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Pre World War Two


The Coventry School of Art and Design is the oldest part of the University and dates from 1843, exactly 800 years after the official beginning of Coventry in 1043, when Earl Leofric, Lady Godiva’s husband, founded a Benedictine Monastery here. The original name was Coventry School of Design and it was the 5th in the Country to be so designated. Its purpose was to train designers for the ribbon and weaving industries (in Coventry) which were suffering from competition from France. Since then the silk industry has died out in Coventry, apart from J J Cash who make name labels for school uniforms.

In 1852 its name was changed to the Coventry School of Art. In 1902, 50 years later, it was designated the Municipal School of Art. In 1954 it became the Coventry College of Art which was its final name as an independent College.

Post World War Two
The climate was favourable for art education after the war and the College experienced a rapid expansion. It was occupying four or five separate unsuitable premises. To coincide with the new title it moved into a new building in Cope Street in 1954.

In 1957 it was selected as a sub regional centre. In 1963 it was amongst the first twenty nine Colleges to be approved for the Diploma in Art and Design.

In 1968 it again moved into new premises when the building was opened by Prince Phillip. Since then the it has suffered the ravages of time. However we have been able to restore the building and in the 1990s it received a new roof, a new boiler, new windows, and exterior cladding.

After two years in the new building in 1970 the College ceased to exist as a separate institution. It was merged with the Lanchester College of Technology and the Rugby College of Engineering Technology to form Lanchester Polytechnic.

The new institution managed to sustain and develop the Art College’s tradition of regularly changing its name. Part of the rationale for calling it the Lanchester Polytechnic was the split location between Coventry and Rugby. When in 1980 it moved out of Rugby, Coventry was brought into the title as:

Coventry Lanchester Polytechnic then Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic

In 1987 it became Coventry Polytechnic and adopted the Phoenix logo. In 1989 it left the Local Authority. In 1992 it became Coventry University as it remains to this day.

At the time of its joining the Polytechnic the College of Art had for the first, but not the last time, achieved International recognition. This was for its contribution to the Art Language movement which was rated as highly significant by the critical establishment. It was less popular with students as it diverted them away from practical activity such as painting. Indeed some notoriety was achieved, SSRC funded research into it and a book was written about it ‘Arts Students Observed’. Art has changed direction since then, but it continues to have a significant impact, particularly locally as a contributor to public art in the city. At the time of the creation of the Polytechnic most of the work in the new Faculty of Art and Design was in the area of Fine Art and Graphic Design. During the 1970’s the policy began of moving into unique or unusual areas, with the development of courses in Transport Design and Communication Studies. This process accelerated in the 1980’s with further course developments in Craft, Product Design, Electronic Graphics and Technical Communication. At the same time staff were initiating pioneering research in computer-aided styling and computer graphics, bringing major external funding at a time when it was virtually unknown in Art and Design.

It was during the 1980’s that the Transport Design course developed an international profile and recognition, in competition with post-graduate courses. In 1986 it was awarded the DTI ‘Design into Business Award’ and its graduates were being employed world wide.

Between 1990 and 1992 the University completed a re-structuring process which resulted in the change from an arrangement which grouped academic work into five Faculties, to the current configuration of a number of Faculties/Schools. Each of these is a budgetary unit with a significant level of devolved responsibility. Although this left Art and Design intact and with continuity, it did presage the necessary introduction of improvements in cost efficiency. The School had been relatively generously funded, and this was out of line with the income levels for Art and Design courses set by the funding councils. At the same time the University sector was being required to deliver efficiency gains. Despite cushioning through phasing by the University these changes have not been entirely painless for Art and Design. It is interesting to note that the college survived more extreme funding crises in the 19th Century. In addition a number of senior staff in A & D took early retirement at or before the March 1997 deadline, which created some instability.

Large Scale Restructuring
The larger scale re-structuring of the University led to internal re-organisation in the Schools. Following various transitional arrangements there was the introduction of Subject Groups for cognate disciplines in each School, in 1996. At the same time there was an event of great significance to the School, when in September 1995 the School franchise partner, the Coventry Centre for Performing Arts, was incorporated into the University. Thus from 1996- 2002, the School had five Subject Groups – Communication Culture and Media, Industrial Design, Information Design, Performing Arts and Visual Arts. In 2003, the School reconfigured subject groups into four- Communication, Media and Culture, Design and Visual Arts, Industrial Design and Performing Arts. In 2005, the Subject Groups were re-named Departments with Communication, Media and Culture changing its name to Media and Communication. All four Departments are led and managed by a Head of Department.

Up until very recently, Performing Arts has remained in the accommodation it occupied at the time of incorporation. This was a converted School 3 miles south of the main site. It has been generally recognised that although its facilities were quite good, both its location and the condition of its buildings were unsatisfactory. Moving it onto the main site was a priority.

Another innovation in the 1990’s was the introduction of the RAE. The School has performed creditably with a 4 for Art & Design in 1992 and a 4 for Design, a 3A for Fine Art and a 3B for Communication and Media in 1996 and scores of 4 for the Design Institute, 3A for Creative Practice, and a 3B for Communication Culture and media in 2000. This part of our activity has been sustained through the Visual and Information Design Research Centre (in the Design Institute), The Centre for Communication Culture and Media Studies, the Lanchester Gallery and the appointment of high profile research fellows. The Research activity has been worth a lot of money to the School both through the HEFCE funding stream and the external funding of in excess of £1m which has been achieved over a period.

Current Developments
There has been a number of capital and infrastructure initiatives which have been initiated to secure the longer term future of the School totalling approximately £10m in the last 10 years. The biggest developments are the building schemes to which the University has committed. For the University as a whole the most important is the biggest one, the £20m construction of the new library, with its emphasis on IT, and radical environmental control and energy management. In parallel with this the University purchased the former Odeon building which has been converted for Media and Communication and Performing Arts, in a £6.25m project. The original completion date of September 2000 was not achieved due to the bankruptcy of one of the contractors, and the School experienced an extremely difficult period of initial occupancy, with building work going on until December. The building has been re-named the Ellen Terry Building.

Following these projects there were consequential adaptations to M Block. The removal of (the now) CMC and the Art and Design Library had left the space necessary to bring Industrial Design all together in the building (previously it occupied 3 buildings). This provided the opportunity to expand and re-organise computing and workshop facilities. The building now accommodates wholly Industrial Design and Design and Visual Arts. The project has been costed at about £1.2m, and the building has been re-named the Graham Sutherland Building.

This significant investment in its School of Art and Design by the University has enabled Performing Arts to be moved from its unsatisfactory off-site location, to the main site. Its cohabitation of the Ellen Terry Building with Media and Communication has created an ‘Arts and Media’ centre for the institution. The result is that Art and Design is coherently accommodated in 4 closely adjacent buildings on the main campus.



Most recently there has been the confirmation of the University’s commitment to design research through its development of the CU-Adam lab next to the Graham Sutherland building. Costing £1.2m this facility houses the Design Institute.

Student Numbers
To give some idea of the scale of our operation, it has been interesting to compare the current situation with 1959. In the 1950’s the college had 1000 part-time students and 100 plus full-time students. We have now managed to reverse this. We have nearly 1700 full-time students and 100 part-time. The current student population is about double what it was in 1990. It represents about 12% of the students in the University

Many of our graduates have gone on to achieve national and international prominence, and the occasional former student has achieved notoriety.

In line with other Schools of Art and Design we have regular performances and exhibitions, and we exhibit student work annually in the Degree Show. For the Visual Arts programme this is an important event in the sub region, attracting most of the local art community. The Design Show has a very high profile, and is one of the best attended, attracting visitors nationally and internationally. The School achieves national and international publicity for its work, and wins plaudits which are quite often deserved