The 'real art school': the cultural roots of authenticity in art schools in UK and China

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Liao, Y. and Fisher, T. ORCID: 0000-0003-2565-8805, 2018. The 'real art school': the cultural roots of authenticity in art schools in UK and China. The Design Journal: an International Journal for All Aspects of Design. ISSN 1460-6925

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2018.1444244

Abstract

This paper investigates the identity of independent art schools, and art schools in multidisciplinary universities, in the UK and China. Its cross-national research approach uses the concept of collective identity from organizational management theory as a theoretical framework. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Chinese and British academics, the article addresses the 'image' of art schools – which has both positive and negative aspects. Governments and public opinion takes them to be both the setting for creativity and innovation, and at the same time as being less effective than the other subject disciplines at contributing to economic growth. The article explores this not through an economic argument, but a cultural one. It shows that both independent art colleges and art schools in universities preserve a 'bohemianism' in their organizational identity. It is not novel to note that in the West, this is based in Romanticism, however, it is possible to identify an equivalent, and more ancient, strand in Chinese culture that underlies the identity of 'real art schools' there.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

The Design Journal: an International Journal for All Aspects of Design

Creators:

Liao, Y. and Fisher, T.

Publisher:

Taylor & Francis

Date:

9 March 2018

ISSN:

1460-6925