National College of Art and Design

The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of the most important Irish artists, designers and art educators have studied or taught in the college. NCAD has always been located in central Dublin, and in 1980 it relocated to the historic Liberties area. The College has around 950 full-time students and a further 600 pursuing part-time courses, and NCAD's students come from more than forty countries. NCAD is a Recognised College of University College Dublin. It is also a member of the European League of Institutes of the Arts.
The National College of Art and Design can trace its origins in an unbroken line back to the drawing school set up by Robert West in George's Lane, in 1746, and then sponsored by the Dublin Society. The institution has been influenced in turn by the French Enlightenment, the Victorian schools of design, including industrial design, the Arts and Crafts movement, the search for Irish national identity and innovations in British art education in the 1960s. The school has also played a role in Irish social and cultural developments - it had a significant influence on the eighteenth century Irish school of painting and sculpture and it also affected the standard of applied ornament in architecture and crafts. Most Irish artists of importance have spent some time in the college, and in the twentieth century the teaching staff has included Sir William Orpen, Oliver Sheppard, Oswald Reeves, Harry Clarke, Seán Keating, Maurice MacGonigal, Laurence Campbell and Bernardus Romein.
The opening up of Irish culture in the 1960s had a profound effect on the college, resulting in years of student disturbances and closures by the government. Central to this was the debate about Modernism versus traditional discipline and the control exercised by the Department of Education and its predecessors. There was also the pressure for industrial design reform in face of the new economic future of an independent Ireland, and again within the Common Market. The consequence of all this revolution was a statute of 1971 which re-established the college, granting it freedom to run its own affairs academically. The college was further restructured in 1975 and a wide range of degree courses developed.
Following its relocation to Thomas Street in the early 1980s, the college expanded its offer of undergraduate courses and introduced a range of postgraduate courses and research based options up to PhD level.
For most of its history NCAD was located in Kildare Street, in a series of buildings adjoining the Dáil (Parliament) and the National Library of Ireland. With increasing student numbers and a requirement for additional space by the Dail, the College relocated to the Liberties in the early 1980s, to a site at 100 Thomas Street which was formerly the home of Power's Whiskey Distillery.
The six acre campus is located next door to the landmark Church of St Augustine and St John, by Gothic revivalist Edward Welby Pugin (begun 1862) which features stained glass by NCAD graduates, Michael Healy and Harry Clarke (and his studio).
The campus comprises a mixture of 19th, 20th and 21st century buildings. The largest of the original Powers Distillery buildings is the five-storey Granary, crowned by a cupola with weather vane bearing the date 1817. Other original buildings utilised by the college include the Counting House and Offices (now housing College Administration), designed by C. W. Caroe (c.1876), the Clock Building, and the Distiller's Residence. Distinguishing features associated with the manufacture of whiskey include three of the original giant pot stills, once enclosed but now located on the periphery of Red Square (part of the original kiln building is now integrated into the Library annex), along with two of the original five engine houses, including the most notable, Engine House No. 5 with its 250 horse power beam engine, and the smaller of the original two chimney stacks. The majority of full-time students have dedicated studio space in either the Granary or in the Design For Industry Building (built 1998). The student café, which was originally Power's staff canteen, is located in the vaulted basement of the Counting House and Offices.
In the 1998 the College acquired the old Thomas Street Fire Station, Dublin's first motorised fire station, which was designed by Charles J. McCarthy (1911). Renamed Harry Clarke House, it now houses a lecture theatre, seminar rooms and staff offices. Between it and the Counting House is the modernist NCAD Gallery (with staff room and studio space overhead) which was designed by Murray O'Laoire and opened in 2009.
Since 2017 the College campus has featured in Dubline (Dublin Discovery Trail), the self-guided tour which introduces visitors to both the contemporary college and the history of the site and the buildings.
NCAD consists of four schools: Design, Fine Art, Visual Culture and Education which provide a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses, and research-based study up to PhD level.
In the Schools of Fine Art, Design, and Education, students enter a common First Year to undertake a three year BA (Honours) degree which includes an inter-disciplinary first semester. BA Degree specialisms are available in Ceramics & Glass, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interaction Design, Jewellery & Objects, Media, Print, Product Design, Sculpture & Expanded Practice, Textile Art & Artefact, and Textile & Surface Design. Additionally, in conjunction with School of Education, students may avail of a four year Joint Honours BA Degree (to qualify to teach at second level) in combination with any of the College's specialisms. Visual Culture is a component of all degree courses and the School of Visual Culture also offers a single (non studio-based) three year Degree pathway. There is also a Visual Culture Joint Honours option in combination with any of the College's specialisms. From the academic year 2018/19 NCAD has stated its intention to introduce Studio+ which will allow all Fine Art and Design students to take an extended four year degree which will provide options to study abroad through the Erasmus programme or to gain practical work experience in the form of industry placement on live commercial, social, or community projects in Ireland or abroad. Students will be awarded a BA in Design or Fine Art or a BA International.
NCAD offers the widest range of specialist and interdisciplinary art and design Masters programmes in Ireland: MA Interaction Design; MSc Medical Device Design; MFA Design; MFA Fine Art; MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World; MA Design History and Material Culture; Professional Master in Education (Art & Design); MA Socially Engaged Art and Further Education;
CEAD offers part-time accredited (within the National Framework of Qualifications) courses and also non-credit art and design courses over a range of more than fifty options. The CEAD student body is over 500.
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