before he can be sure that he will make a success of passing his knowledge on to his pupils. Moreover, many who may spend most of their careers teaching older students will have to do with teachers of art in other types of school, and they may reach positions of responsibility where it is most desirable that they should have an informed outlook on problems of teaching boys and girls. Another consideration is that many art schools have among their pupils youngsters whose management calls for some real skill in class teaching, as distinct from individual teaching.

In this country a system has been adopted whereby the fully-trained teacher of art and crafts who qualifies through the Ministry's system of art examinations shall hold a qualification which is current in any type of school in which he will teach. Water-tight compartments in training are thus avoided, and this carries with it the double advantage that the teacher so trained is not debarred from transferring from one type of school to another, as would be the case were his qualification limited to one kind of institution, and that the future holder of a responsible position, such as the headship of an art school, will have been encouraged during his student days to see the problem of art education as a whole.

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The foregoing refers to the holder of the Art Teacher's Diploma; but the teacher of art and crafts in the primary school, and some of those who will teach in secondary schools, will have graduated through the Training College system. It is not proposed to discuss the two-year training college course, which has been in operation hitherto, but rather to look forward to the time when the recommendations made by the McNair Committee may be expected to have borne fruit. Among these recommendations is the proposal that the training college course shall be lengthened to three years. This will clearly provide better opportunities for students who wish to follow up some special branch of knowledge during their training and for those who want to concentrate on art and craft subjects.

The chief difference between the course taken by the art school trainee who aims at the Art Teacher's Diploma and that which will have been taken by the teacher produced by the training college system, is this. It is only after he has acquired his qualification as an artist that the former goes on to take his year of training in the principles and practice of teaching. The student in the training college, on the other hand, who is from the start destined to be a teacher, will be immersed in class-room problems, including a substantial amount of practice in teaching, from the time the course begins. In short, the teacher trained through the training college system will require intense study of art and craft subjects during the whole period of his course, if he is going to become anything of a specialist in these matters, whereas a teacher trained through the art school must concentrate on teaching problems during his last year. The three-year training college student who wishes to concentrate on art and crafts will naturally not have been able to acquire as much skill, as a practitioner, as the art school trainee aiming at the Art Teacher's Diploma. Nevertheless, the purpose of both the courses should be to turn out students as competent artists, or craftsmen, well versed in the problems of teaching.

With the classification as "secondary" of all schools for boys and girls of eleven years of age and over, the demand for the fully qualified teacher of art and craft subjects is likely to grow. The machinery exists in the art school system for turning out an increased number of students with the Art Teacher's Diploma. Nevertheless, there will be an interval during which a good many of the teachers who will have come through the training college system will be taken on by schools for boys and girls over eleven to deal mainly or solely with art and craft subjects. It should be clearly understood that the way will be open for those so trained eventually to secure the Art Teacher's Diploma, if they have the ability and energy to do so. Many able


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teachers, before the war, passed the Ministry's art examinations as a result of spare-time study. It may well be that, with the training college course lengthened to three years, carrying with it a scheme for specialisation at certain centres, students at the end of their third year will succeed in passing the Ministry's Intermediate Examination in Art and Crafts. The scope of that examination, and the standard required in the various subjects, should not prove unsuitable, and a teacher who has passed it and wishes later to secure the National Diploma in Design will then be able to work for that qualification.

In the Appendix on art and crafts to the McNair Report, the suggestion is made that at suitable places art schools and neighbouring training colleges should pool their resources in order to form centres where intending teachers of art and crafts can be trained as such. It is intended that these centres should not only run courses for future teachers but should arrange exhibitions, lectures and discussions relating to the teaching of art and crafts, and that short courses should be provided for those already serving as teachers who wish to refresh their skill or to acquire a new outlook.

The contribution to be made by the art school and by the training college respectively at any such centre will depend on the staff available. But it may generally be assumed that the instruction in practical art and craft activities to the standard required should be the responsibility mainly of the art school, while the supervision of teaching practice in primary and secondary schools should be mainly the responsibility of the training college; and that students working for the Art Teacher's Diploma might naturally be the concern chiefly of the art school, while others would come under the general supervision of the training college authorities. No doubt an arrangement whereby members of the staff share their work between the two institutions will often prove to be the most fruitful one. A scheme in operation before the war in London, whereby third-year students in art and crafts at certain training colleges spent most of their time in art schools, thus enabling them greatly to increase their ability as art and craft practitioners, pointed the way to further developments.

