BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.5//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:4131@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20181117T000000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20190310T000000 DTSTAMP:20181022T202557Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/bluecoat-the-art-schools-of-nort h-west-england/ SUMMARY:Bluecoat: Bluecoat: The Art Schools of North West England DESCRIPTION:John Beck and Matthew Cornford: The Art Schools of North West E ngland\n\nSat 17 Nov - Sun 10 Mar 2019\n\nOpen daily 11am - 6pm\n\nOur aut umn season of interlinked exhibitions focuses on the changing nature of ar tistic education. The Art Schools of North West England is an exhibitio n of photographs and texts documenting 30 historic sites of art education. \n\nThere were over 150 art schools in this country in the mid-1960s. Most of them are now closed or absorbed into other institutions and the buildi ngs repurposed\, remodelled or demolished. What did it mean to have an art school in every town and what can we learn by discovering their fate?\n\n John Beck and Matthew Cornford are hunting down all of England’s art sch ools and photographing the sites as they are today. Sometimes the original building remains\, sometimes car parks\, supermarkets or building sites h ave taken their place. This exhibition features new images of 30 art schoo l buildings that were once an integral aspect of creative life in the Nort h West.\n\nImportantly\, the idea of ‘art school’\, especially as it t ook shape during the 1950s and 1960s\, was more than a place to study art\ ; attendance came to represent a particular stance toward the world\, an a ttitude most vividly embodied by Liverpool College of Art‘s most famous alumnus John Lennon. Arguably more than anyone else\, Lennon made being an art student seem like an essential step on the road to the creative life\ , where the ordinary became extraordinary.\n\nCelebrating and reflecting o n the prominent place art schools have held in the region\, the exhibition is an invitation to explore the value placed on education in the arts\, t o think about the legacy of the art schools and to consider what relation art should have to broader society now and in the future. Set against the backdrop of Bluecoat’s arts centre origins\, when a group of students in 1907 started an independent arts school\, the Sandon Studios Society\, Th e Art Schools of North West England marks the wide and deep history of cre ative activity in the region and the institutions that made it possible.\n \nFree\, drop in\n\n\n\nAbout the artists\n\nJohn Beck and Matthew Cornfor d have been researching the cultural history of British art schools togeth er for a number of years and\, since 2009\, have given numerous talks at g alleries and universities\, including ‘The Lost World of the Provincial British Art School’ at Tate Britain’s 2011 ‘Reflections on the Art S chool’ conference. The Journal of Visual Culture published their artic le ‘The Art School in Ruins’ in 2012 and an artists’ book\, The Art School and the Culture Shed\, was published in 2014. The Art Schools of North West England is the first occasion their photographs and texts will have been exhibited in a public gallery.\n\nJohn Beck is a writer and Director of the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture at the Univ ersity of Westminster. He has published widely on the politics of place i n relation to landscape photography\, art and literature. Recent and ongoi ng projects include a co-authored study\, with Ryan Bishop\, of 1960s art and technology projects in the US that looks at networks of influence acr oss art schools\, universities and the military\, and a book on landscape and power.\n\nMatthew Cornford is an artist and leads the BA (Hons) Fine A rt Critical Practice course at the University of Brighton. He began workin g with David Cross after graduating from the RCA in 1991\, for over 20-yea rs Cornford &\; Cross created a wide range of art projects in response to specific contexts and situations\, a monograph on their work\, Cornfor d &\; Cross\, was published in 2009. In 1997 Cornford &\; Cross pre sented Power to the People: A Happening\, turning the main gallery at the Bluecoat\, Liverpool into a record fair for a day\, part of Mixing it a series of live\nart commissions.\n\n\n\nDid you attend an art school in N orth West England? We'd like to hear from you. Liverpool's contemporary a rts centre\, Bluecoat\, is working with artists John Beck and Matthew C ornford on an exhibition this November that documents some 30 art schools in the region\, many of which have disappeared. We arelooking for people who studied at art school to be interviewed for a radio programme that wil l be broadcast during the exhibition. Were you an art student between the 1960s and 1990s with memories you'd like to share?\n\nIf so please get in touch and tell us a bit about your story. Contact Bryan Biggs: bryan.b@t hebluecoat.org.uk / 0151 702 5324\n\n\n\nAlongside the gallery exhibition will be a series of events.\n\nSat 17 Nov 2pm\n\nThe Art Schools of North West England Exhibition Tour\n\nJohn Beck and Matthew Cornford introdu ce their exhibition in this informal tour in the gallery.\n\nFree\, bookin g recommended.\n\n\n\nFri 18 Jan\n\n6.30pm Gallery Introduction / 7pm Scr eening of A Taste of Honey (1961) (100min)\n\nDirected by Tony Richardson and with a screenplay by Shelagh Delaney\, this fine example of British ki tchen sink realism is set in Salford. It imagines a post-nuclear family wh ere gay textiles art student Geoffrey (Murray Melvin) and unmarried moth er Jo (Rita Tushingham) set up home together\, albeit briefly. It’s a utopian moment not out of keeping with the spirit of art school.\n\nTicket s: £8/£6. Booking details coming soon.\n\n\n\nSat 19 Jan 1-4pm\n\nSympos ium: What Was Art School?\n\nThe importance of the art school in British c ultural life will be explored in this informal event taking its cue from  The Art Schools of North West England exhibition. Artists John Beck and  Matthew Cornford introduce the exhibitions themes and explore\, with an invited panel including artists Pete Clarke and Jade Montserrat\, ques tions including: where werethe art schools and what has happened to them\, what is the role of art education and the place of art in contemporary Br itain?\n\nTickets: £3. Booking details coming soon.\n\n\n\nThu 7 Mar\n\n 6.30pm Gallery Introduction / 7pm Screening of Little Malcolm and His Str uggle Against the Eunuchs (1974) (109min)\n\nThis comedy drama film\, dire cted by Stuart Cooper was the first feature film produced by George Har rison\, who also supplied incidental music. Featuring Oldham Art School an d shot primarily on location in a wintry Lancashire\, expelled art student Malcolm\, played by John Hurt (himself an ex-art student)\, sees himsel f at war with what he calls ‘the Eunarchy’of social conformists and se xual timidity.\n\nTickets: £8/£6. Booking details coming soon.\n\n\n\nI mage Credits:\n\nEvent preview: Heginbottom School of Art\, Ashton-under- Lyne.\n\nAbove: The Storey\, Lancaster\, Art School gate ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2018/10/The_Storey_Lancaster_Art_School_gate_2SM_MED.jpg LOCATION:Bluecoat\, School Lane\, Liverpool\, L1 3BX\, Liverpool\, United K ingdom GEO:53.404542;-2.984173 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=School Lane\, Liverpool\, L 1 3BX\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Bluecoat:geo :53.404542,-2.984173 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20181028T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR