In World 209, the Nottingham Independent Arts School is a thriving institution focused on people, planet and possibility. It offers space: space to think and space to make and share skills. The school is deeply integrated with the local community and guided by a focus on care and cross-disciplinarity.
This collection of exhibits, which complement (and occasionally correct) the World 209, Exploration A timeline, provide insights into the development of the School.
This sign, for example, dates back to the School’s original manifestation as the Nottingham Operatives’ Institute of Craft.
This selection of exhibits relates to the influential Nottingham figure of Susannah Wright.
The first photo shows Susannah Wright being accosted in her radical and occultic bookshop, though the image was censored to protect the identity of her attacker.
The ghost of Susannah, along with the severed forearm belonging to the attacker, appeared to the new head of the Nottingham Operatives’ Institute of Craft. She then commissioned a carving of the ghost’s head, from a rough sketch, to adorn the new Waverley building in 1865.
These documents relate to the 1960s/1970s period of the School’s history.
First is a page from Nottingham Operatives’ Institute of Craft and Design prospectus from 1963-4. The text reads:
Welcome to Nottingham Operatives’ Institute of Craft & Design, where we learn with and from Nature. Immerse yourself in a unique learning experience that transcends traditional classrooms. Our open-air learning brings life to education and education to life, encouraging you to discover, explore, and connect with the natural world.
We see Nature as a teacher, an active participant and not just a setting. From hands-on crafting to literature discussions in the open, we inspire you to build a deep appreciation of the world around you.
Join us and take this immersive journey and let nature guide you to a brighter and a creative future.
A photograph shows the exterior of Nottingham Independent Arts School in the 1970s. Look closely at the timeline and you will see that the ghost of Susannah reappeared to students in 1976-76, to offer encouragement and inspiration during their extended strikes.
We have a few images that provide insights into the School in the 21st century.
One photograph shows a student creating a poster for the Bonington Skill Share Festival 2006; another shows the fashion and textile exhibit, created around the theme ‘Earth first’ as part of the annual Degree Sharing Festival.
This Exploration was contributed by Emma Wilkinson, Megha Chauhan, Tom Godfrey and Amy Twigger Holroyd, building on a previous World and Exploration by Elsa Ball, Sally Cooke, Tom Fisher, Rick Hall, Fo Hamblin, Joyce Lee, Joshua Lockwood-Moran, Alex Vincent Turner, Amy Twigger Holroyd, Sue Walton and Lorraine Warde, which had input in the preparation phase from Amanda Briggs-Goode, Toby Ebbs, Tom Godfrey and Simon Holroyd (located in Nottingham, UK), using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence which allows others to share and adapt the work in any medium and for any purpose, providing that they credit the authors and share their material using the same Creative Commons licence.
Many thanks to Bonington Gallery for hosting the workshop (alongside the excellent The Art Schools of the East Midlands exhibition by John Beck and Matthew Cornford) and providing resources for the prototypes.
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