An exhibition of foundation students' work

Terry has e mailed me an image from an exhibition of foundation course work. I remember this because it coincided with Leeds United playing in the European Cup Final against Bayern Munich.  They lost a contested match by two goals to nil, all the staff watching the match in a London pub after going for a meal in one of the places Andrew Tilberis used to recommend. It must have been the end of May 1975. I was still very raw and impressed that we were invited to show work in London. I didn’t yet realise the importance of the foundation course’s history.

This (below) is the full text of Terry’s e mail, as he says I havnt mentioned complementary studies yet. It is for me a very important subject, so will get round to it at some point, but not yet:

Searching through various damp boxes in the garage I found this page which might be of interest to you.

It refers to an exhibition called Foundation organised by Philip Hughes and held in London in the early 70's at something called the International Art Centre (I've forgotten where this was). It included work by the then Jacob Kramer College, Bath Academy of Art, Chelsea School of Art, Croyden College of Design, London College of Printing, Ravensbourne College of Art, and seven schools, mainly in London that had 6th form foundation courses in competition with college foundation courses.

The page I have included says a lot, I think, about the ethos of the JK foundation at the time. There is an air of breathless excitement about it which is quite amusing but it reminds me of a part of the course that you haven't mentioned yet - complementary studies. At the time there was a feeling that this was a distraction from studio practise but in retrospect it was probably a contributory factor in broadening the experience of the student.

I seem to remember that small groups of foundation students came together with small groups from the graphic, textile and furniture (and other) courses and they spent a week together each term on a project devised by the complementary studies department. I suppose this was a way of 'mixing' the students, exposing them to a wider group of staff ( each foundation tutor could run a project as well: I remember taking a group of students around all the cinemas and theatres in Leeds - far more than there are now, and still in their decor of the 1920's and 30's - to study and record the architecture. We also watched the films showing in the afternoon and rehearsals at the Grand.

The list of subjects introduced and visiting lecturers are both particularly interesting. Science, history, religion, pottery all seen as useful information. From what I remember anything was grist to the mill, but it was argued it should always be delivered around students working on the studio floor. Lefty Frizzell was an obscure country and western singer that had been picked out by putting a pin into a telephone directory and researching the surname found. (This was well before the time of Google) This became a starting point for both staff and student work. I can remember Terry in particular making organic guitars as a response to this and the LP covers we sourced in second hand shops. 

Patrick encouraged me to become a 'wondering intellectual' not that I felt very intellectual, it was just that my knowledge base was different and I was around and about and talking to students. Glynn Thompson and the complementary studies staff had other agendas and when the two systems came together sometimes it was fantastic, but at other times the studio was totally out of synch with the experiences students were getting from what was supposed to be 'complementary' study. This needs opening out in detail at some point, but the reality was that often opportunities were missed. Ideas woven through Glynn's lectures or introduced in the complementary studies weeks, (these could be anything from cooking to politics) often ignored or just not picked up on, when they could have helped drive students' work towards a much broader set of responses.