Kingston School of Art archive exhibition
Posted Friday 24 January 2014
In November 2013, researchers from the Visual and Material Culture Research Centre, Kingston University curated a small introductory exhibition for the Platform Gallery at Knights Park campus, Kingston University. This exhibition is part of the ArchiveKSA project which aims to represent the history of Kingston School of Art (KSA).
The displays introduced some of the vast array of stories connected to Kingston School of Art throughout its history, looking at the development of varied creative disciplines including fine art, fashion, interior design, architecture, and printmaking. They also captured some of the atmosphere of life as an art student in different eras – the trips, music, special occasions and unexpected happenings that enrich art school lives.
A special evening event for alumni of the art school succeeded in reconnecting invited former students with the Knights Park 'family', with guests sharing reminiscences from their art school days: folk singer and art school student Sandy Denny giving an impromptu performance in the Knights Park canteen, fine art group members painting out by the banks of the Hogsmill, and radical counterculture adherents joining art school protests at Hornsey in the late 1960s being just a few memories related from the event.
Some of the objects featured in the show were:
- A palette, brushes, dipper, canvas stretcher and plumb line used by Ann Ryves whilst studying at Kingston between 1947 and 1951.
- A sketchbook and anatomy study by Barbara Freeman, student at Kingston School of Art during the 1920s.
- Documents from the portfolio of Mary Herring, amongst the first female Architecture students to study at the art school, between 1939 and 1947.
- A selection of etchings representing the extensive Knights Park printmaking archives, that feature work from 1970 to the present day.
- Examples of historic prospectuses from the Kingston University archives, offering instances of Kingston graphic design from the 1930s to 1970s.
- Studio and degree show images from the Fashion photography archives detailing the stellar successes of the school in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Design studio images from the 1950s, taken by Furniture tutor Aidron Duckworth.
