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Winchester School of Art celebrates 150 years

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The Winchester School of Art (WSA) is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year (2020) with a programme of events, projects and initiatives taking place at the school and throughout the city, celebrating and exploring their history of creative education.

Winchester School of Art outside of the building under treesVisit the ‘150 years of WSA’ exhibition exploring the history of the school as well as featuring items from the school’s archive and other local collections.

WSA is also hosting Son et Lumiere: a projection mapped light, image, video and sound installation, responding to their history and the students, staff and art that made it.

Working with Archaeology students and colleagues, WSA will investigate Park Avenue – home to WSA today. This will have the potential to lead to a bigger dig in the future.

Alumni exhibitions will be featured throughout the city later in the year to highlight the impactful work former students have created since graduating.

Winchester School of Art is planning a series of long-term legacy projects starting in 2020 to celebrate their 150th anniversary – visit the WSA website for more details.

Dates for all of these events can be found on the WSA website. Please note these are subject to change as the city responds to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, so please visit the website for any updates.

Winchester School of Art is proud to be recognised as one of the UK’s leading and progressive art and design institutions. As part of the world-renowned University of Southampton, part of the Russell Group of Universities, they have been ranked 18th place in The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019 and 7th place in subject area for ‘Art’ in the 2019 Guardian University League Table. The students and staff have gone on to achieve prestigious awards and commissions, reflective of the school’s long tradition of providing a transformative and inclusive educational experience.Winchester School of Art show with exhibits hanging down the sides of the room

Winchester was put on the map as a place for art education on 21 May 1870 when a group of Winchester College Dons met to discussion the foundation of an art school that could compete with the highly successful London institutions.

The School of Art opened on 27 September 1870 in a temporary location at the Bishop’s Palace in Winchester. The school built on its initial success and a new School of Art was opened on 3 November 1876 in Winchester Guildhall. The school stayed there until 1966 when it moved to its current location in Park Avenue.

Winchester School of Art now welcomes an annual student cohort of 1800+ students, both to Winchester and the shared collaborative campus in Dalian, China. They offer six undergraduate programmes, eleven postgraduate taught programmes and a postgraduate research programme supported by five research groups.

To find out more about the Winchester School of Art please visit their website.