Hull School of Art

The Hull School of Art was founded in 1861^[1] by a group of "working men" in response to a British government circular.

Reasons for creation

A circular was issued to local authorities and manufacturers throughout the country by the British Government's Department of Science and Art, to take steps to improve the quality of British product design, which was considered to be under serious threat from the success of European imports.

History

Originally, classes were given in a suite of upstairs chambers at the Public Assembly Rooms, now the New Theatre. In 1878 the School of Art had moved to a Georgian town house on Albion Street. In 1901 an Anlaby Road site was acquired from the North Eastern Railway Company, and an architectural competition advertised. The winning design for a new Hull Municipal School of Art was produced by the Bloomsbury firm of Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards; the building was completed in April 1905.

In 1930 the school at Anlaby Road became Hull College of Arts and Crafts. In 1962 the College was renamed the Regional College of Art and Design, and began to offer a syllabus leading to the newly recognised Diploma in Art and Design (DipAD). In 1972 a new Art College building on Queens Gardens was commissioned, designed by the Architectural Partnership of Frederick Gibberd. This building received its first students in September 1974, and offered honours degrees in Fine Art and Graphic Design.

The amalgamation of the local authority's Higher Education provision commenced in 1976 with the foundation of Hull College of Higher Education. Polytechnic status was achieved in 1991, shortly before national legislation allowed for the formation of new universities. This institution, Humberside Polytechnic (later renamed to the University of Humberside), entered into alliance with higher education institutions in Lincoln. The resulting University of Lincolnshire and Humberside came into being in 1996, and underwent a further name change in 2001 when it became The University of Lincoln.

In 2002 The University of Lincoln decided to close down the School's BA Fine Art degree courses, whose painting studios were housed at the Anlaby Road building. It eventually became apparent that it had long ago been decided to move the university's centre of operations away from the city of Hull to Lincoln.

Today

In 2006 the Anlaby Road Art School building expanded to incorporate Performing Arts and Media courses within its Art and Design and Higher Education programmes.

References