> SPECIALISSUE

Patricia Bickers summarises the points made by the contributors to this special issue

THE FUTURE OF ART EDUCATION

Buckminster Fuller speaking to students during the Hornsey sitin June 21, 1968 reproduced from

Hornsey 1968by Lisa Tickner (photographed by Steve Ehrlicher)

THEIDEAOFTHISSPECIALEDUCATIONISSUEarose in response to the volume of correspondence Art Monthlyhas received following the publication in the April issue (AM315) of a letter by the artist Graham Crowley in which he voiced his concerns, with enviable clarity and succinctness, about the present state of art education in London.

After a long and distinguished parallel career in teaching, he was willing to speak out. However, many still actively involved in teaching or studying art, as Crowley also pointed out in his letter, are not free to do so either out of loyalty to colleagues or through fear of compromising their jobs or, in the case of students, their degrees. Despite this, the number of correspondents who were, and are, willing to

risk putting their heads above the parapet is impressive, as anyone following the correspondence in the magazine, or checking it out on the Art Monthly website, will know. However, the focus of this special issue of the magazine, and of the related debates taking place at the ICA, London and the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham is the futureof art education. To this end, a number of contributors with

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