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Between God and the Saucepan: some aspects of art education in England from the mid-nineteenth century until today

This chapter provides an innovative history of British art education from the mid nineteenth century to the present. It offers a challenge to the normative interpretation; this history has previously been read through the lens of education-oriented interpretation (cf Macdonald, 1970). In contrast, this chapter argues the necessity to take into account the relation of changes in art education to changing paradigms of art practice. These latter are traced through academic classicism, modernism and conceptual/postmodernism, demonstrating the impact of shifts in art practice to evolving assumptions about what an art education should encompass.

The chapter provides a distinctive intervention in contemporary debates within the field about priorities at the present time. It does this by offering a significant reinterpretation of the history of the field. By exploring historical shifts from an artisan based NDD, to the degree equivalent of the Dip.A.D, through to the current B.A., the chapter emphasises the continuing impact of government policies on the politics of art education, up to and including the current bureaucratisation of research. It raises serious questions for the future of art education, especially the relationship of theory to practice in a context increasingly influenced by the market.

The chapter draws on extensive archival research in areas ranging from practical art and design education to changing government policy initiatives. Sources included the periodical literature, more synoptic treatments and unpublished documents from the 1970s and 80s. The chapter is both empirically grounded and closely argued, drawing on both primary pedagogic engagement and theoretical situatedness.