The art school student who takes the year's course for the Art Teacher's Diploma may be expected not only to have some considerable skill as an executant, but also to have acquired a point of view on the whole question of art and daily life and the place of art in education. What he will most need is to know how to deal with young people, and how best to get across to them the things which should be handed on.

A most important part of the teaching course will be the actual practice in teaching in schools. This is where experienced teachers in


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primary, secondary and art schools have an opportunity to give invaluable guidance and help to the younger generation of teachers. The burden falling upon the mature teachers in the supervision of students in training is likely to be fairly heavy in these first years after the war, but there can be no doubt that it will be readily accepted. Teaching practice in the art school itself offers good opportunities for the organising of special work with younger pupils that may arouse great interest in both teachers and taught.

The student should not simply teach or observe for an hour or so and then go away from the school; he should be given every incentive to feel that he really is one of the staff during the time that he is in the school. To this end there is much to be said for carrying out teaching practice, not only for specified periods during, say, two days in the week, but also by arranging for students to spend the whole of their time in the school for, say, three weeks or a month. In some courses leading to the Art Teacher's Diploma this method has been adopted with great advantage to the student, who has had a chance to learn much about the day-to-day life of the school and to get to know staff and pupils out of school as well as during school hours - a most important matter.

On the more theoretical side, the prospective teacher should make a study of children at different stages of development and begin to see their varying needs, interests and skills in relation to the special aspects of education included in art and crafts. This should give students a better view of education as a whole, and of the contribution they themselves can make to it through their own special knowledge and interests. It is hoped that this study will be made through actual contact with children and first-hand practice and experiment in various types of schools, and that it will not be confined to a few lectures on the theory of teaching. Equally important will be the development of the student's own interests and of his point of view on art and life in general. Among the kinds of work that are useful for this purpose are the preparation of a thesis on a topic of the student's choice, illustrated talks by individual students, and round-table discussions. The development of the student's ability to express himself with clarity and decision in the English language, both written and spoken, is of paramount importance.

In the training college course, the first essential will be that all students, whatever their ultimate aims and interests, should be given a chance to understand the position of art and craft subjects as a part of the school curriculum as a whole, and should be encouraged to see the importance of good design in daily life. A first step towards this is to ensure that the surroundings in which the students do their work


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in the college constitute in themselves an example of good design. No pains should be spared in making class-rooms and common-rooms as attractive as possible. The art and crafts staff in the training college have an important responsibility in this matter.

The selection of those who shall be encouraged to specialise to a greater or less extent in art and craft subjects may not be easy in the early stages of the course, and may reasonably be left until the students and staff have had an opportunity to get to know one another. There is in any case a good deal to be said for some practical work in art and craft subjects for all during the early part of their courses, and this will make selection easier.

Whether or not students are specialising in art and craft subjects, they should be free to use the art and craft room in their spare time. It may well happen that a student who is gifted in other subjects, on which he is concentrating in his course, will derive great profit from spare-time work of this sort.

Those who show real promise in art and craft, and wish to specialise in the school, may be drafted in their third years to a centre where the art school and training college facilities combined will provide them with the kind of instruction they will require in order to reach as high a standard, both as practitioners and as potential teachers, as time and opportunity allow.

The range of art subjects taught at the training college may vary according to the special abilities and interests of the lecturer or lecturers. This will be specially true of the college not serving as a partner at a centre where art and crafts are specially catered for. The first thing will be for all those teaching art and craft subjects to work together as a team. When this has been achieved, the courses can easily be planned so that a smattering of too many subjects is avoided; each student should aim at a good standard by sufficient concentration on a branch in which he or she is likely to attain it, and at the same time not confine his studies within an unduly narrow range. Many of the considerations which have already been set out as desirable in organising a good secondary school art and crafts course apply equally to the training college. For example, it will be important to teach appreciation of good design side by side with practical work; crafts should be taught in a way which will relate them to the realities of daily life; there should be a place for communal as well as individual work; and co-operation between the art and crafts department and other departments in the college will be important.

