28/09/2026
Edinburgh College of Art is closing all 90 remaining craft and making courses at the college... all its workshop/studio courses including its jewellery courses.
Please sign the petition I've attached to this note. There has been an upwelling of support and national response to these closures.... please join the throng. In our diverse creative communities we recognise the importance of these courses. They have helped shape our cultural heritage and shape the future, the careers of countless students that have studied at Edinburgh have helped shaped the creative landscape of Britain
In Britain we punch way above our weight in the arts sector, in film theatre, music, design, in material based design, jewellery , ceramics , furniture....in fine art, painting and sculpture... this is because we have an education system that nurtures creativity in studios and workshops brimming with expertise and equipment. In the past it was understood that to create innovation you need to have time and space to experiment... in the creative equivalent of a laboratory.... the studio or workshop.
We are in danger of loosing so many skills through this loss, not just the heritage skills nurtured in art schools and the loss of material knowledge passed through the hands of the lecturers to their students. We will loose critical thinking and thinkers. Creative students need more space to learn, more than a student who needs only a laptop to complete their studies. The arts sector in the UK is bigger than the financial sector, yet , it is the financial sector making these choices. Art Colleges run by businessmen. The number crunchers see the maths with no vision...no future and no understanding of how their loss will diminish British culture.
I think that Art colleges should never have been defunded by the Government. That they are run as Businesses in the UK is abhorrent.... when STEM subjects are seen as more important and still have government funding. To have the arts fully funded, as they were, is a dream and another battle, but for now we fight for Edinburgh, let the government know how important it is that these courses are saved.
Save the Craft and Design Courses at Edinburgh College of Art