Funding for Art and Design Education in England is cut

This is about news about:

• 50% cuts in funding subsidy for art and design courses
• a new campaigning organisation for the arts
• the potential impact on students and those offering them courses 
• what might happen as a result - including new digital courses accessible worldwide

The Art Newspaper is reporting a 50% cut in funding for arts and design courses in higher education across England - see UK government approves 50% funding cut for arts and design courses. Specifically:

• the subsidy for each full-time student on an arts course will be cut from £243 to £121.50 next academic year (2021/22).
• this cut in subsidy will save about £20 million

Apparently the government's thinking behind the cut to art and design courses is the need to reprioritise funding and divert it towards the provision of high-cost, high-value subjects that support the NHS... high-cost STEM subjects [science, technology, engineering and mathematics].

But where is the information on authoritative websites?

I can find the information in The Guardian's 

• Funding cuts to go ahead for university arts courses in England despite opposition (20 July 2021) and 
• London universities attack ‘levelling down’ plans to cut funding (April 2021)

The problem I had initially is that I went to all the relevant websites - and couldn't find a single item of information about this on:

• Office for Students | Gov.UK - government web page about this organisation (so much for transparent government!)
• The Office for Students - the independent regulator of higher education in England
• University of the Arts London

Until I found this OfS confirms funding reforms (20th July 2021)

So is this going to make a dramatic different to art education in England? Simple answer is I don't know.

What is true is that

• most funding comes via tuition fees and not through public subsidy.
• HOWEVER, if you cut funding this means either
• a decrease in tuition places
• an increase tuition fees
• a reduction in places offering courses
• you have a major rethink about how to cut costs and maintain education (eg focus on course delivery and not the buildings which house education - see below for one example)

i.e. you can't carry on at the same levels if you cut half the subsidy.

Public Campaign for the Arts

The Distance Drawing Course (weeks 1 - 4)

 The Rokeby Museum has been posting blogs posts about a Distance Drawing Course.
The course is inspired by a correspondence course about drawing undertaken by 13 year old Rachael Robinson Elmer (1878–1919) and taught by Courtney Clinton, Rokeby Artist in Residence

From 1891 to 1893 Rachael studied illustration with a New York artist named Ernest Knaufft (1864–1942) through the Chautauqua Society of Fine Art. The course cost $5 dollars a year and offered instruction in freehand drawing and the pen and ink technique used for book and magazine illustration at the time — with today’s inflation that’s still a bargain at $150.

There are six lessons in total and they are posted every two weeks.

• Below you can find the links to the first four lessons - and a note at the end about the two still to be posted.
• The posts include some simply wonderful drawings - of their time - which can be appreciated without reading the accompanying text. However that is also worth a read - particularly if you want to learn more about drawing.
• Don't skip the interesting historical documents - also worth a read!

WEEK 1: VISION

This is the link for Vision

Seeing Rachael’s drawings and writing side by side gives us a new way to think about the practice of drawing. In her sketchbooks, Rachael uses drawing to take visual notes. With her art, she is recording and testing her understanding of nature.

For this week’s exercise I invite you to start a sketchbook practice. Over the next two weeks, go for walks with a sketch book and make small sketches of the different things that you see. Try to do five botanical sketches a week.

Don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we are in this together! Below is a step by step guide to start your first sketchbook.

View this post on Instagram

In my first #RokebyDistanceDrawing lesson I invite students to start a sketchbook and develop a practice of engaged observation. Don't worry this doesn't require any deep breathing. ;) . . Through this exercise I want to challenge the idea of art as a kind of creative expression and instead present art as a kind of visual research. . . Most young artists assume that because they know the world around them they also understand it. When asked to put pen to paper and draw something as simple as a tree most flounder and draw a 🌲 not an actual tree. Many assume that this means they don't have any artistic talent. . . With first lesson my aim is to throw out this idea of talent and get students to start thinking about the connection between observation and drawing. . . Learning to draw is about training your eye. It means sitting in front of your subject for a sustained period and working out it's structure and mechanics. . . Of course the ultimate aim of art is expression but this research into observation will allow a young artist to better articulate and inform their ideas. . . For the lion's share of this course we will focus on training our ability to see. Near the end of the course we will shift our attention to creative expression. I can't wait for you to see how all of this time spent looking will fuel your creativity! . . Lessons are free and materials are kept simple (paper and pencil). Each lesson comes with step by step instructions! The course is hosted on the @rokebymuseum website! . . #artcourse #draw #drawing #sketch #sketching #sketchbook #artist #art #arttraining #creativity #artist #art #CanadianArt #canadianartist #vermontart #museumart #fineart #illustration #illustrator #outdoorart #landscapeart #pleinair

A post shared by Courtney Clinton Artist (@clinton.courtney) on Jul 28, 2020 at 6:42am PDT

WEEK 2: COPYING

This is the link for Copying

In the same way that Rachael learned to work with magazines by emulating her father’s career, she learned art theory (proportions, shading, and line quality) by copying the works of accomplished artists.