Lincoln College of Art

Founding and early years

The Lincoln School of Art has its origins in the art school movement that followed the 1851 Great Exhibition. The School was founded as a private venture, with the support of the Department of Science and Art, on Monday 2 February 1863, in a single room on the Corn Exchange, Lincoln. Its guiding light was John Somerville Gibney, a minor canon of Lincoln Cathedral, and its first headmaster was Edward R. Taylor, founder of Birmingham School of Art and inventor of Ruskin Pottery.

The courses on offer were arranged into three levels: Elementary, Advanced, and Special or Technical. These levels were divided into classes:

1. Elementary: Practical Geometry, Model Drawing, Figure from the Flat, Linear Perspective Free-hand Drawing and Shading, and Elementary Colour;
2. Advanced: Drawing the figure from Casts, Painting: Ornament, Flowers, Landscape, Still Life;
3. Special or Technical: Design, Architectural and Mechanical Drawing, Artistic Anatomy, Modelling.

As a result of the school's success in its first year, new premises were sought for and acquired above the National School for Boys' on the south side of Silver Street. This new school room was opened 10 October 1864, and was of a size to allow its use as an exhibition space. A public exhibit was held in November of that year and proved so popular that the floor had to be re-enforced. With the growth of engineering in Lincoln, there was a need for draughtsmen to produce accurate drawings of machine and engineering parts, and to illustrate catalogues, and so the school offered courses on draughtsmanship. The Rev. Gibney himself became a student by studying the skill of engraving on to copper. He produced his own publication, 'Etchings of Lincoln Cathedral' (1870), using this method.

By 1868 and 1869, the school was ranked in 6th place by the Department of Science and Art, after schools such as Edinburgh and Nottingham. By 1873 there were some 130 schools of art in Britain, and Lincoln was rated in 9th place.

Death of Rev. Gibney

In 1875, the Rev. J. S. Gibney, the school's honorary secretary since its inception, died when he fell through a skylight. He had been inspecting the roof of the school with a joiner, George Allis, and in particular had been discussing with Allis alterations he wanted made to a skylight, when he began tapping the glass with his right foot, lost his balance, and fell through, down into the model room below. He was supposedly heard to cry out, 'My God', as he fell. The inquest into his death was held at the White Hart Hotel and the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

Ironically, in a sermon he had delivered to his congregation a few days earlier on Sunday, 3 January, he had spoken of the need to be prepared for sudden death by having all of one's affairs in order. He died intestate.

Gibney Art Scholarship

In honour of the Rev. Gibney and his work, the school established a scholarship in his name. Awarded to students at the school, its purpose was to allow the successful student to devote his or her time wholly to the cultivation of art. Holders of the Gibney Scholarship have included William Logsdail, Frederick Hall, Frederick William Elwell, May Yeomans (who would go on to be principal at the school), and ceramics artist Robert Blatherwick.

Rules of the school

During its early years, the committee running the school drew up a list of rules, signed by the Rev. J. Mansell, the Honorary Secretary who succeeded the Rev. Gibney in 1875:

1. All applications for Admission to the School must be made to the Head Master. No Student will be admitted to the Evening Classes under 12 years of age, without special permission of the Committee.
2. All Fees are to be paid in advance at the commencement of each Half-year, when Students will receive a Ticket of admission, which they are to produce whenever required. If the Fees are not paid within 14 days, a Fine of 2/6 will be imposed on Students of the Morning Classes, and 1/- on Students of the Evening Classes.
3. The School will be open for Morning Classes at 9.30, on Tuesday, and Saturday, in each week. Also at 2 o'Clock each Monday and Thursday, and the door will be closed at 4 o'Clock. Evening Classes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday in each week, will commence at 7 and close at 9. No Student is to remain in the School after the Master has left (unless by special leave).
4. Students are required to come punctually to the Classes, and to remain till the close of the Classes they attend.
5. All Conversation and all necessary Moving about are strictly prohibited.
6. Any Students guilty of Insubordination, Levity, or any impropriety; or who shall injure Desks, Seats, Works of art; Scribble on the Walls, use the Lavatory Basins for getting rid of the Scrapings of Pallets, or in any way Damage or Deface the property of the School shall be liable to immediate Suspension by the Master, who must report forthwith such Suspension to the Committee.
7. Students are strictly prohibited from touching the Gas, moving Casts or Objects of study, except with the special leave of the Master.
8. At the close of the Classes Students are required to leave their paintings, drawings, and easels in such places as shall be assigned to these, respectively, by the Master.
9. All Drawings executed by the Students must be delivered to the head Master immediately on their completion. Every Drawing or Work executed in the School belongs to the School till it has been sent to South Kensington, and must not be taken away from the School. It will be given to the Student after it has been submitted to the Authorities at South Kensington and returned by them.
10. All Students received at the Lower Scale of Fees are required to make at least 20 Attendances, and to sit at the Government Examination in the Subjects for which they are registered. These examinations are held in April or May.
11. Students are expressly forbidden to take home examples or property belonging to the School.

