Norwich School of Art

Norwich School of Art began as one of the earliest of the provincial schools having been established in 1845. The school was set up due the local influence of the Norwich Society of Artists, who were wholly influential in founding the Norwich School of Design, established to provide designers for local industries. Uniquely this part of Norfolk is the only provincial UK city to have produced a school of artists with a national or arguably international significance in the development of European landscape painting.

During the second half of the 20th century the School achieved degree level status when in 1965 it was approved to offer the Diploma in Art and Design. In 1989 the School merged with Great Yarmouth College of Art to form the Norfolk Institute of Art and Design and in 1991 it was given the name of the Norfolk Institute of Art and Design becoming an Associate College of the new Anglia Polytechnic. In November 2007 the School was granted the power to award its own degrees and was renamed Norwich University College of the Arts. Alumni have included Michael Andrews, Glenn Brown, Zebedee Jones, Bernard Meadows, Alfred Munnings, Colin Self and Charles Mayes Wigg.