spectrum 30th Anniversary Special Edition SPRING 2019

Image: Phil Archer, Departing

Principal Philip Archer’s Greetings

Welcome to this, my last edition of depth to our activities; hence the I will enjoy watching and Spectrum before leaving the School development of our year-long supporting the School in the next after 27 demanding but wonderful courses and the addition of a stage of its remarkable and exciting and fulfilling years. I am leaving graduate programme. It has been journey. to focus fully on my own art and my ambition to see work made in believe that now is the ideal time to our studios at the highest level and I pass on the baton. am delighted to see that this is now in place. It is our 30th anniversary year and the School is in a very good place. The favourite theme of the We have established a full range founders was ‘The Journey’ and School of Art at 30 of courses and, with our charitable it has been my privilege to see aims, they are open to all aspects Leith School of Art move forward We are delighted to celebrate of the community. Our business consistently step by step and I three decades of Leith School of plan for the past six years has been could never have foreseen how the Art. Inside we have more photos focussed on adding quality and journey would unfold, taking us to from across the years. where we are now. Fond Farewells

Philip Archer Principal

When Philip Archer agreed to Cheverton began to manifest these We wish Phil a peaceful retirement Image: David Henderson, Gathering Clouds Revisited lead Leith School of Art in 1992, dreams by starting the School and from the School, and thank him he was a Welsh artist intending infusing it with their spirit in the for the incredible service he has to return to full time practice first three years. After their tragic given to the art world. May he David brought a wealth of He has been a finalist in the Sunday after a few years. Twenty-seven deaths in a 1991 car crash, Phil was have a joyful return to full time experience to Leith School of Times Watercolour competition years later, and it is impossible to unwilling to let the group’s dream painting, many years after he Art, after over thirty years at several times. imagine what the School would die with the Chevertons, and he originally planned it. In Wales, it Grays. David studied Design & have looked like without Phil’s persuaded the board that he could is said ‘Gwell hwyr na hwyrach’ Craft (Printmaking) at Gray’s, “It has been a pleasure to work at visionary and dedicated leadership. keep the School going. It was a (Better late than later). For everyone and achieved an MBA at Aberdeen Leith - a unique and rigorous art Phil is currently Principal and very uncertain time; no-one knew who appreciates Phil’s art work, we Business School in 1999. He was school. I wish to thank Matt Storstein One Day Painting Course Leader. if the School would continue even are glad he went with that version awarded a George Davidson for his support and vital contribution Throughout his career he has lead by the start of the academic year, rather than the English equivalent Travelling Scholarship, Scottish to the success of the course. the Foundation Course and taught but Phil took up the mantle and ‘better later than never’. If you Arts Council Young Artists Bursary And welcome the appointment across the School. Phil’s genuine determinedly built up the School to would like to contribute an image and was appointed as a professional of Catharine Davison as Painting care for students and their art be the one we know today. or memory to Phil’s memento box, David Henderson member of The Royal Scottish course leader. I am confident Leith shines through, demonstrated by or to donate towards his retirement Head of Painting Society of Painters in Watercolours. has a very bright future.” his ability to remember names and Phil specialises in painting and oil gift, then please phone the School. He won the Society’s Council anecdotes in great detail. pastel. A major theme of his work is Award for best painting in the 2006 - David Henderson the rural terrace, the space between Phil Archer gave so much of his life Leith School of Art has benefitted exhibition and the David Gluck Phil studied at Cardiff College the outside and inside, exploring energy to the School, and his legacy greatly from David Henderson’s Memorial Award in 2014. David It has been a privilege to have David of Art and Sheffield College. He the safe and familiar home and will live on as long as Leith School four years as Head of Painting. held a number of senior academic Henderson teaching the Painting progressed to the Royal College the unfamiliar wilderness beyond. of Art continues. Thank you Phil, David was well known to the posts within Gray’s and was made a Course, and supporting the Graduate of Art, London. Here, he became His paintings are constructed and blessings on your next chapter. School before this appointment, as Teaching Fellow in 2002 by Robert Residents. David’s warm and stable one of a group of young Christian landscapes, inspired to some extent he was an external assessor on the Gordon University. His research personality has been a gift to the artists who dreamed of offering by Edward Hopper. The starting Foundation Course. As Head of and professional practice has School; he has been a well-liked and an art education in a nurturing point is to look through drawing You are welcome to attend First Year at Gray’s School of Art, contributed to conference papers highly respected colleague. We all environment that would offer and then to reflect on the subject, ‘Departing’ a talk by Phil Archer David would visit Leith in order and exhibitions nationally and wish him wonderful times ahead. a foundation in tradition and gradually distilling the most on 21st May 2019. See back page for to encourage Foundation Course internationally, and his work is in meaning. Mark and Charlotte essential information. details. students to apply to Gray’s. public and private collections.

Leith School Of Art At 30

On 30th March 2019, current It is an appropriate anniversary Leith School of Art has always been and past staff and students come for Philip Archer to hand over run without state funding, as an together to celebrate 30 years leadership of the School, as a 30th independent charity. of Leith School of Art. From a anniversary is a pearl anniversary. Thank you to everyone who has beginning of simply offering the From intense beginnings, the been part of this journey so far, who Foundation Course along with School has been on a journey have given their passion to come Assisted Places bursaries, the with plenty of creative sparks and together to make the School what School has now expanded to offer a interesting times, resulting in the it is. We are grateful to current range of courses at all levels. Right pearl of the School as we know it and past staff, students and their through from tentative beginners, now. families, the Patrons and Friends students on half-day or weekend of Leith School of Art, and the courses and our charitable projects, funders and community around us. to artists launching their careers and established artists honing their skills. In his own words, Hans describes his work as follows.

