Dartington College of Arts
The College was one of only a few in Britain devoted exclusively to specialist practical and theoretical studies in courses spanning right across the arts.
The College emerged out of the already well established activities in arts, education and social and economic reconstruction instigated and funded by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst at Dartington Hall from the mid 1920s.
[3]: 28–37 The Adult Education Centre, which opened in 1955 under the direction of Ivor Weeks, mainly offering evening, short and part-time courses, provided a springboard for a fully-fledged college of arts.
[4]: 138–139 The 1950s also saw the formation of the Dartington String Quartet, 1958–1981, which became internationally famous[3] and would play a significant part in the subsequent the musical life of the College for two decades.
In each phase the structure and rationale of the College shifted, largely as a survival strategy in the face of changes in local and national policy and funding.
Peter Cox, the founding principal, who had previously been Warden of The Dartington Hall Arts Centre, did more than anyone to ensure the College's viability in the early years.
[4]: 91–144 Although the three separate departments went their own way to a large extent, there was some commonality of approach: a John Dewey-inspired philosophy of "learning by doing.
[3]: 283 At the same time there was a shift in funding sources for colleges in higher education from local authority to central government.
During this period, College resources, including space and technical support, were steadily improved and staffing was diversified and enhanced.
Changes in national policy put an end to previous local authority support via the Assisted Status programme.
In the shake up, the Polytechnic South West (later University of Plymouth) agreed to play an active part in a necessarily unequal partnership, assuming a full quality assurance role and making some conditions for their support.
A belief in the value of active participation in the arts in the wider community bound the College’s work into a common enterprise and linked it back to the early history of Dartington.
Joe Richard’s role-playing work in Dartmoor prison, and with young offenders at Glenthorne Youth Treatment Centre in Birmingham, is also relevant here.
Art adopted a somewhat different artists residency, model, in which students would individually negotiate a setting in the local region to which a significant part of their final year's work would relate, directly or indirectly involving members of the public.
This allowed a flexible and ongoing engagement, where students could research a setting over time, find an appropriate strategy of intervention and work in, or out, of College at different stages as circumstances required.
Choices of residency varied enormously, from a light house, to a fish shop, to a water company, to working with a single child with a disability.
These included numerous industries, gardens, farms, research projects, training schemes, short courses, conferences, talks and festivals.
Whilst Government policy was to reduce the number of smaller colleges in favour of larger institutions, this was not the reason for, or cause, of the closure and there is no knowing how it would have played out in the ensuing years had it remained open.
[4]: 408–447 The crisis led to a controversial and contested merger with the then University College Falmouth and the relocation of most courses and some staff and students to Cornwall.
Main programmes in Dance, Choreography, Theatre, Acting and Music with some, more vocational additions including Arts Management, still continue successfully in that location.
This new initiative will continue to run in parallel with Dartington’s existing Schumacher College, which offers a range of post-graduate courses in ecology.
