Art school protest goes to print

9:02am Thursday 10th July 2008

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In May 1968, hundreds of students occupied Hornsey College of Art in a dispute about the control of student funds. Miriam Craig talks to the author of a new book about the six weeks of revolution

When students at Hornsey College of Art discovered on May 9, 1968, that the student union funds had been frozen, they decided it was time to take action.

They planned a 24-hour programme of seminars discussing the college's future, to take place in the main building in Crouch End Hill.

Film screenings and music had also been planned, but once the event began, much of the entertainment was abandoned as frustration erupted in all-night debate.

A new book by Lisa Tickner, visiting professor at the Courtauld Institute of Art and professor emeritus of art history at Middlesex University, looks at the causes and aftermath of what turned into a sit-in lasting six weeks.

Ms Tickner was a student at the college from 1961 to 1967 and visited the sit-in several times, before returning that autumn to teach part-time.

She says: "It was a very exciting place to be. There was a festival atmosphere in some parts of the college, while other parts were starved of resources.

"During the sit-in, students discussed facilities at the college, national education policy, and the relations between art and design and modern society. So they were motivated by both local and much more wide-ranging issues."

Grievances relating to the college included inadequate heating and a shortage of basic equipment. There were no common rooms for students or staff, so tutorials and even interviews sometimes took place in the corridors.

Then there were the strained relations between the college and Haringey Council, which was keen to push through plans to merge the college into a new north London polytechnic; those against the plans feared the college would lose its autonomy.

In the weeks that followed, students worked on art projects such as designing toys for disabled children and redesigning Oxford Circus Tube station, and hosted talks from visiting speakers in the field of arts education.

While doing so, they also ran the college themselves, manning the canteen, cleaning, answering press enquiries and issuing more than 70 documents. They even kept accounts so as not to lay themselves open to charges of wasting money.

After six weeks, the end of the sit-in came about in a haze of draft proposals, committees, caveats and intense discussion. Ms Tickner says: "There wasn't one single moment when it all stopped; it petered out, and the college was closed on July 12."

Haringey Council eventually got its way and the college is now part of Middlesex University.

The amount the sit-in achieved is debatable. Although the students had apparently won the right to student representation, it was purely as an advisory body, and by April the following year students were holding a "weep-in", a mock funeral symbolising the death of the sit-in's hopes.

But Ms Tickner sees their actions as an achievement nevertheless. She says: "The most amazing and inspiring thing is that they maintained it for six weeks, with an astonishing degree of democracy and vitality. In doing so they contributed to a much bigger debate about the future of art education."

Hornsey 1968: The Art School Revolution is available now, published by Frances Lincoln.