FOR almost a year Isabel Langtry, principal of the Hampstead School of Art, has been watching the brick cladding disappear from the large building next door in Kiddipore Avenue. The school’s printmaking room provides the perfect view to watch 52 luxury Barratt Homes emerge from what was the King’s College reference library.
It would be easy to assume that an independent not-for-profit art school and one of Britain’s biggest family house builders would not make easy bedfellows but Barratt are set to build Hampstead School of Art’s new campus.
“Barratts have never done anything like this before,” she says. “We’re the greatest asset of selling the new development and they said ‘tell me more’ and we haven’t looked back. They’ve been brilliant.”
The ambitious four-storey, purpose-built art school has been designed by Allies and Morrison, the architects responsible for contemporary dance company Rambert’s new headquarters on the Southbank. The site next to the residential development lies empty, waiting for the school to raise £400,000 by September, with an overall target of £2million.
The current total raised – an impressive £150,000 – is written in chalk on the staircase, the school’s fundraising barometer.
“The school will never be in that uncertain period again,” she says. “I don’t want a building problem any more. We don’t make a profit from the school fees. Any excess goes towards helping those who can’t afford the fees.”
Hampstead School of Art was founded in 1946 as a community art education charity by Jeanette Jackson and Bernard Gay with the patronage of Henry Moore.
Isabel works hard to continue the original ethos of encouraging both established artists and complete beginners with a mix of classes and outreach projects.
The school has already moved venues three times since its foundation. Each corner of the school is used for art making. It’s uneven wooden floors, large bay windows and the heady smell of turps creates a picture-perfect image of an art school. Every windowsill is covered in art pieces; the walls heavy with students’ and teachers’ work.
Isabel is adamant that this charm will flow into the new building, even planning to transplant some of the flooring. “The students trust me that we are going to create a school that will be sensitive,” she says.
“We want to have a quirky building that responds to students.
“Our school is about creating opportunities and I find opportunities in lots of little dark corners.”
Quite literally. Isabel knocked through three little storerooms in the attic to create a studio for portrait painter and former student Abbi Yentis after she became disillusioned with her university course.
“Abbi was very unhappy on her course. I encouraged her to stay at the university but after a few months she said ‘I’m still not getting enough here’. I had every confidence in the artist she could be. So I wrote her a course.”
This new three-year programme at Hampstead School of Art includes 18 hours a week direct teaching with tutors specialising in portraiture – miles away from the average nine hours a week “contact” time with university tutors revealed in an NUS study.
“Art schools have changed so much. I think I was in the last wave to benefit from a tailor-made education. There was none of this pre-ordained hoop-jumping,” she says.
“I’m appalled by it, honestly. I believe education should be responsive, not a conforming procedure or recipe. It just goes to show you how art schools no longer respond to individuals.
“This school is pioneering a return to the days of students being individually taught. With Abbi it absolutely suits her.”
Abbi is set to complete her first year in July with the course now boasting a waiting list.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Isabel grew up surrounded by art. Her parents – a doctor and a physicist – were keen collectors of African and South American sculpture. Many of the artefacts were payment for her father’s medical services.
After the family relocated to Manchester, Isabel studied at Hull University and Central St Martins. Her bronze and crystal sculptures have been exhibited in Mall Galleries and Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Next week sees two of Isabel’s sculptures installed on Hampstead Heath outside the Hampstead Affordable Art Fair. Sales of the £25 ticket to the charity private view on June 10 will go directly to the appeal as the chosen charity beneficiary of the fair.
Any donations over £5,000 will receive Isabel’s sculpture, The Knock Drummer.
There are many other opportunities to support the school, purchase a secret artist postcard or get involved with the Summer of Art in Hampstead, a riot of workshops, exhibitions, stalls and live art events from June 10-July 19.
“It’s a living, breathing project. I have to give my all,” she said. “If we failed to raise £2million we will let down so many people.”