Controversy

By the late 1880s, the school was teaching Greek art and using classically based subject matter, as well as importing the then new idiom of Impressionism.

The painter and Royal Academician John Callcott Horsley, attending the annual prize-giving in April, 1890, criticised the school for teaching its students such techniques found in the French school of painting, to the detriment of the English school. He called these techniques a 'fad' and one of those 'ridiculous crazes' that had been imported from Paris. He then went on to expand his criticism to schools of art in general, which he called 'the greatest possible misfortune' to British art (although he did make an exception with Lincoln).

Alfred G. Webster, the then principal of the school, replied in an open letter published in the Lincoln Gazette, expressing the belief that discoveries and ideas from abroad ought not to be disregarded simply as a result of their foreign origins. He pointed out that Britons, Normans, and Saxons all 'had the misfortune to be foreigners', and that the English School had been founded on the practises of Hans Holbein, Anthony van Dyck, and Peter Paul Rubens, all foreigners.

School of Science and Art

The School moved to premises on Monks Road in 1886, where it became one-half of a 'School of Science and Art', with its own principal and organising committee. The ground floor was home to the Science School (except for the Modelling Room), with shared use of the Lecture Theatre and the Porters' Room, while the Art School was based on the first floor, with shared use of the Committee and Secretary's Rooms. Both floors had rooms for the respective schools' masters. The Basement had two bedrooms and a living room, and was shared use, except that the Science School used the Laboratory and Balance Room. The Science School increased in size and added a technical wing to the Monks Road premises in 1891, a reflection of the rise of industry in Lincoln in general, which was further demonstrated in an article from the Lincoln Gazette, dated 1897, which described a conversazione at the combined school in 1897, during which x-rays, glass-blowing, and a cinematograph were exhibited. Of twelve paragraphs, only one is devoted to the art school. In 1901 the combined school was renamed the City of Lincoln Municipal Technical School, and then the Lincoln Technical College in 1928.

The School of Art had originally been supported by the Department of Science and Art, South Kensington. With the Department's closure in 1899, the school lost that support and so was eventually absorbed into the Technical College, under the authority of the Lincoln Education Authority, where it effectively ceased to be a private venture and an independent educational institution.

The School remained part of the Technical College for the next six decades. The range of subjects taught widened during this time to include (along with the more traditional subjects) costume, typography, lettering, metalwork and silver-smithing, dress design, and bookcraft, in keeping with headmaster Austin Garland's statement that the students be 'taught to make things, and to bring artistic methods to bear upon the problems of everyday life'. In 1948, the Royal Institute of British Architects (R.I.B.A.) recognised the school as an approved centre for training up to the intermediary standard.

Pottery was also taught at the school. Lincolnshire ceramics artist Robert Blatherwick, who had studied at the school, returned to teach there from the early forties to the late sixties.

In 1950, a report by His Majesty's Inspectors criticised the 'inadequate' accommodation and stated that this 'handicapped' the students. They also stated that the school was understaffed, with full-time staff sometimes having to supervise more than one group at a time. During the 1937–38 academic year, the school's students numbered 251 (including part-time and evening classes), while by 1949–50, that number had grown to 415 students.

Christ's Hospital Terrace

The School was transferred to the Bluecoat School building on Christ's Hospital Terrace in 1957, where it regained some of its independence from the technical college, which became the Lincoln College of Technology in the 1970s and developed into the present Lincoln College, Lincolnshire.

1958 fire

In May, 1958, a fire broke out in the west wing of the School of Art. Although the damage to the building was light, many art works were destroyed.

Lincoln College of Art

By the mid-1970s, the official name of the school had been changed to the Lincoln College of Art. In 1975, the college's administration was moved to the old Girl's High School building on Lindum Road, now called the Greestone Building.

At this time, a number of influential figures emerged amongst the teaching staff, both locally and nationally. The principal, Peter Williams (1936–2005), described by The Guardian newspaper as both an artist and art educationist, also held the post of Art Advisor to the City of Lincoln Authority. He would go on to become a prime mover and founding director of the Kent Institute of Art & Design.

Artist Gill Nadin (1928–1996) taught at the college. The Lincolnshire Artists' Society instituted an art prize in her name. Another notable lecturer at the college was the Czech emigre artist Tony Bartl (1912–1998) who was appointed in 1948.

Between 1970 and 1980, the ceramics artist Peter Moss was Head of Department and a college governor. He went on to be acting principal and then vice-principal when the college became Lincolnshire College of Art. He was also a consultant and part-time and visiting lecturer for most of its time as part of De Montfort University.

Lincolnshire College of Art & Design

In the early 1980s, another name change turned the college into the Lincolnshire College of Art & Design.

By this time, the College was based in three buildings: the Greestone Building, Christ's Hospital Terrace, and the Gibney Centre on Monks Road. The latter used the façade of what had once been the City of Lincoln Municipal Technical School, where the School of Art had been joined with the School of Science.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Front Row in May 2014, the celebrated ceramic artist and author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal, stated that when he was five years old, he was taken to a ceramics evening class at the college where he discovered ceramics.

In 1993, Lincolnshire College of Art & Design was ranked 7th in the Guardian's league table for further education colleges.

1991 Lindum Road fire

A fire broke out on the upper floor of the general office building in 1991. The staff inside, unaware of the flames, were alerted by staff in the British Telecom building nearby who had noticed the smoke. There were no fatalities, but the damage was estimated to be between £50,000 and £100,000. The Lens Media Unit, which had just purchased a multi-format DeVere 504 Colour Enlarger, was rendered inoperable and was not re-opened until January, 1992.

Later years

The Lincolnshire College of Art was incorporated into De Montfort University, in 1994, where it became known as the School of Art & Design.

De Montfort University

During this period, the work of the school – both of its tutors and students – achieved a wider recognition. Tutor and fine art artist Medina Hammad exhibited in Sudan, by invitation by the University of Khartoum. The exhibition attracted both radio and television coverage in that country. Alison Read, a member of staff in printmaking but with an interest in sculpture, was commissioned by Lord Jacob Rothschild to produce a sculpture of five running dogs, while BA Graphic Design and Illustration student Neil Aldridge won in the Communications category: 'Postage Stamps' of the RSA Student Design Awards. The brief was 'British Obsession: The Weather'. His entry also appeared on the front page of The Times Higher Education Supplement for 15 May. In January 1999, selected student work was accorded the rare honour of being exhibited at the Mercury Gallery, Cork Street, London, as part of its Young Printmakers' exhibition.

University of Lincoln

By the 2000s, De Montfort University's expansion beyond Leicester had ended and the university was selling all of its outlying campuses, including Lincoln. In 2001, the School of Art was divided in two, between Lincoln College, which took many of the FE (Further Education) art courses, and the University of Lincoln, which took the HE (Higher Education) art courses.

As part of the University of Lincoln, the school was incorporated as the Lincoln School of Art and Design, within the College of Art. The University of Lincoln's College of Art has later since been reorganised and provision from the original Lincoln College of Art is now spread across schools within the University of Lincoln's College of Art.

150th Anniversary Year

The year 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the founding of the school. As part of the celebrations, the University of Lincoln held an exhibition entitled Lincoln School of Art: A Celebration of 150 Years in the gallery of the Greestone Building. The exhibition featured prospectuses dating from as far back as 1947, nineteenth-century works by students, a video of a cricket match and picnic dating from July, 1979, and a selection of student art from the university's own art collection. The opening was held on Saturday, 2 February, exactly 150 years to the day the school opened and was attended by many ex-staff and students.

One month later, an exhibition of art from the school was opened at The Collection (Lincolnshire), in the Usher Gallery, entitled Past and Present: A Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Lincoln School of Art. Works by artists such as William Logsdail, George Francis Carline, Frank Bramley, as well as paintings by the school's headmasters such as Alfred G. Webster, were displayed.

These were followed by a series of events, including talks and free lectures. A series of conferences, held by the University of Lincoln, were run, entitled LSA&D In Session: Speculations on the 21st Century Art School, addressing the role and function of the modern art school. It was in collaboration with the Royal Society of Arts and the Lincoln Academy.

Notable alumni

Govinder Nazran (Gov) 1964-2008

Principals/heads of school

As part of De Montfort University:

As part of the University of Lincoln: