Events

Yorkshire has a distinctive and rich history of art education and education through the arts that have national and international ramifications. In the early twentieth century, Yorkshire's prime movers for such creative learning included Michael Sadler, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University, the art patron Eric Gregory, and art critic Herbert Read. Their ideas filtered through to the work of many artists who were born or worked in Yorkshire, not least Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Hubert Dalwood.

During the middle part of the century, the schools in the region came under the guidance of Alec Clegg, Chief Education Officer for West Riding, who believed in the centrality of the arts in education.

The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds houses extensive archival material from artists who produced sculptures for schools in numerous parts of England. It is an ideal venue for this seminar which, among other subjects, considers how to best use the Institute's resources in order to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of 'The Decorated School'. The seminar showcases some of what we already know about (primary and secondary) school sculpture, as well as artists and schools. Furthermore, it also provides the opportunity to construct research agendas for the future.

All those interested in the history of art and sculpture in schools are welcome to attend. We would especially welcome teachers and former teachers so that they may share their knowledge about the significance, for example, of the Clegg philosophy of practice, as well as their memories of the role of the arts and artists in schools in mid-twentieth-century Yorkshire and beyond.

This seminar is organised by The Decorated School Research Network. The Network is led by educational historian Dr Catherine Burke (University of Cambridge) and art historian Dr Jeremy Howard (University of St Andrews) and funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. The Henry Moore Institute seminar is one of a series of events organised by the Network.