“The interaction between people and material culture has been a recurring area of enquiry in my work; how we read signs and symbols, how we make sense of our material world and how the objects that surround us can define us. I am intrigued by the narrative qualities, associations, provenance, and power of ubiquitous objects and in particular by the forces of materialism, consumerism, obsolescence and inventiveness. Through the visual language of ‘stuff’ my work examines the relationship between artist, object and viewer and investigates the boundaries between making and discovering, creation and craft, authorship and ownership.”

Amazingly, around 80 of Leith logo, including the original boat, School of Art’s alumni and staff which was included as founders have applied their creative energies Mark and Charlotte Cheverton and time adapting, manipulating enjoyed the theme of boats as vessels or decorating one of the Schools which hold a community as they artist’s aprons for Hans’ Art Apparel journey together. The Journey was a project to celebrate 30 years of favourite theme of the Chevertons: the School. The idea to create a the one with which they opened collective artwork installation for the School, and the one with which the anniversary celebration came Philip Archer chose to re-open the out of a conversation between Hans School. Where Are They Now? Hans K Clausen Image: Apron by and School Principal Phil Archer. Jacqueline Watt It is a way of illustrating and The individual Art Apparel apron and Ron Burnett celebrating the diversity and sense artworks will be auctioned to of community which are central raise funds towards the School’s tenets of Leith School of Art. The charitable aims. You can see the A Graduate of Leith School of Art’s After graduating in 2012 from engaged art practice completing Hans’s artistic journey was built pristine white artists’ apron is complete installation at the North Foundation Class of 2009, we are College of Art with a projects in Glasgow’s Yorkhill on earlier careers in social work, symbolic of a starting point, a place Junction Street Campus on Saturday delighted to welcome back Hans K BA Hons in Sculpture, he received Children’s Hospital, Inverclyde palliative care and therapeutic of beginning, the blank page where 30th March. Please visit the School’s Clausen as he offers his installation a New Graduate Studio Award 2012 Education Department, an art and counselling which have influenced a creative process starts. Relevant website for details of the auction. of aprons modified by alumni of the from the Edinburgh Sculpture science collaboration for Creative his interest in socially engaged as for most of the Art Apparel School, Art Apparel. Workshops and won the Signature in the Outer Hebrides, practice. In 2016 he set up Arcadeum contributors Leith School of Art Art Prize for sculpture 2012 from an art and therapeutic design in collaboration with Lindsay Perth was their creative departure point. #ArtApparel2019 Degree Art, London. In 2013, residency for NHS Lothian’s new when both artists met on a Creative Hans was selected for The Catlin Royal Hospital for Children, and a Scotland funded artist residency. One of the apron artworks is a Art Guide; was highlighted as permanent sculpture commission Arcadeum brings together the collaboration between Jacqueline one of three UK emerging artists for Edinburgh and Lothian Health participatory arts projects and Watt who taught on the Friday by Glass Magazine and was an Foundation in North Edinburgh. commissions that Hans and Lindsay all-day class for 19 years, and invited Graduate Artist for the He has a studio in the Edinburgh have carried out in partnership with her husband Ron Burnett who Society of Scottish Artists Annual Sculpture Workshop and teaches North Edinburgh Arts. Lindsay designed the original School logo, Show at the RSA. Since 2014 Hans Sculpture for the University of was one of the first Leith School of and also the original prospectus. has been developing his socially Edinburgh Centre for Open Art students, taught by Mark and Their apron proudly bears the Learning. Lottie. Dates For Your Diary

18 February - 6 April 2019 ‘Thirty years of Drawing & Painting at Leith School of Art’ by Andrew Gilchrist North Junction Street Campus, 25 North Junction Street, EH6 6HW Image: Inside the Glasshouse by Andrew Gilchrist 9 March - 28 April 2019 28 June - 30 June 2019 ‘Allaban’ End of Year Exhibition, 10 am - 4 pm by Jane Couroussopoulos and Jemma Derbyshire Private View: 27th June 2019, 7.30 - 9:30 pm Aberfeldy Watermill, Mill Street, Perthshire, 2BG PH15 North Junction Street and St James Campuses

23 April - 15 June 2019 27 - 28 July 2019 ‘Departing’ by Philip Archer Open Studios Weekend North Junction Street Campus Opening night: 26th July 2019, 6pm. Private View 5-8pm 26th April 2019 Coburg House, 16 Coburg Street, Edinburgh EH6 6ET

21 May 2019 15 July - 12 October 2019 ‘Departing’ An exhibition of drawings by John Brown Talk by Philip Archer, 6:30 pm North Junction Street Campus North Junction Street Campus Past Prospectuses

Leith School of Art 25 North Junction Street Edinburgh, EH6 6HW 0131 554 5761 Scottish Charity No. SC007456, Company Registration No. 111089 [email protected]