Bath Academy of Art

Lord Methuen - the artist Paul Ayshford - established the Academy at his home, Corsham Court, Wiltshire, in 1946 when he was President of the RWA. Additional annexes in Bath, and at Beechfield, incorporated a residential college for art teachers and Bath School of Art that had been in existence since 1852. The then Headmaster William Harbutt invented Plasticine in 1874 as a teaching material for sculpture students. The first directors were Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, and the early syllabus included printmaking, film, music and drama, in addition to the basic subjects of painting and sculpture. The Academy rapidly gained a reputation as a centre for excellence, and the qualifications it awarded were given Government recognition. Over the years, its staff and alumni have included several practitioners such as sculptors Bernard Meadows and Kenneth Armitage, painters William Scott, Terry Frost, Peter Lanyon, Adrian Heath, Howard Hodgkin, Anthony Fry, Martin Froy, Gillian Ayres, Claus Oldenburg, Peter Potworowski, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Hamilton, Jim Dine, Gillian Ayres and Robyn Denny.

It is now a college of Bath Spa University and is situated in Sion Hill, to the north of Bath City centre the Academy having closed in 1983. In that year it was incorporated by its local authority, Avon County Council, into a larger institution, the Bath College of Higher Education, when it was amalgamated with the teacher training college which was based at another country house, Newton Park, outside Bath. The closure of the Academy at Corsham and its return to the City of Bath was one part of such change, leading to the School becoming part of today’s Bath Spa University.