Watt Institution and School of Arts

Other names: School of Applied Art
Foundation date: 1852
Dissolution date: 1906

Function: Vocational education

Policy: To provide vocational education

Rules: The administrative structure which emerged during the establishment of the School of Arts included the management being undertaken by the Directors. The School of Arts was dependant on Public Subscription, and this was subsidised by charging students a fee of 15s on entry to a course. With the change of name from School of Arts to Watt Institution and School of Arts the first Government support in the form of scholarships to the value of £50 per annum from the Department of Science and Art.

History or description: Public subscription to a fund set up for a statue in memory of James Watt, the famous Scottish Engineer and Inventor, provided expansion of the School and the School of Arts of Edinburgh changed its name to Watt Institution and School of Arts in 1852. On 12 August 1885 the endowment of the Watt Institution and School of Arts was merged with that of George Heriot's Trust and the management was conferred upon a new governing body, the Governors of the George Heriot Trust. This was possible through the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act 1882.

Activities: art classes

Citing this record

'Watt Institution and School of Arts', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib6_1213283115, accessed 22 Mar 2023]