SUPPORTERS of the embattled National Art School in Darlinghurst are celebrating winning a highly public battle after receiving news that the historic school will be merged with Macquarie University rather than the College of Fine Arts at the University of NSW.
Students and staff had feared that if the school, housed behind the sandstone walls of the old Darlinghurst jail since 1921, was taken over by the College of Fine Arts it would be subsumed in what many saw as a grab for the valuable real estate it was sitting on.
The college, which is running out of space at its premises in Oxford Street, had been one of the leading contenders to take over the operations of the National Art School since the State Government sought expressions of interest for a university to run it earlier this year.
Supporters of the art school, including the artist Wendy Sharpe, the art critic John McDonald, the sculptor Ron Robertson-Swann, the former premier Bob Carr, and the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, have been vocal in backing Macquarie University's bid because it does not have an art school and therefore poses no threat, in their view, to the continuing survival of the historic Darlinghurst school.
The Minister for Education and Training, Carmel Tebbutt, said the decision to place the National Art School under university management would secure its position as "one of Australia's pre-eminent providers of fine art education".
"The [school] is highly regarded, not only in Australia, but internationally … The move to university management will allow [it] to continue this proud tradition, expand its course offerings and provide the greatest opportunities to its students," Ms Tebbutt said.
Macquarie University was in a better position to meet the Government's requirements, she said.
"These requirements are the preservation of [the school's] unique identity; maintenance of the school's artistic and educational philosophy, including the atelier model based on the philosophy of one-to-one instruction and mentoring; retention of existing staff … [and] retention of the National Art School on the old Darlinghurst jail site."
