The state of the art college

The National College of Art and Design is safe in the Liberties for now, but it is bursting at the seams. Who will rescue the ailing campus from dereliction, asks Louise Holden

When the board of the National College of Art and Design touted the idea of a move to UCD's Belfield campus earlier this year, the response from students, the local community and the public was unequivocal. Ireland's most prestigious art college is part of the Liberties, the argument ran. To remove it from its charismatic home in the old Powers Distillery on Thomas Street would be to remove an organ of the community that would wither in suburbia. The loss to Dublin city of the 260-year-old college was unacceptable to a diverse and vocal group.

For as long as the UCD plan remained on the table, there was plenty of debate about the future of the Liberties, the cultural needs of local people and the unique identity of NCAD students. The crucial issue was silenced. The role of a national art college, its contribution to national identity and its priority in the minds of the public and the policy makers were barely discussed.

NCAD Thomas Street is bursting at the seams. The UCD option was dropped from the agenda during the summer, but the fact remains that 900 students are crammed into an unsuitable space developed in a piecemeal fashion over 25 years with no coherent planning or vision. When the campus moved from Kildare Street to Thomas Street in 1982, there were only 200 students. Now 900 art students share a space with no gallery, one lecture theatre, no indoor common area, 45 library seats and a Portakabin that's known as a sports centre when the pool table is there and an exhibition space when it's not.

NCAD director Colm O'Briain regrets that the public and the Government missed the opportunity to take the NCAD debate to a higher level. "I am disappointed that the discussion did not raise issues of the place of art and design in Ireland. The future of the inner city is a cause we all subscribe to, but what if staying here threatens the future of the college?" O'Briain believes that the contribution of NCAD, and of visual artists generally, to Irish public and economic life has been taken for granted, rather than nurtured.

"NCAD has been at the vanguard of the transformation in Irish cultural life over the last 20 years. Our designers are working at the tops of their sectors in London, Paris, Milan and New York. We produce active, problem-solving graduates with a range of skills who are bringing creativity to the wider community."

The subtext here is money. In 2000, the board of NCAD proposed an extensive development of the Thomas Street campus costing €75 million and extending the college as far as Oliver Bond Street. The proposed development would take in the neighbouring fire station as well as two-thirds of an acre of extra land. It would comprise an underground car park, a gallery, lecture space, studio space, student facilities and storage for the considerable volume of work produced by visual art students and designers every year.

The proposal was considered by the Department of Education and Science, but it was indicated that Exchequer funding for the project was unlikely. At this point, the board began to examine the option of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for NCAD.

"Considering the length of time it is taking to get the Cork School of Music up and running under a PPP framework, we were nervous about the idea of getting involved with commercial partner in that way," says O'Briain. "Any studies undertaken in the UK indicate that PPPs fare better where a greenfield site is involved, rather than an existing campus."

Enter the UCD debate. Several months of public wrangling and student unrest and the proposition was dropped, leaving the creaking campus and its fraught board of directors back where they started - overpopulated and under-resourced with no prospect of money from anywhere.

The challenge for the board, under the chairmanship of former RTÉ director of television Joe Mulholland, is to attack the problem creatively. Every third-level institution in the country is casting about for new funding streams and the venerable art college now has to get its hands dirty. According to Mulholland, there is no snobbery at the college when it comes to public fundraising: it's just a matter of getting the word out.

"The challenges are great. There's not a huge tradition of philanthropic generosity in Ireland. UCD and TCD have managed to attract considerable funding, however. Given the great interest in the arts in Ireland, we should be able to attract private investment, to match public investment at least." However, attracting patronage is only part of the strategy. Mulholland believes NCAD should be able to generate R&D funding and commercial profit in exactly the same way as any other college.

"Design is an integral activity at this college and an important feature of industry. Quality design will sell goods. We need to work more closely with industry and convince the private sector that we have a part to play." Mulholland cites recent examples of co-operation between NCAD and Newbridge Silverware and Glen Dimplex as examples of the commercial transferability of good design.

"While fine art will always dominate at NCAD, there is a need for the college to reach out into cross-curricular activities with other universities and with industry," Joe explains. It's happening already. The college is partnered with UCD, DCU, TCD and DLIADT in the National Digital Research Centre consortium, where considerable cross-disciplinary activity is expected to take place.

The future of third level is fourth level, and NCAD planners are all too aware that they need to attract greater numbers of research students from around Ireland and overseas if the long term health of the college is to be safeguarded. That can't happen, however, until more space is freed up at the campus.

Meanwhile, the college must meet its immediate responsibility as the country's most popular destination for art students. The common core degree course received 842 applications for 135 places last year. The teacher-training course is oversubscribed by a ratio of seven to one. External examiners have praised the standard of teaching and learning at the college and NCAD graduate surveys suggest that the great majority of former NCAD students are finding work in the arts, design and complementary industries. Many more are setting up co-operatives or businesses of their own to bring their work to a commercial level.

By all accounts, the students love their crumbling campus with its eclectic assemblage of classical sculpture, modern art pieces, mixed-era architecture and MDF partitions. Parts of the college look like west village New York while others have the feel of a neglected youth club. This year, NCAD celebrates its 260th birthday with the conferral of an honorary doctorate on the artist Louis Le Brocquy. Amidst the celebrations, however, the college is at a standstill with no scope to envision the next quarter millennium.