BRADFORD COLLEGE OF ART

1832 - ?

The Bradford Mechanics Institute was founded as early as 1825 but collapsed due to the unpopularity of their views. To advance the working classes the Institute was successfully revived and the Bradford Mechanics Institute was inaugurated on the 27 January 1832 by non-conformists and businessmen and led by 26-year-old Baptist Joseph Farrar (bapt 3 December 1805-28 May 1878), along with James Acworth (1 August 1798-13 October 1863) and Rev. William Steadman (12 August 1764-12 April 1837), Quaker Henry Harris (21 July 1789-16 March 1872) and Congregationalists, Sir Titus Salt (20 September 1803-29 December 1876) and Robert Milligan (10 October 1786–1 July 1862). Teachers were voluntary and funds depended on fees raised from lectures, exhibitions, excursions, and concerts. Successful, though struggling from the start, by 1863 it had its own School of Industrial Design and Art and by 1882 when some 250 students were enrolled a new building was needed and was completed and opened in 1883 by the then Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. Towards the end of the 1880s, the Technical School was renamed Bradford Technical College but was struggling for both for space and finance and the First World War reduced its finances, pupils and its staff even further. Today having undergone numerous name changes it is an independent body offering a range of learning facilities from fine art through to hairdressing and in 2015 a new state of the art Advanced Technology Centre was opened on a former car park site in the city. Its former alumni and teaching staff include Richard Ernst Eurich (14 March 1903-6 June 1992), Edna Ginesi (15 February 1902-17 July 2000), Andy Goldsworthy (26 July 1956-), John Frederic Greenwood, Alvaro Ladrón de Guevara (13 July 1894-11 October 1951), David Hockney (9 July 1937-11 June 2026), Frank Parkinson Newbould (24 September 1887-24 December 1951), Norman Anthony Stevens (17 June 1937-20 August 1988), Edward Alexander Wadsworth (19 October 1889-21 June 1949), and other Suffolk artists include Jutta Bastian; Alice Kirkby Goyder; John Frederic Greenwood; Wil Harvey; Wendy Theobald and Thomas William Wilkinson.

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Works by This Artist