Andrew Kay: Arts about Face

Hands off our great art education system you bunch of thieving philistines

Age might well be a state of mind but nothing pulls that state of mind more sharply into focus than the imminent arrival of my brother’s eldest child, my nephew, my godson. It hardly seems five minutes since we were playing with lego, laughing at meerkats (Ah the heavenly days when I had a real excuse to go to Drusilla’s) and building sand castles on a Cornish beach.

Now he is about to graduate from Oxford Brooks after three years studying architecture and will soon be embarking on a career. I remember that stage in my life well. I graduated after four years at Chelsea School of Art and for a fleeting moment I was in that odd state of flux, what next. I was fortunate and fell into my first job within days and I loved it. Graphic design was my career back then and I knew that it was what I wanted to do because in those days all art students had the opportunity to do a one year foundation course.

Foundation was the best thing that ever happened to me, Oh I knew that I wanted to go to art college, but to study what specialism? That first year gave us all the chance to find out. It gave a few the chance to find out that art school was not for them either. Some rightly chose not to go on, for a variety of reasons. Some hated the freedom offered, they needed a more structured kind of educational experience, some felt that they simply could not keep up and chose to change direction sooner rather than later.

I loved it, I immersed myself in the whole art school experience, dressing wildly, staying up late, working harder than I ever had at school, joining choirs and societies, going onto the college board as a student rep and generally getting stuck in.
The Art Foundation Course system was very effective and after that first year I had a much clearer idea of what to do with my life from that point. It also taught me to be fearless.

Now there are plans afoot to dispense with foundation courses completely. This means that hapless school leavers with a desire to study some form of art discipline will be forced to decide which without any guidance. At 18 I was simply not equipped with the right experience and information to decide whether my future lay in Graphic design, textiles, fashion, painting, sculpure, theatre design … I chose graphics and loved it.
If you had the same experience and feel as I do that dispensing with foundation courses is yet another nail in the coffin of our great tradition of art education then please join the campaign of protest and add your name to the cause.