The ‘Real Art School’: the Cultural Roots of Authenticity in Art Schools in UK and China Yanyan Liao Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation, Donghua University, Shanghai, China Room 103, Yifu Building, Donghua University, 1882 West Yan’an Road, Changning District, Shanghai City, 200051, China. Email:
[email protected], +86 158 1118 0330 Yanyan Liao is an associate professor at the Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation, Donghua University. She has been awarded her PhD degree at the School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University in the UK, doing research on British and Chinese art schools’ culture and identity. She got her MA at Tsinghua University in Beijing and BA at Xi’an Academy of Art. Her research interests are in Western art and design history, art school studies and the area of art and design higher education. Tom Fisher School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK Nottingham Trent University, 50 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ, UK.
[email protected], +44 115 848 8455 Tom Fisher has been Professor in the School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University, where he coordinates research, since 2007. He has worked in art schools since 1985. He was awarded his PhD from the department of Sociology at the University of York, and his BA in Fine Art and Art History from the University of Leeds. 1 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.