Craft work may conveniently be grouped as follows, the actual number of groups dealt with at any one college depending on the staff and equipment available as well as on the sexes of the students. It is


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naturally to be expected that at a centre where the training college and art school collaborate the available range will be wider than at a training college working on its own.

(i) Woodwork.

(ii) Metalwork.

(iii) Dress crafts and the crafts related to home furnishing, which, in addition to dressmaking, may include weaving, fabric-printing, rug-making and embroidery.

(iv) Bookcrafts, including lettering, binding, illustration and the printing of end-papers, etc.

(v) Stage craft, including scenery, costume-making, model theatres, puppets, etc.

(vi) Modelling, carving and pottery.

(vii) Mural and other decorative forms of painting.

Drawing and painting in various media should not be regarded only as an end in itself, but as a means whereby all designers may study the world around them, and thus refresh and stimulate their imaginations; such study will provide ideas, and develop a personal outlook, on form, colour, texture and pattern.

Up to now, too many of the students taking art and craft subjects in training colleges had lost touch altogether with such activities for some years before they left school. The remedy is increased attention to art and crafts in secondary schools, but, until this remedy is applied, the training college lecturers will have to do all they can to rouse the dormant artistic abilities of such students. There is no rigid prescription for this, but the painting of gay groups of flowers and really attractive still life on a big scale, coupled with fabric printing, has proved a valuable means of stimulating students by sharpening their interest in a craft and at the same time awakening their powers of observation and enjoyment of form and colour.

A further task for the "centre" as described above might be the provision of courses in teaching art and craft subjects for painters, sculptors, craftsmen or designers for industry who, after some years spent in successful practice, find themselves drawn towards teaching. Students of this kind would no doubt be most welcome and it should not be hard to devise courses for them.



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APPENDIX I

FOUR existing schools, serving the needs of localities of differing types, are described in this Appendix. Where numbers of students are given, the figures are the latest available before the war.

The first example is a large College of Art and Crafts, situated in a county borough with a population of over a quarter of a million in which the manufacture of dress and hosiery are predominant staple industries. Such activities as printing and advertising, architecture, the building crafts and the retail trades, are also strongly developed. The College is well equipped and organised, both to prepare students to enter industry and commerce and to provide further instruction for those already employed. For example, a steady supply of specially selected students are drafted as designers into the dress and hosiery firms, where the course they have received at this College in conjunction with the neighbouring College of Technology enables them to be usefully employed from the start of their careers. Employees from as many as 44 firms were receiving part-time instruction in the College during the session under review, and, in all, 1,020 students employed in various professions and trades (not including teachers) were receiving instruction of a kind that was of use to them in their work. Of these students 150 were released by their employers in order that they might attend classes during the day.

The junior craft school for girls prepares some 70 pupils for employment at the age of fifteen after a two-year course. A few of the most able pupils may secure scholarships to enable them to take senior courses which should lead to a better type of post than they would otherwise obtain. Boys from an adjacent school which trains young people chiefly for industrial occupations attend the College for art and craft instruction, and there are special classes for those among them who will enter such industries as printing and cabinet-making.

The arrangements for the industrial courses are greatly facilitated by the existence of seven Advisory Committees on which leading industrialists serve. Members of these Committees visit the classes at work, advise the Principal from their point of view as employers, and, last but not least, frequently make gifts of equipment or of prize money to the College.

Under a scheme of regional organisation, the College is serving a wide area as a centre for advanced and specialised courses, as well as providing a special year's course in art teaching for a small group of students who wish to qualify for the Art Teacher's Diploma. About


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a quarter of the total number of 1,733 students (not including the schoolboys mentioned above as attending for art and craft subjects) were from outside the county borough.

The full-time senior students, of whom 125 at this College were taking courses leading to professional qualifications, naturally have the opportunity to carry their work to higher standards than other students do, resulting in a favourable influence upon the work related to the various crafts and branches of industry. For example, the study of book illustration and of design for advertising is very closely associated with the College's important printing department, and architecture with the building crafts. Painting and decorating, again, can most usefully be linked up with several other branches of study at such a College, for the skilled designer and the artist have much inspiration to give to this craft, as has the architect and interior designer.

In short, the students, of all types, have an opportunity to work under experts in whatever subjects are to be included in their courses, and the organisation of the three main schools - of Industrial Design, of Architecture and Building, and of Drawing and Painting - is planned with that consideration in view.

Co-operation in the planning of joint courses, enabling certain students to take part of their work in the College of Art and Crafts and part in the College of Technology, has been ensured by the formation of a Board of Studies comprising the two Principals and members of staff from both Colleges. One hundred and thirty-three full-time students of both Colleges were taking such courses, eighty-three of them being dress and hosiery students.

The staff of this large College of Art and Crafts consists of a Principal, 3 heads of departments, 27 full-time and 36 part-time teachers. The part-time teachers are mostly instructors in trade subjects, who are at the same time employed in industry; but some of the expert trade teachers are engaged in a full-time capacity. All the teachers are required, by the terms of their agreement, to practise as well as teach, in order to avoid staleness.

The Principal acts as adviser in the teaching of art and craft subjects in the Primary and Secondary Schools. Members of the College staff visit the schools, and 238 teachers attended the College for instruction in art and craft subjects during the session under review. This was one of the centres where a scheme by which teachers drawn from all over the country attended a full-time course, lasting for one term, was successfully put into force shortly before the war. Twenty-seven attended the latest course. By no means the least important service to the Primary and Secondary Schools consists


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in the circulating among them of collections of first-rate examples of textiles, glass, pottery, embroidery, printing and other crafts and manufactures, as well as a good series of reproductions of a varied range of works of art.

Staff and students play a part in all manner of local artistic activities and in arranging lectures and exhibitions of a kind likely to interest the general public, who naturally turn to the College as a centre of inspiration in artistic matters for the whole community. Another way in which the influence of the College spreads beyond its own walls is through the Branch Evening Art Schools which are organised as a part of the College's activities. The fact that the Principal advises in regard to art instruction in Evening Institutes, many of the teachers in these classes having been trained in the College, forms another useful link. The College may, indeed, be said to create a demand for high standards in design and craftsmanship, in addition to providing the means of satisfying it.

The placing of full-time students in suitable posts on the completion of their courses is, as might be expected, satisfactorily accomplished, and every precaution is taken to ensure that no students are encouraged to remain in the school if there does not appear to be a reasonable chance of their securing suitable employment.

*        *        *

The second example is a School of Art in a smaller industrial area, a borough with some 40,000 inhabitants. Textile and dress manufacture are local staple industries and there are also the usual branches of industry and commerce to which an art school may render useful service.

It is unnecessary to describe the organisation of the school in detail, since it closely follows that of the College of Art and Crafts first described, the chief difference being size rather than scope. Printing, cabinet-making, dress designing and making, and painting and decorating, are all important subjects.

Cordial relations have been established between the school and local industries, both by personal contacts and through the formation of numerous advisory committees; the staff are well qualified by experience on the industrial side, and students are readily placed on leaving the school. During the session under review, 192 of the total of 411 students in the school were attending classes of help to them in their daily work, and 28 of them were released by their employers to attend day classes. The Junior Art Department provided a two-year course for 48 pupils. Looms are available in the school itself and there is also useful co-operation with the Technical College in the


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training of textile designers. School teachers are dealt with in substantial numbers. This Art School invariably plays a prominent part in public life when such undertakings as pageants or processions need to be catered for.

*        *        *

The third school is situated in a residential town of about 50,000 inhabitants. While, as might be expected, the industrial side of the work does not loom so large as in the schools described above, yet 79 of the total of 246 students were attending classes related to their professional or industrial employment. Instruction in printing, painting and decorating, and in display and window-dressing, forms an important part of the curriculum, which also includes cabinet-making. Full-time as well as part-time courses in architecture are provided in conjunction with the Technical College, which provides scientific instruction in building subjects. There are Advisory Committees for architecture, printing, painting and decorating, and display.

