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Royal College of Art

 
Modern Design Dictionary: Royal College of Art
 
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RCA
(established 1837)

The RCA is one of the most illustrious art and design educational institutions in Britain and has a long and distinguished history. Its beginnings were as the Government School of Design, established in 1837 as a response to the British failure to compete effectively with a growing number of countries in the design of manufactured goods. In 1853 the School became the National Art Training School and moved to South Kensington, training new teachers and providing a focus for national art education. A leading force in this enterprise was Henry Cole (1808-82), who had played an important role in setting up the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Notable amongst early teachers at the Government School were Owen Jones and Gottfried Semper and design played a significant role in the curriculum. In 1896 the School was renamed the Royal College of Art and soon underwent a number of further changes with the appointment of Walter Crane as principal in 1898. In 1901 the RCA organized itself into schools of painting, sculpture, design, and architecture. After the First World War the RCA was noted for its aesthetic input into many fields, including British sculpture that was influenced by students such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Influential design tutors included the artist Paul Nash and in 1936 the government-appointed Hambledon Committee recommended that the RCA again be reorganized in order to raise the profile of design in the curriculum with the consequent suggestion that it be redesignated as the Royal College of Design. Almost exactly a century later than the government committees that had resulted in the establishment of the Government School of Design and a national network of art and design schools, similar concerns about the ability of Britain to compete with other countries in terms of design came once more to the fore in the 1930s. After the Second World War the RCA was reorganized under a new principal, Robin Darwin, who took up the post in 1948 and placed greater emphasis on product design and specialist design provision including graphics and fashion. In 1959 a new School of Industrial Design (Engineering) was established under Misha Black, who in turn instituted a Research Unit within it under L. Bruce Archer, a visiting professor at the Hochschule für Gestaltung at Ulm and a director of the company Scientists and Technologies Engineering Partnership. After a series of successful, externally funded projects, the Research Unit became a department in its own right, the Department of Design Research, and Archer was promoted to a professorship in 1967. In the same year the RCA was granted a Royal Charter which conferred on it independent university status and the ability to confer its own degrees, singling it out from most of the rest of British art and design higher education which was controlled by a centralized system of diploma and degree conferment until the late 1980s. From 1984 when Jocelyn Stevens became rector a further programme of development and expansion was undertaken, culminating in the opening in 1992 of the Stevens Building in 1992, the 25th anniversary of the College's gaining of the Royal Charter. However, during Stevens's rectorship the Department of Design Research was closed in 1987. Christopher Frayling became rector in 1996, a role he held alongside that of the chairmanship of the Design Council in the early 21st century. Over its lifetime the RCA has had a distinguished list of alumni and staff, many of whom are internationally renowned and influential designers.

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Wikipedia: Royal College of Art
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Royal College of Art
Established: 1837
Type: Public
Provost: Sir Terence Conran
Rector: Sir Christopher Frayling
Students: 920[1]
Postgraduates: 920[1]
Location: London, England
Campus: Urban
Website: www.rca.ac.uk
The Darwin Building at Kensington Gore

The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a university in London, England, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate art and design institution, offering the degrees of MA, MPhil and PhD.

The results of the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), published in December 2008, confirmed the Royal College of Art's position as the leading specialist art and design institution in the United Kingdom, with 40% of its research output judged to be of quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour. A further 25% is deemed internationally excellent.

The College is housed in a number of sites in South Kensington and Battersea, including the Darwin Building at Kensington Gore, and Stevens Building nearby in Jay Mews. The official reopening of the Royal College of Art’s sculpture building in Battersea marks the first step in the College’s ambitious expansion programme south of the river.

In summer 2009, the sculptors will be joined by the painting department in a new building, the first phase of a bigger scheme designed to combine the Schools of Fine Art and Applied Art, and bring the four Fine Art departments together for the first time in the College’s long history.

The second phase of the new campus will begin in 2010, housing the departments of photography and printmaking as well as a gallery and a large lecture theatre along with accommodation for 30 start-up units for businesses in the fields of art and design.

With floor space exceeding 7,000 square metres, the development will be car free with 58 cycle spaces and a minibus linking to the Kensington site. Around 250 students and staff will relocate from the main college campus in Kensington.

Contents

History

The Royal College of Art was founded in 1837, and was known as the Government School of Design. It became the National Art Training School in 1853, with the Female School of Art in separate buildings, and in 1896 received the name Royal College of Art. It was often informally referred to as the South Kensington Schools during the 19th century. See Richard Burchett, an early Headmaster, for more details on this period. After 130 years in operation, the RCA was granted its Royal Charter in 1967, which gave it the status of an independent university with the power to grant its own degrees.

Its Royal Charter specifies that the objects of the College are "to advance learning, knowledge and professional competence particularly in the field of fine arts, in the principles and practice of art and design in their relation to industrial and commercial processes and social developments and other subjects relating thereto through teaching, research and collaboration with industry and commerce".

The average age of its postgraduate students, studying at Master’s and Doctoral levels, is twenty-six. Some come to the Royal College of Art direct from their undergraduate courses, others later in their careers as artists. A major survey of graduates who studied at the RCA from 2002 to 2007 has revealed that prospects for RCA graduates remain exceptionally strong. According to the latest statistics on all graduate destinations from the Royal College of Art between 2002 and 2007, an average of 93% gained work in directly related employment and at the right level. The current enrollment tally measures roughly 900 students, all taking fine art, applied art, design, communication design and humanities courses.

The Royal College of Art played a major role in the birth of the modern school of British sculpture in the 1920s, with students including Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and in the development of Pop Art in the 1960s with students including Peter Blake and David Hockney.

The college also has an international reputation for its teaching in the fields of automotive design, photography, industrial design, communication design and interior design, fashion, ceramics and silversmithing. Degrees in the History of Design and Conservation are offered in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum, while an MA in Industrial Design Engineering is offered jointly with Imperial College, both close to the college.

Also close by are the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Geographical Society, Royal College of Music and Hyde Park.

Notable alumni

19th century

20th century

21st century

References

  1. ^ a b "Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2006/07" (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). Higher Education Statistics Agency. http://www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/dataTables/studentsAndQualifiers/download/institution0607.xls. Retrieved on 2008-04-12. 

External links


Coordinates: 51°30′05″N 0°10′44″W / 51.50139°N 0.17889°W / 51.50139; -0.17889


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Modern Design Dictionary. A Dictionary of Modern Design. Copyright © 2004, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Royal College of Art".  Read more

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