| Established | 1919 |
|---|---|
| President | Baron Lloyd-Webber |
| Founders | Grace Cone & Olive Ripman |
| Specialism | Performing Arts |
| Location | Cone Ripman House 14 Bath Road Turnham Green Park Chiswick London W4 1LY United Kingdom |
| DfE URN | 102551 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11+ |
| Website | Official Website |
Arts Educational Schools, London (ArtsEd) is an independent co-educational school specialising in the performing arts and based in Chiswick, London in the United Kingdom. It comprises a secondary school, sixth form and professional conservatoire, for students studying Acting, Singing, Music, Dance and Musical Theatre.
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ArtsEd, London was first founded in 1939 and was originally known as the Cone-Ripman School. It was formed as a result of a merger between the Cone School of Dancing founded in 1919 by Grace Cone, and the Ripman School founded in 1922 by Olive Ripman.
The school was first based in premises at Stratford Place in London, but following the outbreak of World War II, the school was relocated to Tring in Hertfordshire, where it shared premises with the Rothschild Bank in the mansion at Tring Park.
In 1941, the school reopened its premises at Stratford Place, with a second school continuing to operate in Tring and in 1947, both schools were renamed the Arts Educational Schools (London/Tring Park). Since it was reopened, the London school has been based in various locations, until 1986 when the school purchased the former Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic. This building continues to be the school's primary campus to this day and is now known as Cone-Ripman House.
In the 2000's the two schools became independent of each other, and Arts Educational Schools Tring Park has since been renamed Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. Today, the Arts Educational Schools London comprises a co–educational independent vocational school for pupils aged 11–16 with a sixth form for 16-18 year olds and a professional conservatoire specialising in Acting and Musical Theatre.
For many years, the President of the school was the Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Dame Alicia Markova and following her death in 2004, she was succeeded in 2007 by the world renowned composer and theatre producer, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Baron Lloyd-Webber of Sydmonton).
The School also offers a comprehensive range of part-time and short courses for almost every age group with ballet, jazz, drama classes and more on a Saturday; evening classes for adults who are looking for an introduction to the profession or those wishing to develop existing skills; and both professional and introductory Easter and Summer programmes for all abilities.
Arts Educational Schools London is part of the Conference of Drama Schools (CDS) and has courses accredited by the National Council for Drama Training (NCDT) and The Council for Dance Education and Training (CDET). It is one of only twenty-one specialist performing arts schools approved to offer Government funded Dance and Drama Awards, a scheme established to subsidise the cost of professional dance and drama training for the most talented students at leading institutions.[1][2]
Graduates from both degree courses in Acting and Musical Theatre have gone straight into work following graduation into West End and National productions and can be seen in major movies and quality drama series on BBC, ITV and Channel 4 among others.
Iain Reid was Dean of the Schools from 1999 until his retirement in December 2006. He was succeeded by John Baraldi, former Chief Executive of Riverside Studios,and former Director of the East 15 Acting School. Mr Baraldi left the School in early 2009. The current Dean is Jane Harrison, formerly Head of Drama.