Over the years, the Art School has established a strong and expanding network of national and international art, creative and heritage-related institutions (as well as important links with private individuals). These collaborations translate year on year into significant professional and learning opportunities for current students as well as graduates, including placements, commissions and other forms of collaborative projects. Below is a list of institutions with whom we have recently or are currently working and which form part of this network.
Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore
The Abbey hosts an annual internship for two Conservation graduates, funded by Venice in Peril Fund. The collaboration with the Abbey started in 2012, and since then every year outstanding recently-graduated students have spent two months on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, living within the Abbey compound and working on conservation projects in the world-famous Palladian church.
ACME Artist Studios
ACME Studios hosts a one-year residency, begun in 2016, as part of a programme for select graduating students in Fine Art from top London-based Art Colleges, providing shared studio space, a mentoring programme and exhibition opportunities.
Art16
The Art School was given a pro bono stand at this international fair Art16 at Olympia in May 2016, showcasing work from a selection of graduating BA Fine Art students and providing numerous opportunities for networking during the four days of the fair.
Artists’ Collecting Society
In 2016, the Artists’ Collecting Society selected the Art School as the sole London institution to receive an ACS Studio Award, given to a graduating MA Fine Art student to provide studio space for the year following their graduation as well as membership to Bridgeman Studio. ACS also awards supports current students through a prize to a second-year Fine Art BA student to support their final year of study and professional practice talks.
Black Cultural Archives
Students are performing conservation work on a collection of polychrome plaster casts in the collection of the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.
The British Museum
The British Museum is a longstanding partner institution and regularly offers work placements and internships to our conservation students.
Charterhouse
A conservation group research project in 2014, relating to issues raised by public access, was held around the opening of the new visitor and exhibition centre, Revealing the Charterhouse. Projects focused on preventative conservation and on the historical context of the Great Chamber and its decorative scheme.
Clyde & Co
Graduates from the BA Fine Art and Carving Diplomas have been selected to take part in the Clyde & Co Art Award since 2014/15, which includes exhibition and sales opportunities as well as mentorship. One of our students was the winner of the ambitious Blank Canvas Competition in 2015, to create a mural for the firm’s entrance.
Collyer Bristow
The Art School is one of three UK art schools to participate in Collyer Bristow’s annual graduate art award and exhibition, with works displayed in and sold from their London offices. In 2017, Art School graduates won all four of the prizes on offer, as judged by Whitechapel Gallery Director Iwona Blazwick
Cool it Art
Over the years, numerous students have taken part in outreach programmes with children who do not have access to art classes run by Cool it Art, a social enterprise which was founded by an Fine Art alumna of the Art School.
Corporation of London
A major commission was given to the Art School by the Corporation of London to carve 20 wooden benches for a new public space in Pancras Lane, EC4.
The Creative Dimension
In collaboration with the Creative Dimension, a charity that runs fully-funded workshops for 14-18 year olds from schools across London, students have come to the Art School for courses including gilding, mural painting and printmaking.
Diamond Jubilee
A prestigious commission was granted to the Art School to create the prow decoration and cartouche for the Royal Barge at the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on Sunday, 3 June 2012. The barge’s most prominent feature, the large prow sculpture, as well as the canopy on deck, were designed and executed by a team of more than 40 students, tutors and alumni who for a period of five months collaborated using all the skills taught across the Art School’s curricula.
Dresden Academy of Fine Art
This international collaboration featured an informal exchange of drawings produced by undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Art School and the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in response to each other, showcased at the 2016 Degree Show.
English Heritage
English Heritage regularly entrusts the Conservation Department with objects that students conserve as part of their practical projects. Over the years, these have included a large number of objects from various English Heritage properties in the North East, and key objects from the Wernher Collection at Ranger’s House.
The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
The Fishmongers’ Company regularly commissions carvings of past Prime Wardens’ coats of arms, which are displayed in Fishmongers’ Hall. The Company also funds an annual Art School wide competition, open to all students, for the design of a menu cover for Livery Court dinners.
The Foundling Museum
The Foundling Museum offers practical conservation projects for students, including the cleaning of numerous plaster busts in their collection.https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/
The Georgian Group
In 2017, Historic Carving staff, students and alumni played a prominent role in the Georgian Group’s 80th anniversary exhibition, celebrating traditional Georgian crafts and their place in the 21st century. Students and graduates exhibited pieces in the show and performed demonstrations for the public, and Head of Historic Carving Tim Crawley delivered a public evening lecture.
Giorgio Cini Foundation
Since 2014, the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice annually hosts second-year undergraduate conservation and historic carving students during their one-week study trip to Venice.
The Grocer’s Company
The Grocers’ Company commissioned the production of a customised stone plinth to support a pre-existing bronze portrait bust of the late Queen Mother.
Guildford Cathedral
The Art School was asked to run a commission for Historic Carving alumni to create new figures for this 20th century cathedral. The winning designs are now installed in the east wall of Guildford Cathedral‘s central tower.
Kensal Green Cemetery
The partnership, established in 2013/14 through the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, includes summer conservation projects for students and the ongoing conservation of the Cemetery’s collection of headstones.
Knole House
Art School students have worked on the conservation and complex repair of a life-size plaster cast of Canova’s famous Three Graces from the Knole House collection, as well as researching their 17th-century frames and undertaking work placements since 2013.
The Landmark Trust
The Art School was entrusted by the Landmark Trust to carve two new wooden brackets at Queen Anne’s Summerhouse to match those in 19th century archival photographs
Lettering Arts Trust
In Summer/Autumn 2016, the Trust hosted an exhibition of work by recently graduated Historic Carving students at the Lettering Arts Centre at Snape Maltings, home of the Aldeburgh Festival.
London Craft Week
Since 2016, the Art School has been a participant in London Craft Week, staging an Open House that showcases work and workshops in the Historic Carving Department and a public 2-day student stone carving competition.
Michelangelo Foundation
The Art School is an official partner of the Michelangelo Foundation, an international non-profit entity that celebrates and preserves master craftsmanship and strengthens its connection to the world of design.
Museum of London
The Museum of London is a longstanding collaborator, offering regular work placements and internships to Conservation students.
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum offers work placements and internships to Conservation students.
National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery regularly offers summer placements to Conservation students.
National Trust
The National Trust regularly offers opportunities for student-led research projects and practical conservation work.
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum offers work placements and internships to Conservation students.
OnForm Sculpture Exhibition
The Art School was a participant in the 2016 edition of the biennial OnForm Stone Sculpture Exhibition held at Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire. The Beakhead Arch project, a collaborative venture by stone carving students, held a prominent place, and several alumni were also included in the show.
Open House London
Since 2016 the Art School has participated in the annual Open House London weekend, a festival which attracts visitors to important architectural sites around the city. Our MA Fine Art exhibition coincides with this major event.
Palace of Westminster
Since 2014, a Conservation project at the Palace of Westminster led by DBR (London) Ltd for the conservation of Westminster Hall and the Sovereign’s Robing Room, in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute, has involved a large team of alumni and current students. Another team of students worked on a frame conservation project in the Committee Rooms.
Painter-Stainers’ Company
The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers support a one-year fellowship for a Fine Art graduate, focusing on specialist decorative surface techniques with a work base at the Art School and skills based teaching.
Pitzhanger Manor House
Conservation students are involved in the treatment proposal for a sculpture of Minerva from the Pitzhanger Manor House collection.
Raynham Hall
In October 2016, Raynham Hall invited second-year conservation students to stay at the Norfolk property to study, analyse and produce condition reports and treatment proposals for some of the house’s renowned furniture, including important pieces designed by William Kent.
Rochester Cathedral
A longstanding partnership with the Conservation department has involved cleaning of the Rochester Cathedral Lapidarium’s collection.
Royal Academy of Arts
The Conservation department is involved in a longstanding project involving the ongoing cleaning of the Royal Academy’s collection of historical frames.
Royal Collection Trust
The Royal Collection Trust regularly entrusts the Conservation Department with the conservation of objects and gilded frames from its collections. The Trust also offers summer internships to students each year.
Royal College of Physicians
A partnership with the Royal College of Physicians enables final-year conservation students to research and conserve objects from the RCP collection, including a series of plaster relief busts.
Royal Literary Fund
The Royal Literary Fund generously funds the services of a professional author to come to the Art School and work with students on their writing skills and course essays.
RIBA
An ongoing project with Art School involves the conservation of a series of busts belonging to the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Science Museum
The Science Museum regularly hosts conservation students for placements and internships.
Sir John Soane’s Museum
Sir John Soane’s Museum regularly offers summer placements to Conservation students.
Southwark Cathedral
A partnership with Southwark Cathedral was established in 2014/15 for conservation and restoration projects involving Conservation students. In Summer 2017 a team of Historic Carving students, staff and alumni was employed to create new bosses to replace eroded Victorian carvings on the east side of the Cathedral, as featured on BBC London News.
St Agnes Church, Kennington
An ongoing project since 2014/15 involves the conservation of reredos in St Agnes’s church, located near the Art School in Kennington Park.
