NOTTINGHAM SCHOOL OF ART

1843 - ?

The Nottingham Government School of Design opened its doors in April 1843 and was the first government art school to be established outside London and has since gone through many transformations. Nottingham School of Art exhibited students' works to the public including the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. From 1888 the School was known as the Nottingham Municipal School of Art and Design and was governed by the Nottingham Castle Museum and School of Art Committee. One of its most famous pupils enrolled in 1890 namely Laura Knight (nee Johnson) who in 1929 became the first female British artist to be made a Dame of the British Empire. In 1934 another name change occurred when the school became known as Nottingham College of Art and in 1947 became known as The Central College of Art for Derby, Lincoln, Leicester and Nottingham when the College was divided into four schools, namely a School of Architecture, a School of Design, a School of Drawing and a School of Modelling and Sculpture. In 1969 the College merged with the Regional College of Technology to be known as Trent Polytechnic. In the late 1980s many of the faculties merged into what in 1992 became Nottingham Trent University with several individual faculties covering all aspects of art and design.