Carving Department hosts SPAB Fellows 2023 | City & Guilds

In late November, City & Guilds of London Art School (CGLAS) hosted the four 2023 SPAB Fellows – Jack Buchanan, Kate Longworth, Daniel Cheetham and James Osborne – for a week-long placement in the Carving Department at City & Guilds of London Art School. Their time at the Art School was spent learning Stone Carving alongside our BA (Hons) Carving: Architectural Stone students.

“I had such a great time at CGLAS, we learnt invaluable skills and knowledge through the kindness of the tutors. The tutors welcomed us as normal students and gave us the time we needed. It was lovely to see how passionate everybody there was about their craft, but also how everybody was willing to share their skills so freely.”

James ‘Oz’ Osborne, SPAB Fellow and a blacksmith, from Shrewsbury. (Work by James pictured above)

“I relished the opportunity to come and spend the week stone carving at CGLAS. It was a great opportunity to foster creativity and develop skills in such a supportive and welcoming environment with likeminded people. Thank you for having us!”

Jack Buchanan, SPAB Fellow and a Historic Environment Scotland stonemason, from Glasgow. (work by Jack pictured above)

“Our time at CGLAS was really inspirational. I was taken aback by the warmth and passion shared by the students and tutors we met, and the standard of work they are producing.” Kate Longworth, SPAB Fellow and bricklayer from Hull.

The Art School is delighted that our two organisations are able to share and exchange knowledge and to promote the teaching of critical craft skills in the UK that are vital to maintaining our built heritage for the future.

The SPAB’s William Morris Craft Fellowship was founded in 1987 to address the shortage of craft skills and to champion the importance of craftspeople that carry out repairs. This unique annual scheme is designed to broaden the skills and experience of craftspeople from any trade who work in the repair of historic buildings. The programme gives Fellows the chance to travel countrywide together and learn on site from specialist craftspeople, architects, surveyors and others working in building conservation.

City & Guilds of London Art School was established in 1854 as a small, specialist college, dedicated to teaching the techniques of the specialist crafts and focused on developing skills required in the artisan manufacturing industries. Since then, it has evolved and expanded its educational programmes, offering an alternative approach to that provided in most other art schools on its programmes in Conservation, Carving and Fine Art . For 170 years the Art School has played a vital role in passing on specialist craft skills and inspiring new generations of artists and makers, and offers the only Carving courses (wood and stone carving) validated to BA and MA level in the UK.

Heather Griffith, 2016 SPAB Fellow

The Art School has long enjoyed good relations with the SPAB. For decades SPAB Fellows have benefitted enormously from time in the workshop with tutors Nina Bilbey, Mark Frith and then Head of Historic Carving, Tim Crawley. A prime example of the synergy being Heather Griffith (above) who, after a placement at the Art School during her 2016 SPAB Fellowship, returned to study with us and graduated in 2020 from the Art School’s BA (Hons) Historic Carving: Architectural Stone course.

The Art School looks forward to developing mutually beneficial relations with the SPAB for many years to come.