St. George’s Chapel, Windsor
Since 2005, Art School students and graduates have been producing new grotesques for the string-course girdling the external walls of St. George’s Chapel as part of its £45m restoration programme. To date more than 40 new grotesquese have been approved by the Fabric Advisory Committee with many already in situ. In 2015 an exhibition held in the Cloisters of St George’s celebrated the 10th anniversary of the project, with a publication printed in 2016.
The ‘Corbel Angel’ (which was privately commissioned by the Danish Royal family to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee) was completed by a student and installed in Spring 2012.
St. Michael’s Church, Cornhill, City of London
The Drapers’ Company commissioned the design and execution of a wooden roundel for St Michael’s pulpit.
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Projects with St Paul’s Cathedral, Christopher Wren’s masterpiece in the City of London, have included the ongoing conservation cleaning of stones belonging to St Paul’s Cathedral’s Lapidarium, and the rearrangement of approximately 500 archaeological stones from the Cathedral’s South Triforium.
St. Peter’s Church in Vauxhall
The Art School was involved in the restoration of polychrome plaster figures from a life-size nativity scene at St Peter’s Vauxhall
Strawberry Hill House
Prior to the formal reopening of Strawberry Hill House, the Art School conserved the large gilt ceiling of the Great North Bedchamber and a detailed mosaic inlay on a fireplace surround.
Temple Trust
Second-year Historic Carving students were commissioned by the Temple Trust for Historic Building Preservation to restore the main doorcase of Frogmore House in Watford, an 18th century grade II listed building
Tokyo University of the Arts
In May 2017, three master wood carver/Buddhist sculpture conservators from Tokyo University of the Arts visited the Art School on a funded exchange to run workshops for the Art School’s Historic Carving and Conservation students, deliver a paper at a symposium held jointly with the V&A, and demonstrate their skills to the public during London Craft Week. Further plans for a reciprocal exchange to the University are currently under discussion.
Tsurumi University, Japan
Conservation students entering their third year have the opportunity to undertake a practical internship at Tsurumi University in Japanese Urushi lacquer, working with Professor Tomio Koike and taking part a variety of workshops
University of Roehampton
Through a partnership with English Heritage and the University of Roehampton, a final year student carried out conservation work on a 17th-century Venetian wellhead
V&A
The Victoria & Albert Museum regularly offers work placements and internships for Conservation students and has hosted the annual conservation symposium. In 2016, an agreement was established for long term loans of historic plaster casts from the V&A collections, for conservation and study.
Venice in Peril
Venice in Peril funds an annual internship for two Conservation graduates, hosted at the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The collaboration which started in 2012, and since then every year outstanding recently-graduated students have spent two months living within the Abbey compound and working on conservation projects within the world famous Palladian church.
Wallace Collection
Students have worked on the conservation of objects from the Wallace Collection, including an 18th century marble and gilded wood pier table from the Wallace Collection’s Great Gallery.
Watts’ Gallery
The Watts’ Gallery offers work placements and internships to Conservation students. The Gallery also entrusts the Conservation Department with objects from its collection that are in need on conservation care, as well as Conservation of the terracotta grave of G.F. Watts and the restoration of two ceramic funerary monuments within the Watts Cemetery.
Welbeck Abbey
Conservation students treat objects from Welbeck Abbey’s collection of this traditional landed estate, located within Sherwood Forest.
Wellcome Collection
As part of the programme of the newly established Reading Room, the Wellcome Collection hosted a one-day symposium, curated by MA Fine Art students from the Art School and BCU’s School of Art & Design.
Westminster Abbey
The Abbey regularly offers practical conservation projects, work placements and internships to our conservation students, and entrusts the Conservation Department with objects in need of conservation care. Head of Department Marina Sokhan and students were involved in the conservation of Westminster Abbey’s world-famous Cosmati Pavement and cleaning of the Chapel of Elizabeth I. Historic Carving students created two new portrait carvings to replace originals with contemporary equivalents, working within a medieval style.
William Morris Gallery
A number of objects from the William Morris Gallery, including a small box table with a hinged lid and a plaster bust formerly situated in the Socialist Hall in Walthamstow, have been restored by Conservation students.
Winchester Cathedral
At Winchester Cathedral, students have undertaken the cleaning of 13th century architectural stones and the conservation of a 17th century decorative wood carving frame.
Winsor & Newton
A multifaceted partnership, established in 2015, the relationship with Winsor & Newton includes demonstrations for Fine Art students, connections to artists and access to materials. In 2016, two Fine Art students held residencies at London’s Griffin Gallery, resulting in work shown in their BA and MA Fine Art exhibitions.