The art of success

Britain's art colleges are undergoing a heady renaissance. They have become trendy again and, for the first time, are putting up fantastic new buildings to reflect their standing in the national psyche.

Britain's art colleges are undergoing a heady renaissance. They have become trendy again and, for the first time, are putting up fantastic new buildings to reflect their standing in the national psyche.

The best of them, such as Chelsea College of Art and Design, which has relocated to the impressive 19th-century former army barracks next to the Tate Britain, are spawning new premises for arts study.

Students will not only be able to paint and draw and make pots in the beautifully upgraded former Royal Army Medical College; they'll also be able to spill out into the parade ground and wander over to the Tate for joint lectures and exhibitions - all open to the public. Nowhere else in the United Kingdom do you have a world-class art gallery and a world-class college cheek by jowl. It is a sign of new self-confidence and ambition in the art school world.

"Art colleges have come of age," says Vaughn Grylls, director of the Kent Institute of Art and Design, which will shortly be merging with the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. "The 1960s saw a resurgence of art colleges when they started to award degrees. That continued in the 1970s. But after that the focus turned to management, health and sports studies. Maybe it was Tony Blair coming to power in 1997, but anyway something happened in the mid-1990s. Art colleges became fashionable again."

The new belief in the importance of art colleges' work has coincided with a relaxation in the criteria for colleges to become universities. Suddenly, art and design colleges are able to aspire to be universities. That is what Kent and Surrey are doing with their merger. First they will become a university college; later they plan to become a new specialist arts university in the South-east with five campuses, including a new one in Folkestone designed by Norman Foster.

The institution that all colleges are emulating is the University of the Arts London, which houses the capital's famous five art colleges - Chelsea, Camberwell, Central Saint Martins, the London College of Fashion and the London College of Communication. It is the largest arts university in Europe, a powerhouse blazing the trail for art and design, fuelling the capital's creative industries and attracting thousands of overseas students to London.

Set up by the Inner London Education Authority in the 1980s, it was the first specialist arts institution to win university status, and has done a brilliant job of providing strategic leadership and services but leaving the teaching and research to its constituent colleges. Cannily led by Sir Michael Bichard, former permanent secretary at the Department for Education and Skills, it has realised the importance of colleges' keeping their own names and identities.

It is no coincidence that Wimbledon School of Art is negotiating to become part of the University of the Arts in preference to merging with Kingston University, nor that Byam Shaw, a private art college, preferred to join the University of the Arts rather than London Metropolitan University. "What we're trying to do here is to get the best of both worlds," says Sir Michael. "We want the best of the old, small art colleges. We don't want to lose the identity of a Wimbledon, if they come in with us, or a Central Saint Martins."

The University of the Arts London has been fortunate in its rector. As the former top dog of the education world, Bichard had the confidence and knowledge to drive through a development such as Chelsea's Millbank next to the Tate. This was no easy task. When bidding for the former Royal Army Medical College, Bichard found he was up against the Aga Khan, one of the world's richest men. He got it for about £35m, and spent the same again having it cleverly kitted out by the architects Allies and Morrison, who also masterminded the new development for the London College of Communication.

Previously, Chelsea was on four sites. Art and design were separated, which made no sense and did not reflect the world. The departments needed to talk to one another. Professor Roger Wilson, head of Chelsea, says: "Modern art and design education relies on a number of discussions. It's the exchange between students, between students and staff and between staff and other schools. Unless you have the conditions that allow that, you are undermining a principle of Western art education."

Boundaries are breaking down between the previously discrete disciplines in the creative arts, according to Will Bridge, head of the London College of Communication, which has also gone from being spread out on four sites to becoming one campus.

"We feel that we are giving students better opportunities by being bigger and more multidisciplinary," says Bridge. "For a long time we were teaching graphic design in one part and advertising in another and television and film in a third. These areas are all merging in the real world, so we needed to as well."

Another exciting move in the map of art education is that of Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication to a site in Greenwich, south-east London, next to the Dome. At the moment, Ravensbourne is on 18 acres of suburbia in Chislehurst, Kent, an unlikely spot for an edgy college specialising in digital technology, moving image, three-dimensional design and broadcasting.

The plan is to double in size, from 1,000 to 2,000 students, and to relocate to an amazing new building designed by FOA, the architects responsible for the new Yokohama port terminal in Tokyo. "We are looking for a sustainable future," says Robin Baker, the college principal. "The 18 acres of Chislehurst need to be put to productive use for the college."

The new building, which will cost £50m, is expected to be completed by 2008. It will contain the college as well as a business hub linked to postgraduate work, and an innovation and enterprise centre that will hatch new companies. A name change is on the cards as well as collaboration with Trinity School of Music, the Laban School of Dance and Rose Bruford, a drama college. Ravensbourne will be rebranding itself as an institute for the performing arts, and is also thinking about linking with universities in the area such as Greenwich and Goldsmith's.

All of which are exciting developments, says Sir Christopher Frayling, the director of the postgraduate Royal College of Art. Apart from the Bauhaus in Desau and the Rennie McIntosh building in Glasgow, art colleges have built few distinguished buildings. "They were Portakabins stuck round the back in an apologetic way," Sir Christopher says. "Studios were grubby and the roofs leaked."

The new buildings in progress are making a statement about our faith in contemporary architecture, he believes. "They will change the landscape. We will be able to see some spots in London and say, 'Yeah, that's an art college.'"

Wimbledon: strength in merger

Wimbledon School of Art is a small art college in south-west London with a reputation for teaching drawing. But with fewer than 1,000 students and having dropped from a grade 5 to a grade 4 in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) of 2001, it was financially vulnerable. Its RAE performance meant it lost £1m at a stroke. It needed to make common cause with another institution to ensure that it could meet the bills for services that have nothing to do with teaching and reseach. The college has not been pushed into seeking a merger by the Higher Education Funding council, says Rod Bugg, the principal. It had been talking to Kingston University but decided it would fit better with the University of the Arts London. "We were concerned about losing our identity," says Bugg. "We're an art school and it makes more sense for us to think about being part of the University of the Arts." LH

l.hodges@independent.co.uk