Art and craft in Higher Education
Guardian article, 10 April, 'British Art Schools: class dismissed'
The Guardian article on the effect the cuts to higher education would have on British art schools and so Britain’s art scene struck a chord with our argument against specialist craft course closures.
The piece argued that without art schools we would not have such a vibrant and leading art scene. It was noted that arts and humanities subjects could be particularly badly hit by replacing teaching grants with higher student tuition fees, especially as craft courses are intrinsically resource-intensive with their need for both space and equipment. And that this may in turn greatly reduce the number of students willing to go and study such subjects. Effectively it will limit the quality and range of art that we produce as a nation.
Like art – the craft sector is part of the creative industries that contribute almost as much as financial services to the UK economy. The craft sector alone contributes £3bn Gross Value Added to the economy.
Recent research has also identified the added value that the cultural and creative industries make to other sectors. The Crafts Council research report Making Value shows that craft makers’ knowledge and skill is utilised in a wide range of industries including manufacturing, film, architecture and fashion.
Public funding at higher education stage plays a crucial role in unlocking the craft sector’s economic and social impacts.
Whilst Ministers at both the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education DfE) have recently advocated the return of an economy based on skills they increasingly use “craft” as a proxy for “manual skills”.
Speeches made by David Willetts , Michael Gove and John Hayes calling for the broadening of routes into the creative and cultural industries, with particular emphasis on apprenticeships, categorise craft in a way that many currently teaching or researching craft at HE level would not. Although we have long argued for a range of routes into the sector, it is balance that is required – not a pendulum-swing from one extreme to the other.
The Crafts Council compared undergraduate craft courses between 2009-10 and 2010-11 and whilst it showed that 30 craft courses had closed in this time, 200 new courses were listed. This may seem straightforward good news for craft but the picture is more complex.
Amongst the new courses, a significant number of interdisciplinary BAs combine craft disciplines with a wide variety of other creative subjects and some craft courses had been combined or replaced with more industry-focused courses.
The trend for interdisciplinary courses can be seen as improving employability and industry connections. However, the need for students to have access to rich, deep specialist expertise – and to materials and equipment – remains. It is this expertise and experience that are now under threat. The cost of facilities and equipment, combined with low demand and mixed perceptions of craft in academe make it very difficult to make the case for craft in institutions that are judging success by student numbers and net cost.
Whilst we are encouraged that there is a healthy growth in interdisciplinary courses we believe that it is vital that the craft HE sector retains a critical mass of specialist teaching capacity.
Furthermore the increasing prioritisation on STEM subjects at primary and secondary schools may eventually make the arts and humanities an invisible option to children. Taking away the breeding grounds of ideas and creativity that these courses provide will be detrimental to national wellbeing and the strength of our economy. Surely there is no stronger argument for the continuation of public funding of the arts and humanities.
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