There is no Junior Department in this school; but there were 42 full-time students aiming at artistic careers in different branches. The school provides comprehensive courses, in crafts as well as in drawing and painting, and in pictorial and commercial design, including photography, which are suitable for these day students besides enabling evening students to make a study of these subjects. A most important task of this school, as of others so situated, is to act as a centre for exhibitions, lectures and discussions likely to interest the public. The school makes a prominent feature of this part of its work, and the Principal, who acts as "Director of Art" for the county, keeps in touch with a wide range of educational, industrial and other interests in which an art school can usefully participate.

*        *        *

The fourth example is a school, in an ancient market town of 10,000 inhabitants, which bears a responsibility to a large surrounding rural area for which it serves as an educational centre. There is a local textile factory but no other staple industries on which art has a bearing: of the students enrolled in 1938, 75 were receiving instruction in relation to their occupations; among them were 35 employees of the textile factory. There were also 22 teachers attending classes specially organised for them on Saturday mornings. The school has recently supplied three design-room employees to the textile firm, who in their turn have co-operated with the school by carrying out students' designs in their factory.


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Instruction in art and craft was being provided for pupils from two residential schools, for boys and girls respectively, and for selected pupils from local primary and secondary schools.

An important feature is the attention which the Principal of this small school has given to organising social activities such as debates, a sketch club, rambling and camera clubs, as well as excursions to London, and on occasion to the Continent, to see important exhibitions but above all in order to enlarge the outlook of the students, many of whom had never before been outside their fairly remote native county.

This little school can offer a reasonably wide range of craft work, including fabric-printing (of importance to the local firm), painting and decorating, cabinet-making and carving, weaving, dress-crafts and embroidery, and light crafts more particularly suited to the needs of teachers, such as bookbinding. Instruction in general drawing, painting and design is, of course, also available. A very good feature is that the abler students who are ripe for more advanced work are given every encouragement to go forward to a larger school where they will find facilities of a kind that could not be justified at this smaller centre.

APPENDIX II

PREMISES AND ACCOMMODATION

THE following are broad general points to be borne in mind in planning new premises:

In the first place, whether or not the art school shares a building with other activities, it is generally desirable that it should be planned vertically rather than that the top floor of a large building should be allotted to it. While the rooms used for such purposes as drawing and painting from life will need north lighting and plenty of it, and may suitably be placed on a top storey, there are other rooms, such as design rooms, which are all the better for some cheerful sunlight. This also applies to the workshops in general, which may be expected to constitute the most important feature of the average school. It will generally be desirable to place on the lower floors subjects involving the use of bulky materials and heavy equipment or machinery.

"Departments", such as those of dress and allied crafts, of modelling and sculpture (which may include pottery and plaster-work), or of book production (including illustration and bookbinding as well as printing), should be as far as possible self-contained.


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Enough storage accommodation provided in the right place is very important. Nearly every room in the average art school may advantageously have its own separate and contiguous store-room.

The provision of space for exhibitions is essential. A special exhibition-room, set apart for the purpose and readily accessible to the public, is desirable. Where such special provision cannot be justified, a useful arrangement is to have folding doors between two rooms enabling the rooms to be thrown into one for holding an exhibition. In any case there should be plenty of room in the entrance hall for showing some attractive examples of the work of the school, and the possibility of a display window on the street front should be considered. It should be borne in mind that in some centres there may be no facilities for exhibitions other than those provided by the art school.

While some workshops, such as those used for painting and decorating and cabinet-making, will generally serve only that specific purpose, yet, especially in the case of the smaller school, it will sometimes be justifiable to equip a single room for more than one use. The room should then be planned so that it may, if necessary, be used for more than one purpose at a time, and the need for constant shifting of equipment should, as far as possible, be eliminated.

The artificial lighting of art schools is an interesting study and many experiments have been made, especially in life rooms, with the object of securing the best results. It is probably generally true that, apart from the special problems presented by the life and antique rooms, all rooms in which practical craft work is done should be provided with individual lights for each student, and that this should also be done in the case of design, illustration, architectural drawing, etc., unless the general lighting of the room is exceptionally bright and is planned to avoid glare and eyestrain due to changing light. While a room should not be filled up with a greater number of lighting fittings than are essential, real efficiency in illumination should be put before all other considerations. In life rooms it has sometimes been found useful to arrange the main source of illumination for the model so that it comes from the same direction as the main supply of daylight. However, in planning art school lighting, specialist advice should always be sought from such a source as the Building Centre and the Electric Light Manufacturers Association Lighting Service Bureau, where full information about the latest systems and apparatus is available.

