History of the Schools of Visual Arts
The history of the Schools of Visual Art dates back to the founding of the Royal Danish Portrait, Sculpture and Architectural Academy in Copenhagen in 1754. Originally housed in Charlottenborg Slot (Charlottenborg Palace) in Kongens Nytorv, the Academy’s expansion saw it move to an address in Frederiksholms Kanal after just a few years. From the earliest days of the Academy, art teaching has always taken place in the studios that are still used by the Schools of Visual Art today. In 2002, however, the Schools carried out a long-overdue expansion of studios and workshops being used in Peder Skrams Gade. The Academy has, like other old European academies, undergone many changes and has also altered its name several times: from 1814 to 1968 it was called Det Kongelige Academie for de Skiønne Kunster i Kiøbenhavn (The Royal Academy of the Fine Arts in Copenhagen). In 1968 the Academy’s roles as teaching institution and as the state’s institutional advisor in aesthetic questions were separated. From now on, art education would be undertaken by the various schools constituting Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts). In 1974, the Schools of Visual Art, like the School of Architecture, became a separate institution, and the new School of Conservation was established. Today, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts is constituted by the following institutions: the School of Architecture, the Schools of Visual Art, the School of Conservation, the Danish National Art Library and the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts (whose operations are carried out through the auspices of Akademiraadet). Throughout the long history of the Academy, the traditions of the French Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (1648) were dominant, in terms of both educational objectives and organisation, so that, from the start, the institution consisted of schools under the leadership of a professor with responsibility for training a group of students, whose own relationship with the professor was then that of pupils to master. Structural reforms since the 1960s have gradually altered this relationship, and today an education at the Schools of Visual Arts takes the form of a unique combination of continental and Anglo-Saxon models of artistic training – models that remain under development, for example in meeting with the terms of the Bologna Process of European educational reform. Today, as previously, great weight is placed upon ensuring the greatest possible level of diversity, in terms of teachers’ artistic range and approaches to artistic production, whilst course programs are both planned in close consultation with students and implemented with the involvement of a wide variety of overseas and domestic teaching staff.
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ Schools of Visual Arts is an Institute of Higher Education which creates a framework for teaching, academic development and research across the entire field of the visual arts. Over the course of more than 250 years, the Schools of Visual Arts have undertaken this task in light of shifting contemporary perceptions of the role and function of art. Factors whose status and meaning were perhaps previously been taken for granted – the artist, the work, the creative conditions, the viewer, the exhibition, the market – all are now objects for a debate that forms an integral part of an artistic education and artistic research at the Schools of Visual Art. This occurs alongside the work of experimental development taking place within a wide range of disciplines and subject areas.
Instruction in the creative arts has both practical/technical and theoretical dimensions and, in both cases, is based upon research and artistic development. The primary objective of their studies is to provide students with optimal conditions for the development of their creative work, as well as to ensure that they acquire the practical, theoretical and communicative skills necessary for the realisation of an artistic project. This objective also requires an awareness of how to gather and organise artistically-relevant knowledge, as well as an understanding of the institutional frameworks for the production and reception of art in both a historical and a contemporary context. Upon completion of their studies, students will therefore have acquired a thorough grasp of the challenges posed by the practice of the visual arts, as well as the demands of, and opportunities afforded by, a modern society and a visual culture undergoing constant change. This occurs partly through guidance, criticism and discussions during the Basic Studies program and at the normal schools, and partly through encounters with, and analysis of, historical and contemporary works of art.
At the Schools of Visual Art, artistic production, the creation of artworks, is the focal point of tuition, research and development. What is common to the extremely diverse forms of teaching and research taking place in the Schools is the ambition to create numerous links between the practice of visual art, critical-theoretical knowledge and the technical foundations of artistic production. In general, the Schools of Visual Art base their artistic and academic activities upon the aim of contributing to the development of artistic disciplines, genres and means of expression, including also the debate concerning the role of the artist. The foundation for this is both a familiarity with tradition and a capacity to think innovatively.
During the Basic Studies program, the students’ own production is the focal point of the teaching. This stage of the course develops artistic working processes, both through individual discussions with tutors and through reciprocal, constructive criticism and dialogue among the students themselves. Additionally, their participation in a range of practical and theoretical courses equips them with essential practical/technical tools and the foundations of art-historical, theoretical and conceptual knowledge.
Having progressed to the more advanced stage of the program, students take a more thoroughgoing and specialised approach to their artistic work; students are provided with the opportunity to undertake individual or collaborative artistic activities under the guidance of professors, lecturers and invited tutors.
Tuition is organised by the professors and lecturers, in conjunction with students themselves, working out between them a range of ideas and objectives for artistic and theoretical activities and projects. At every stage of the course program, the student will meet guest lecturers from Denmark and abroad. These might include visual artists, architects, authors, philosophers, art historians, sociologists, natural scientists or others with relevant expertise giving lectures, organising workshops, or participating in various artistic or theoretical projects alongside tutors and students. Likewise, teaching and project work is also arranged in collaboration with other educational and research institutions, such as universities. A familiarity with major trends in international art and an understanding of art institutions in other countries form a part of the outlook that is essential for artistic work and an artistic orientation. For this reason, study trips undertaken by students, accompanied by their teachers, are a key component in education provided by the schools.
Throughout its history, the Schools of Visual Art have developed a reputation for their international co-operative ventures. During the past ten years, the relationships between the Schools and the international artistic and cultural scene have expanded significantly. Seminars are organised with foreign philosophers, artists and critics. Lectures are frequently translated into Danish and published in book form. The Schools collaborate extensively with colleagues from abroad, who also give guest lectures. The Schools of Visual Art also collaborate with a number of art academies, art centres, museums, universities and other organisations abroad. Such collaborations can entail student exchanges, exhibitions and publications.
Finally, the Schools of Visual Art have a substantial publishing output which includes translations into Danish of leading foreign works, anthologies and compendia of, in particular, visual art, art and cultural theory, as well as the technical and material basis for artistic work.