Late last October, the news that the board of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) was engaged in discussions with the governing authority of UCD about the feasibility of relocating from Thomas Street to the Belfield campus was a shock to NCAD students and staff. All the more so since, as a terse letter from the fine art faculty staff to the board pointed out, the process had been initiated without consultation within NCAD.
"While we support discussing future collaborations with other institutions," the letter stated, "we oppose any plan to relocate NCAD to Belfield campus."
In a notice dated October 20th 2005, the NCAD board had informed the staff that it and "the governing authority [of UCD] have, at their October meetings, agreed to work in partnership to develop the academic and business case for the possible relocation of NCAD to the UCD Belfield campus". This followed on from a decision in May 2005 that the board should explore options other than the campus development plan for Thomas Street, which was published in 2000.
For NCAD director Colm O'Briain, the rationale for the discussions with UCD is clear. "The college has been in Thomas Street for 25 years, and it has never received a level of investment commensurate to its status as a National College of Art and Design," he says. "I know it's predictable that I, as an executive of the college, might say that, but it's also become increasingly evident to staff and students here. As more students travel abroad to other colleges, the shortcomings in facilities here become glaringly obvious."
It should be said that the college has, as well, independently developed facilities that are admired and widely used, including its visual art library and the Irish Visual Arts Archive, both accessed by art students from all over the country. It is true that the need to expand college facilities has long been recognised, hence the acquisition of adjoining lands initiated by erstwhile director Noel Sheridan, and the publication of the campus development plan, which lays out a three-phase programme with a total cost estimated at around €76 million. As part of the process, the NCAD board recommended exploring the option of a public-private partnership.
"This plan was in place," O'Briain points out, "when the Kelly Commission report effectively kicked it into touch. The upshot of the report is that the government is not going to give us the money. Faced with this situation, it would be remiss of us as a board not to become proactive, and to develop options, even options that we would prefer not to be looking at."
As art historian John Turpin records in his history of the NCAD, when the college moved to the old Powers Distillery buildings in Thomas Street in 1980, it was the first time in its lengthy history that it had actually owned its own home. And, as it happens, the exponential increase in property values is what makes the UCD plan potentially viable. A valuation of the huge Thomas Street site is of course a central part of the board's relocation project. But the stark economic imperative raises the uncomfortable issue of the hollowing out of an historically rich area of the city. Staff members and students argue that the abandonment of Thomas Street purely on the basis of commercial pressures implies a political indifference to the social and cultural texture of a key region of the city centre.
Turpin traces the college's origins "in an unbroken line" back to the Dublin Society Drawing Schools established by Robert West in 1746, making it "one of the oldest art educational institutions in Europe". The move to Thomas Street coincided with its departure from its most illustrious address, adjacent to Leinster House, though various faculties had for years grown used to a peripatetic existence, occupying several temporary quarters around the city, from Clarendon Street to Mosse Street. But it is fair to say that the college, in its various incarnations, has always been located in, and identified with, the city. Furthermore, economic logic suggests that a flight to the suburbs would be an irrevocable move, ranking as the greatest volte-face since NCAD's inception.
Dissenting staff members point out that they are not against close co- operation with other third-level institutions, including UCD. The sticking point with them is the move to Belfield. As head of painting Robert Armstrong puts it: "The idea of strategic partnerships is increasingly important in third-level education. Throughout Europe, there is a recognition that the future of third level lies in interdisciplinary courses. I think everyone accepts and welcomes that."
It's a view echoed by head of fine art Brian Maguire: "We are already involved in co-operative ventures with other colleges . . . so it's important to be clear that opposition to a move to Belfield does not mean rejection of closer involvement with UCD. Standing alone doesn't mean standing aloof."
The NCAD board says the college's autonomy would be ring-fenced in any UCD context. It would have its own building and preserve its own "operations, structures and governance". Among staff and students, however, one detects scepticism about this assurance and a suspicion that playing Jonah to UCD's whale might not lead to a happy ending. As Eleanor Swan, a fourth-year ceramics student, puts it: "I feel NCAD would be swallowed up by UCD, that it would lose its identity."
Apart from the question of academic autonomy, Maguire sees huge practical benefits in the college's Thomas Street location. "What we teach is substantially to do with context," he says. "Art comes out of the social arena. If you were looking for somewhere to site an art college, Thomas Street would surely be at the top of your list. We are in a former industrial building in an historical part of the city, we are part of a thriving mixed community, and I would argue that experience has shown that we have much to offer that community and even more to gain from it. Besides which, we are close to Imma and the National Museum at Collins Barracks, which is invaluable, and a short stroll from the Chester Beatty Library and the whole city centre."
Other in the college make the same point. Swan sees it as a major boon that "we are literally within walking distance of all the art galleries and museums in the city". Both staff members and students express the view that there are crucial differences between an art college and a university. Jennifer Caffrey, one of the organisers of a seminar to explore issues arising from possible relocation, puts it this way: "Artists are information- gatherers. We soak up everything from our environment. Where we are now offers a great slice of life to bite into. In UCD, the work made would not reflect the true world in which we live. It would reflect a single layer, a thin slice of controlled society."
A further point is made by student union vice-president Ben McDonald: "Art students, unlike purely academic students, constantly need to acquire materials and other specialist products - which, it happens, are abundantly available in the Thomas Street area."
On an anecdotal level, Belfield does not seem to come across to staff or students as a particularly appealing place to be. McDonald sums up a widespread feeling when he says that "the college's intimate atmosphere and sense of community would be lost in the anonymous masses of UCD".
There is a certain abrasiveness of context in Thomas Street that has proved positively useful. In Caffrey's experience, "the Thomas Street, Meath Street and Cork Street areas are places I have grown to love, even though a lot of people might be afraid even to go to them. They are a centre of cultural diversity, probably one of the most interesting parts of contemporary Dublin, and we are part of that, and we thrive on it. Every day I discover something new about the place, it's a constant source of inspiration and action".
In the end, O'Briain points out, the decision will not be his, or the NCAD board's. It will be made by the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, with advice from the Higher Education Authority. O'Briain does not describe himself as an advocate of the move.
"I've always been a city person," he says. "For the last 30 years I've worked within 10 minutes' walk of the Liffey. My own preferences gravitate towards the city, but that's not the point. We're looking here at what's possible. I've always said to my colleagues that when I leave I don't want to have damaged this college and its status as a national institution."
