Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent
performing arts
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...
school in
Chiswick,
West London, England.
Overview
ArtsEd provides specialist vocational training at secondary, further and higher education level in
musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...
and
acting for
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
and
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
. The school also offers part-time and holiday courses in the performing arts.
ArtsEd is one of twenty-one specialist performing arts schools approved to offer government-funded
Dance and Drama Awards, a scheme established to subsidise the cost of professional dance and drama training for the most talented students at leading institutions. It is a member of the
Federation of Drama Schools.
History
School
ArtsEd was founded in 1939. It was formed as a result of a merger between the Cone School of Dancing founded in 1919 by Grace Cone, and the Ripman School founded in 1922 by Olive Ripman. Both Cone and Ripman offered curricula combining a general academic education with training in the arts, in preparation for professional careers connected with the theatre. The two schools were amalgamated in 1939 to form the Cone-Ripman School, the predecessor of today's ArtsEd.
The school was first based at Stratford Place in London, but following the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, relocated to
Tring,
Hertfordshire, sharing premises with
Rothschild Bank at
Tring Park.
In 1941, the school reopened at Stratford Place, while the second school continued to operate in Tring. In 1947, both schools were renamed the Arts Educational Schools.
The London school was later based at Hyde Park Corner (144 Piccadilly), and later still at Golden Lane House in the Barbican. In 1986 the school purchased the former buildings of Chiswick Polytechnic.
In the 2000s, the two schools became independent of each other, and the Tring school has been renamed
Tring Park School for the Performing Arts.
Today, Arts Educational Schools London is a co–educational Independent Day School and Sixth Form for pupils aged 11–18, and a professional
conservatoire specialising in acting and musical theatre, as well as a range of part-time courses.
For many years, the president of the school was
prima ballerina assoluta Dame Alicia Markova;
Dame Beryl Grey became Director in the 1960s. Dame Alicia was succeeded in 2007 by
Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Iain Reid was dean of the schools from 1999 until his retirement in December 2006. He was succeeded by John Baraldi, former chief executive of Riverside Studios, and former director of the East 15 Acting School; Baraldi left the school in 2009, and was succeeded by Jane Harrison. In 2017, Chris Hocking assumed the role of principal; he resigned in 2021 and was succeeded by Julie Spencer as interim principal.
In 2013, ArtsEd was awarded a grant by the
Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation to fund a refurbishment project. The money was spent on the main theatre, costume storage, the School of Film and Television and the school's access facilities.
Chiswick School of Art
The
arts and crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
architect
Maurice Bingham Adams designed the Chiswick School of Art as part of the
Bedford Park Garden Suburb's community focus on the site on Bath Road in 1881. It was destroyed by a
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug a ...
in 1944. The school was meant to provide the estate with a feeling of community. It taught classes such as "Freehand drawing in all its branches, practical Geometry and perspective, pottery and tile painting, design for decorative purposes – as in Wall-papers, Furniture, Metalwork, Stained Glass".
The school was depicted by
Thomas Erat Harrison in an 1882 book ''Bedford Park'', celebrating the then-fashionable garden suburb.
Academics
Day School and Sixth Form
The Day School and Sixth Form cater to students aged 11 to 18. Students are required to study mainstream subjects, in preparation for the
GCSE and
A-Levels, alongside their performing arts pursuits. Besides the A-Levels pathway, Sixth Form students have an option to complete a
BTEC Extended Diploma in a performing arts discipline.
In 2015, the school was rated "Outstanding" by Ofsted. In 2019 it ranked second in the borough for percentage of pupils passing five or more GCSEs at A*-C.
Tertiary
The school had been accredited by
Drama UK (organisation dissolved in 2016). It offers
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education recognised qualifications validated by the
City University London or
Trinity College, London. A non-degree
foundation course is offered for students who do not meet the academic requirements for admission into the bachelor's degree programmes.
Former pupils
*
Moyo Akandé (''
Taggart'', ''
Sleeping Beauty'')
*
Kai Alexander (
''The Stranger'',
''Catastrophe'')
*
Julie Andrews ''(
The Sound of Music,
Mary Poppins)''
*
Simone Ashley (''
Sex Education'', ''
Bridgerton'')
*
Samantha Barks ''(Les Misérables on
stage and
screen)''
*
Darcey Bussell ''(Former Principal with the
Royal Ballet,
Strictly Come Dancing judge)''
*
Gary Carr ''(
Death in Paradise,
Downton Abbey,
The Deuce,
The Good Fight)''
*
Adam Cooper[ (Former principal with the Royal Ballet and New Adventures)
* Martin Clunes][ ''( Doc Martin, Men Behaving Badly)''
* Omari Douglas][ ( ''It's a Sin'')
* Tom Francis ( ''Sunset Boulevard'')
* Laura Haddock ''( Da Vinci's Demons, Luther)''
* Nigel Harman][ ''(]EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
, Shrek The Musical)''
* Nigel HaversDoctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
, Spamalot, EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
)''
* Margaret Lockwood[ ''( The Wicked Lady, The Lady Vanishes)''
* Alexandros Logothetis ('' To Nisi, '' Magpie Murders'')
* Lashana Lynch][ ''( Still Star-Crossed, No Time to Die)''
* Madeleine Mantock]Megan McKenna
Megan Elizabeth McKenna (born 26 September 1992) is an English television personality and singer. After making appearances on ''Ex on the Beach'' (2015–2016), she received wider attention for appearing on ''Celebrity Big Brother (British TV s ...
[ ''( The Full Monty, The Musketeers)''
* Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp
* Michaela Strachan][ ''( Mamma Mia!, ]Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
)''
* Will Young[ ''( Pop Idol Winner)''
* 'Yungblud' (Dominic Richard Harrison)][ ('' 21st Century Liability'')
File:Julie Andrews Park Hyatt, Sydney, Australia 2013.jpg, Julie Andrews
File:Darcey Bussell (cropped).jpg, Darcey Bussell
File:Martin Clunes.jpg, Martin Clunes
File:Nigel Havers.jpg, Nigel Havers
File:Bonnielangford86b (cropped).jpg, Bonnie Langford
File:Will Young 2011.jpg, Will Young
]
See also
* List of schools in Hounslow
References
External links
*
Profile
on the Independent Schools Council website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arts Educational
The Arts Educational Schools
1939 establishments in England
Arts organizations established in 1939
Buildings and structures in Chiswick
Chiswick
Dance schools in the United Kingdom
Drama schools in London
Educational institutions established in 1939
Private co-educational schools in London
Private schools in the London Borough of Hounslow
Member schools of the Independent Schools Association (UK)