New schools should always be planned in such a way that extensions can easily be added, and the interior arrangements should as far as possible permit of the rooms being altered in size to meet new and


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unforeseen needs; if possible, equipment should not be permanently fixed. The importance of this is evident when we realise the extent to which art school plans to-day differ from the plans of thirty years ago, especially in the importance now given to workshop accommodation. Indeed, it has often come about that although the amount of space available in an old building is sufficient, the character of the accommodation is wholly unsuitable for modern requirements.

While a special room should be set aside as a library where students may occasionally not only read but work from plates, etc., it is what the library contains rather than the way in which it is housed which will count for most. In addition to books, there should be current magazines; and collections of plates and reproductions, as well as lantern slides, suitably indexed. Where it is not possible to allocate a special room for the library, books should be kept in some place where students can see the titles on the backs, so that they know what is available; it will often be found that it is in any case useful for certain books which are in constant use to be stored in the rooms where the subjects with which they deal are taught.

For art schools serving as centres it is not possible, even if it were desirable, to lay down a rigid formula relating the schedule of accommodation to the size of the population served. There are two reasons for this. In the first place, the number of students forthcoming is likely to vary, at any rate to some extent, according to the nature of the district; in the second place, the type of provision needed will depend on the kind of work required in the locality. For, example, the presence of manufacturing or commercial undertakings on which art has a bearing will affect both the numbers to be provided for and the kind of provision needed. Moreover, the extent to which different kinds of work are likely to be required will govern the extent to which it may be justifiable to provide single-purpose rooms, or rooms which serve more than one purpose. For instance, unless practical work in window display is to be done on all or most evenings, it will make for economy to provide facilities for display in a part of a room used on other evenings for other purposes, and to make use of the exhibition hall, if one is available, for some of the practical work in setting up displays. Modelling and carving, or modelling and pottery, may in the same way sometimes be combined, especially if the same teacher is likely to be responsible for both subjects. Such crafts as dress design and embroidery may also lend themselves to similar treatment.

In the following Schedule, the areas suggested for the rooms are such as would contain the number of students who can con-


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veniently be dealt with at one time. At some large centres it may, of course, be more economical to provide both studio and workshop accommodation on a scale which will allow for a very large number of students to be dealt with in certain rooms, and some rooms may need to be duplicated.

The storage needed will, of course, vary with the type of work, e.g. a wood store must be long enough as well as big enough, and the display room will need an extra large store; but 150 square feet per studio or workshop should give a fair average.

Twenty-five feet has generally been proved a satisfactory figure to take for the width of studios and workshops, and the planning of accommodation is facilitated by the adoption of a standard width. It may, however, be convenient to arrange for certain rooms, e.g. a painting and decorating workshop, to be wider, and such rooms may often be placed at the end of a wing where corridor space will not be needed and the whole width of the building will be available. If the corridors are 10 feet wide to allow for lockers big enough to take imperial size drawing-boards, it will then be possible, for example, to plan a spacious room 35 feet square at the end of a wing.

In deciding what height to give to a room which will not be top lit, the need for daylight lighting good enough to illuminate properly the side of the room farthest from the windows should be borne in mind.

The following schedule should not be considered exhaustive where it relates to the probable requirements of a large school, since it is very likely that at certain centres special work of a kind not generally required will be called for.



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SCHEDULE

Description of RoomSize of School
MEDIUM
sq. ft.
LARGE
sq. ft.
STUDIOS
General Drawing1,0001,000
Life (for painting and drawing)850850
Antique and Painting1,000-
Antique-850
Painting-850
Design8001,000
Design and Display1,200-
Architecture-1,000
Building Specimens Room-250

WORKSHOPS
Modelling-850
Modelling and Pottery850-
Casting Room250500
Pottery (exclusive of kilns)-750
Stone and Wood Carving-750
Fibrous Plastering-750
Plain Plastering-750
Plastering (both Plain and Fibrous)1,000-
Metalwork500850
Painting and Decorating1,0001,250
Signwriting-850
Paperhanging-750
Wet Varnish Room120120
Spray Painting-400

PRINTING
Compositors' Work-800
Letterpress Machine-1,000

(Will vary according to the nature of the machinery required and may need to be larger, but no room under this size should be provided for this purpose in the first instance.)


