Coordinates: 53.4697°N 2.

2382°W

Manchester School of Art

Manchester School of Art in Manchester, England, was
established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the Manchester School of Art
second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal
College of Art which was founded the year before.[1] It is now
part of Manchester Metropolitan University.

Contents
History
Motto Many Arts, Many Skills
Architecture
Type Public
People
Location Manchester, England
Collections
Website http://www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/
References
External links

History
The school opened in the basement of the Manchester Royal Institution on Mosley Street in 1838. It became
the School of Art in 1853 and moved to Cavendish Street in 1880. It was subsequently named the Municipal
School of Art. In 1880, the school admitted female students, at the time the only higher education available to
women, although men and women were segregated. The school was extended in 1897.[2]

The school became responsible for the non-degree courses of the Manchester Municipal College of
Technology by 1996, when the rest of that institution became the University of Manchester Institute of Science
and Technology. This transfer gave a historical link to the Manchester Mechanics' Institute established in 1824.

The school became part of Manchester Polytechnic in 1970 and is now part of the Faculty of Arts and
Humanities at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Its 175th anniversary in 2013 was marked by the
opening of the new Benzie Building[3] and the refurbishment of the Chatham Tower. The school comprises
four departments, the Manchester School of Architecture (MSA), formed in 1996 and jointly administered
with the University of Manchester, and the Departments of Art and Performance, Design and Media which
incorporates the Manchester School of Theatre[1] as well as Manchester School of Art Research Centre.[4]

Architecture
The Manchester Municipal School of Art was built in Cavendish Street in 1880–81 to the designs of
G.T.Redmayne. On a rectangular plan it was constructed in sandstone ashlar with buff terracotta dressings. It
is two storeys high above a basement and has slate roofs with glazed skylights. Its symmetrical facade, built in
the Neo-Gothic style, has large gabled wings with pinnacles at either side of its buttressed and blind arcaded
main range. In the centre is a chamfered doorway with a moulded arched head and carved spandrels above
which is a canted oriel window with a steep roof against a gable with pinnacles and a finial at the top. The
building is Grade II listed.[5]
The 1897 extension designed by Joseph Gibbon Sankey, at the rear of
the building, was built in red brick and terracotta with Art Nouveau
decoration.[2]

In 2014 the 1960s Chatham Tower was refurbished and the Benzie
Building was built,[3] to provide additional studio and exhibition
space for the art school. The design, by Feilden Clegg Bradley
Studios, was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in the same year.[6]

People Manchester School of Art

Calico printers Edmund Potter and James Thomson were involved in

the school's foundation.[7][8] The first head from 1838 was John Zephaniah Bell, who pursued a fine art
curriculum until 1843.[9]

John Cassidy studied in 1883 and taught here for a year in 1887.[10] Walter Crane was the Director of Design
from 1893 to 1898.[11] Adolphe Valette was a teacher there from 1906 to 1920.[12] Its graduates include L.S.
Lowry, Eugene Halliday, Liam Spencer, Ossie Clark, Martin Parr, Malcolm Garrett, Peter Saville, Thomas
Heatherwick and Roger Hampson. Sylvia Pankhurst was a student at the school.[13] Susan Dacre and Annie
Swynnerton formed the Society of Women Painters and Swynnerton became the first woman to be elected to
the Royal Academy since its inception in 1768.[14]

John Mayall enrolled at the School of Art in the 1950s. Other notable musicians to attend the school include
Mick Hucknall, who studied Fine Art in the 1980s and formed Simply Red.[15][16]

Collections
When founded, the school promoted the Arts and Crafts movement's philosophy and its collection includes
metalwork, jewellery, wallpapers, a tapestry made by Morris & Co. designed by Edward Burne-Jones,
Whitefriars glass by James Powell and Sons and George Henry Walton, silverware by Charles Robert Ashbee
and ceramics from Pilkington's Art Pottery.[11]

References
Notes

1. About us (http://www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/about/), Manchester Metropolitan University, retrieved

11 October 2012
2. Hartwell 2002, p. 132
3. "Manchester School of Art" (https://fcbstudios.com/work/view/manchester-school-of-art).
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. n.d. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
4. "Manchester School of Art Research Centre" (https://www.mmu.ac.uk/msarc/). Manchester
Metropolitan University. n.d. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
5. Historic England, "Manchester Polytechnic School of Art (1293192)" (https://HistoricEngland.or
g.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1293192), National Heritage List for England, retrieved 11 October
2012
6. Glendinning, Amy (18 July 2014). "Manchester School of Art shortlisted for top architecture
award" (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchest
er-school-art-riba-shortlist-7445001). Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
 7. Hewitt, M. "Potter, Edmund". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford
University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53288 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F532
88). (Subscription or UK public library membership (https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public)
required.)
8. Henderson & Barrie 1975, p. 90
9. Bosbach & Filmer-Sankey 2000, p. 113
10. "John Cassidy RCA, RBS" (http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?
id=msib1_1202142856), Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and
Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow, retrieved 20 May 2017
11. Manchester School of Art (http://www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk/schoola.php), Manchester
Metropolitan University, retrieved 11 October 2012
12. Adolphe Valette A French Painter in Manchester (https://web.archive.org/web/2008070521422
2/http://www.manchestergalleries.org/assets/files/gallery-text-panel---adolphe-valette.pdf)
(PDF), Manchester Art Gallery, archived from the original (http://www.manchestergalleries.org/a
ssets/files/gallery-text-panel---adolphe-valette.pdf) (PDF) on 5 July 2008, retrieved 11 October
2012
13. "Pankhurst, (Estelle) Sylvia (1882–1960)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.).
Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37833 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%
2F37833). (Subscription or UK public library membership (https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#pu
blic) required.)
14. "Swynnerton [née Robinson], Annie Louisa (1844–1933)". Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60287 (https://doi.org/10.
1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F60287). (Subscription or UK public library membership (https://www.oxfordd
nb.com/help/subscribe#public) required.)
15. "Mick Hucknall thanks Manchester for 'amazing start' " (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-engla
nd-manchester-20076598/mick-hucknall-thanks-manchester-for-amazing-start). bbc.co.uk. 24
October 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
16. Wintle, Angela (23 February 2013). "Mick Hucknall on his daily routine, going solo and etching"
(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9903633/Mick-Hucknall-on-his-daily-ro
utine-going-solo-and-etching.html). telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2018.

Bibliography

Bosbach, Franz; Filmer-Sankey, William (2000), Prinz Albert und die Entwicklung der Bildung
in England und Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert / Prince Albert and the Development of
Education in England and Germany in the 19th Century, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-
095440-1
Hartwell, Clare (2002), Manchester, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Yale University Press,
ISBN 978-0-300-09666-8
Henderson, William Otto; Barrie, Michael Ratcliffe (1975), Great Britain and Her World, 1750-
1914: Essays in Honour of W. O. Henderson, Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-
0581-7

External links
1878 – Manchester School of Art, Lancashire (http://archiseek.com/2009/1878-manchester-sch
ool-of-art-lancashire/#.URDdV_dFCM8)

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