School of Applied Art
In 1858 the Trustees Academy School of Art was affiliated to the Science and Art Department in London. Under what became known as the 'South Kensington System', it was required to give up its traditional methods of teaching and become the Government School of Art for Edinburgh. Many felt that the Academy had thus lost its distinctive character, and an alternative body, the School of Applied Art was founded in 1892.
The School of Applied Art was founded in Edinburgh in 1892 by the eminent Scottish Architect, Sir Robert Rowand Anderson. The impetus for the School's establishment arose from dissatisfaction with the rigidity of the system of art training in Edinburgh offered by the Trustees Academy School of Art, whose curriculum was closely modelled on the 'South Kensington system' prescribed by the Government Science and Art Department. The School of Applied Art was financed by a body of subscribers, among them the Board of Manufactures, and was managed by a joint committee. Classes were held in the Royal Institution Building on the Mound, which was already used by the Trustees Academy. The School swiftly achieved a high reputation as a school of architecture. In 1903 it amalgamated with the Trustees Academy School of Art and became its Architecture Section. In 1906 the Scotch Education Department approved a major reorganisation of Edinburgh higher art education, which would be combined in one college run by the Town Council. In 1907 the functions of the Trustees Academy School of Art were taken over by the Provisional Committee responsible for Edinburgh College of Art, which opened in the following year.
In 1903, however, the School of Applied Art amalgamated with the Trustees Academy School becoming its Architecture department. Eventually, in 1907 the Scottish Education Department took over responsibility for the School and it became the Edinburgh College of Art.
Sources
- Trustees Academy of Arts, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [accessed 24 Jul 2014]
- Trustees Academy School of Art, Archives Hub [accessed 24 July 2014]
- Trustees Academy School of Art, Edinburgh, GASHE [accessed 24 July 2014]