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Open School East, Hackney , part of a boom in alternativ e schools. Students pay no fees but giv e time to

community projects.

A former library in Hackney may seem an unlikely venue for London's most talked-

about new art school. The 1970s Rose Lipman building lacks the architectural wow

factor of Central Saint Martins King's Cross campus, but demand for places on the

postgraduate Open School East in De Beauvoir town is high. The year-long programme

boasts visiting lecturers, including the curator of contemporary art and performance at

Tate Modern, Catherine Wood, and artists such as Pablo Bronstein and Ed Atkins. And,

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Alternative art schools: a threat touniversities?Angry at soaring fees and disillusioned with established courses,

artists are simply doing things for themselves

David BattyThe Guardian, Monday 21 October 201 3 1 9.59 BST

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at a time when art MAs in the capital cost up to £9,000 a year, the students pay no

tuition fees.

The project, which opened in September, is the latest alternative art school to be

established in the UK. Open School East co-founder Sam Thorne, an associate editor of

Frieze magazine, says their recent proliferation has been driven by the rise in fees and a

growing disillusionment with university art education. Some, such as the Islington Mill

Art Academy in Salford and the School of the Damned in east London, were set up by art

students and recent graduates who could not afford rising course fees and were

dissatisfied with the structure, ethos and curricula of traditional art degrees.

In return for a year's free tuition and studio space, the 13 associate artists at Open

School East will give one day a month of their time to community activities in the

borough. "Their personal practice might become a community project or they might give

lessons, such as dance or furniture design, to local people," says curator Anna Colin,

another co-founder. Many of the school's lectures and workshops will run in the

afternoon and evening to encourage local residents to join in.

This socially engaged model is common to many of the alternative schools. Grizedale

Arts in Coniston in the Lake District is developing "a quasi-art school" in which artists

make something useful for the local community. Deputy director Alistair Hudson says:

"Art schools talk about the brand, the individual, the genius. If you're young and want to

be famous, the London art schools remain the best pathway. But chances are you won't

make it. A lot of students are trained in how to be a 'professional artist'. They're quite

good at talking, but limited in terms of their skill set and how they can function outside of

the London art bubble."

Islington Mill Art Academy in Salford was set up in 2007 by a group of local art

foundation students who decided a traditional BA would not prepare them for life

beyond education. Co-founder Maurice Carlin recalls that resident artists had expressed

disillusionment with their degree courses. "They spent three years developing their

practice but struggled to turn it into something in the 'real world'. They were not

engaged with working artists on a day-to-day basis."

The founders of DIY art school in Manchester say their initiative is "a survival tactic".

Set up last year by Manchester Metropolitan University graduates, the school provides

a support network for recent graduates. Co-founder Katy Morrison says: "I would adore

to do an MA but I can't afford it. This about trying to create a professional pathway for

ourselves."

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As these alternative courses take off, how will the established providers respond? Simon

Ofield-Kerr, vice-chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts in Kent, believes the

trend poses a challenge at a time when there is a "real danger of postgraduate study

being devastated". "Over the next two years, we'll all be looking at the future of

postgraduate education and how this phenomenon will affect the balance of provision,"

he says. And the issue will become more pressing after the first cohort of

undergraduates to pay tuition fees of £9,000 per year graduates in 2015. "It's not

something that can be ignored or defended against," says Ofield-Kerr.

Susan Collins, director of London's Slade School of Fine Art, adds that recent cost-cutting

measures in some art departments, such as scrapping dedicated studio space, have

reduced the attractiveness of university study. "Presenting hot-desking as an idea for

art education is not the way forward," she says. "I can completely understand why some

artists want to pursue other models of learning."

It is not just art students who are developing alternative schools. Major art institutions,

including the Tate and the Hayward and Serpentine galleries, have experimented with

the school model in their education programmes. Open School East is backed by around

£110,000 from the Barbican and Create London. The Silent University, an alternative

school for refugees and asylum seekers, set up by Turkish artist Ahmet Ögüt during his

residency at the Tate Modern last year, now runs courses in several European countries.

Emily Pringle, Tate's head of learning practice and research policy, says "it would not be

a great leap" for the museum to provide something akin to an art school programme. "It

is really troubling to us who's in a position to be studying art," she says. "There's a

question whether big cultural organisations like Tate or the Barbican could themselves

provide a space where [emerging artists] could come together in the way that Open

School East works."

The artist Ryan Gander has drawn up plans for a postgraduate art academy that would

give preferential consideration to poorer applicants. He says the school, called Fairfield

International, would level the playing field between students from disadvantaged

backgrounds and the "trustafarian rich kids" whom he fears increasingly dominate the

major art schools. Based in a former Victorian school in Saxmundham in Suffolk, where

Gander lives, it will offer free studio space and accommodation for 12 students a year

and offer tuition from renowned artists.

"You get money to live on and an apartment. It's like a finishing school that will give the

advantages richer students have. This is the moment [in British art] of the most struggle

– everything seems on a downward slope. Art will become a very upper- and upper-

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middle-class pursuit. This is about making things a little more even."

Artist Matthew Darbyshire, a former tutor at the Slade who now advises Open School

East, believes the alternative schools will have a positive influence on art education.

"Hopefully they'll lead by example and up the standards. The problem is [university

departments] continue to get worse as they lose sight of what an art school needs to be."

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