Trustees Academy of Arts

Other names: Trustees of the Board of Maufacturers, Drawing Academy, Trustees School of Design, School of the Board of manufacturers, Royal Institution School of Art
Foundation date: 1760 (Circa)
Dissolution date: 1907

Function: Art school

Policy: The Trustees Academy School of Art was established to provide instruction for people involved in design for manufacture. It promoted the art of drawing for the use of manufacture, especially for designing patterns for the wool and linen industries.

Its distinctive character was lost in 1858 when it came under South Kensington and became a series of schools managed on similar lines.

History or description: In 1760 the Board of Trustees for Fisheries, Manufacturers and Improvements in Scotland (est. 1726), established The Trustees Drawing Academy, which became known eventually as The Trustees School of Art. Set up as a consequence of the Act of Union on 1707.

In 1903 the School amalgamated with the School of Applied Art. Practical instruction in art and design was made available from about 1820, through the school attached to the Watt Institute. In 1907 the Scottish Education Department took over responsibility for the School and it became the Edinburgh College of Art.

Activities: art classes

Citing this record

'Trustees Academy 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_1213355359, accessed 02 Jun 2023]