Exeter School of Art

Founded in 1854, the School was originally part of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and was championed by local sculptor Edward Bowring Stephens (1815-1882). The School underwent several name transformations, the first of which happened in 1951 when it was renamed the Exeter Central College of Art. In 1966, the students' print work was featured in an exhibition entitled 'An Approach to Printmaking in Exeter' at Whitechapel Gallery, London. In 1973, the College was again renamed as Exeter College of Art and Design. Another change occurred in 1989 when it amalgamated with Polytechnic South West, based in Plymouth, which would later become Plymouth University. In 2007, the facilities moved permanently to the Plymouth Campus. In 2016, Exeter College, a fee-paying educational establishment, launched the new School of Art as part of Exeter College’s Centre for the Creative Industries.

Its staff and alumni have included Clifford Fishwick (1923–1997) who was appointed Painting Master in 1947 and was principal of the college from 1958 to 1984. A skilled painter having trained at Liverpool School of Art, he was a friend of Peter Lanyon and exhibited regularly with the Penwith Society of Arts. Fishwick is now regarded as an important, if underrated, figure in post-war British painting and one of the better artists of the St. Ives coterie. In 1976, painting tutor John Butler set up the Spacex Gallery, an art gallery which became a registered educational charity in 1990. Other alumni included George Adamson, Jack Pender and J. F. Widgery.

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