Fine art students at Sheffield Hallam University have held their last degree show at the Psalter Lane Campus - a bus ride away from the centre of Sheffield in the attractive, leafy western suburbs of the city, Nether Edge. The campus has been sold off for about 90 homes (the old Bluecoat School building will be converted, the buildings from the 60s will be demolished), and the ecumenically named Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences will be relocated in three city-centre buildings. The degree show was titled 'The Last Hurrah', after a 1956 novel about an ageing mayor defeated by a new brand of politics, and it marked 'an end for the current art faculty and a beginning for the young artists involved'. Students and fine art staff are according to one member of staff 'approaching the move in a positive way to make it work and to ensure the course retains its strong identity, but we have not got like for like. Students are angry - though constructively and eloquently angry, they organised a very good symposium. Staff are tired and frustrated. It has been a very difficult process.'
Psalter Lane was adopted by Sheffield College of Art in the 60s, and the return to a city centre site was planned up to ten years ago. Students are to be taught in three buildings, two of which have been refurbished. Fine art students are to be housed in a refurbished basement space with daylight equivalent lighting. They were told about this at a late stage and have been allocated studios with more wall area rather than higher floors with windows, but have lost out on the chance of purpose-built studios in the Furnival Building, currently being completed. This boasts 'some of the most sustainable and energy-saving features anywhere in the city', and has been designed by Bond Bryan architects.
The new building will house a gallery making very visible contact with passers-by through a large level window. It is unclear whether the gallery will be run by an independent curator, which is desirable, but it is likely to be run with input from students and staff on the MA in curating. BA fine art course leader Hester Reeve is, however, currently negotiating for another space that BA degree students have access to all year, given the reduction in studio space available. 'The resources will be excellent, better than what we had, but we have lost purpose-built studios. What's important now is that students get access year-round to a student exhibition space. Once you have a gallery you can do a thousand things. Fine art depends, pedagogically, on giving the chance to students to exhibit and experiment in the right context.'
From the artnotes section, Art Monthly, July/August 2008.Go back to the debate about art education
