The Decorated School: 2014

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Review of The Decorated School. Essays in the Visual Culture of Schooling, published by Black Dog in October 2013

The review is written by Jon Wright for the Twentieth Century Society Journal.

This wonderful book is the culmination of a two year study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council into the extent and significance of art as an integral part of the built environment of schools. Using examples from around the world, it looks at how artists, architects and educators collaborated in the C20 to create unique works of art. It’s a timely reminder of an overlooked bit of design history and material culture which still has important implications for how we make and view art, not just in schools, but in the wider public sphere. In that sense, it can be read as powerful testimony for paternalism in public art.

The full text of the review is accessible here

at http://www.c20society.org.uk/publications/c20-magazine/c20-magazine-2014-01/review-the-decorated-school-essays-on-the-visual-culture-of-schooling/

Cathy Burke

The Decorated School Research network

We are researching the relationships between architects, artists and educators through the art which became part of the fabric of school buildings and their immediate environments in the 20th century. We are interested in understanding more about how the art came to be commissioned, how the subject matter was decided, what was its function, its life story and what ideas about education or childhood, if any, were intended to be conveyed.

The research is funded by the Arts and Humanites Research Council and is led by Dr Catherine Burke, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and Dr Jeremy Howard, Art History, University of St Andrews. There will be 4 seminars, open to the public, at sites of significant interest over the next 2 years as well as a final international conference and book. We will use this site to announce events, collect material and report on findings. Do contact us to let us know of any school based murals, ceramics, textiles, sculptures by recognised artists - possibly in collaboration with school pupils - that you know exist. Many of these may be in danger as school buildings are becoming replaced often with scant regard to the treasures that they contain.

Project Partners
Peter Blundell-Jones, School of Architecture,University of Sheffield
Peter Cunningham, Homerton College, University of Cambridge
Ian Grosvenor, School of Education,University of Birmingham Roy Kozlovsky, School of Architecture, Northeastern University, USA
Kirk Niergarth, Art Historian, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Professeur Annie Renonciat, visual education historian, Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique and Université Paris, France.
Andrew Saint, architectural historian, English Heritage Deborah Wakely, architect, ARK, UK Diane Watters, Buildings Investigator, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
Jon Wood,Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Andrew Demetrius Visual Resources Curator School of Art History University of St Andrews