Wolverhampton College of Art

As early as 1827 there existed a Mechanics’ Institute which was funded by local manufacturing industries but sadly it failed to offer specialist education to artisans. However, the Great Exhibition of 1851 spurred the whole country into the creation of schools that would specialise in the teaching of the arts. Thus in that same year, a Government Art School was opened in the city but following growing demand in 1885, a new Municipal School of Art was created which was next door to the Wolverhampton Art Gallery. It offered a wide range of classes that included life drawing, sculpture and embroidery and metalwork. Arguably its leading protagonist was Robert Jackson Emerson and under his tutelage, the school went on to produce four Prix de Rome winners, namely Cecil Brown, (1928), Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones (1934), Geoffrey Deeley (1935) and Albert Pountney (1938) and of course Sir Charles Wheeler who became the first sculptor to hold the Presidency of the Royal Academy of Arts. Other alumni and staff have included William Sidney Causer, Mary Lacey, Reginald St. Clair Marston, Norman Thelwell, Cornelia Parker, Timothy Mara and Anish Kapoor.

September 1969, saw the College being officially designated a Polytechnic and in 1992, Wolverhampton Polytechnic was granted university status thus becoming Wolverhampton University.