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Description of RoomSize of School
MEDIUM
sq. ft.
LARGE
sq. ft.
PRINTING (cont.)
Machine Composition-500
Compositors' Work and Letterpress Machine1,250-
Lithography (Artists' Room)-750
Lithography (Machine Work)-850
Litho Stone and Plate Polishing and Graining-250
Lithography750-
Photo-process-750
Bookbinding-750
Photography (exclusive of Dark Rooms)-850
Engraving and Etching (excluding Printing Room)500750
Cabinet-making1,0001,250
Cabinet-making (Special Equipment)-500
Cabinet-making Store for Finished Work and Work in Hand200300
Display (if a Special Room needed, but not including Display Workshop)1,0001,200
Display Workshop-300

DRESS AND ALLIED CRAFTS
General1,000-
Dress Design (including Fitting Room)-1,000
Embroidery (Hand)-750
Embroidery-(Machine)-500
Millinery-750
Weaving-750
Fabric Printing-750
Lecture Room (to seat 60)600-
Lecture Room (to seat 200)-2,000*

*More if seating banked.


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Description of Room
Library (with facilities for Drawing, etc.)
Exhibition Room.
Students' Common Rooms
Staff Rooms
The sizes will of course vary according to the size of the School, but 500 square feet for the Library and 1,000 square feet the for Exhibition Hall may be regarded as reasonable minima.

A greenhouse, which may suitably be situated next to the General Drawing or Design Studios, is a very useful - indeed, almost an essential - part of the provision if the drawing and painting of plants is to be successfully tackled.

The desirability of making the best possible use of any available garden space will scarcely need to be stressed.





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OTHER PAMPHLETS IN THIS SERIES

No. 3. Youth's Opportunity: Further Education in County Colleges (1946). 2s. (2s. 1½d.)

No. 4. Building Crafts: Education for Industry and Commerce (1945). 1s. (1s. 1½d.)

No, 7. Entrants to the Mining Industry: Education for Industry and Commerce (1947). 6d. (7½d.)

No. 8. Further Education (1947). 3s. 6d. (3s. 9d.)

No. 9. The New Secondary Education (1947). 2s. 6d. (2s. 8d.)

No. 11. Organised Camping (2nd edition, 1951). 1s. 3d. (1s. 4½d.)

No. 12. UNESCO and a World Society (1948). 1s. (1s. 1½d.)

No. 13. Safety Precautions in Schools (1948). 9d. (10½d.)

No. 14. Story of a School: A Headmaster's Experiences with Children Aged Seven to Eleven (1949). 1s. (1s. 1½d.)

No. 16. Citizens Growing Up: At Home, in School and After (1949). 1s. (1s. 1½d.)

No. 17. Challenge and Response: An Account of the Emergency Scheme for the Training of Teachers (1950). 4s. (4s. 3d.)

No. 18. Reading Ability: Some Suggestions for Helping the Backward (1950). 2s. (2s. 1½d.)

No. 19. The Road to the Sixth Form: Some Suggestions on the Curriculum of the Grammar School (1951). 1s. 3d. (1s. 4½d.)

No. 20. School Broadcasts: A Sample Study from the Listeners' End (1952). 1s. 6d. (1s. 7½d.)

No. 21. The School Library (1952). 2s. (2s. 1½d.)

No. 22. Metalwork in Secondary Schools (1952). 3s. 6d. (3s. 7½d.)

No. 23. Teaching History (1952). 3s. 6d. (3s. 8d.)

No. 24. Moving and Growing. (Physical Education in the Primary School, Part I) (1952). 6s. (6s. 4d.)

No. 25. Planning the Programme (Physical Education in the Primary School, Part II) (1953). 6s. (6s. 5d.)

No. 26. Language: Some Suggestions for Teachers and others in Primary and Secondary Schools, and in Further Education. (1954). 3s. 6d. (3s. 8d.)

Prices in brackets include postage

OBTAINABLE FROM HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE AT THE ADDRESSES ON PAGE TWO


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