The Frink School of Figurative Sculpture was an art school in

Leek, Staffordshire Leek is a market town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet north east of Stoke-on-Trent. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214. It is the administrative centre for the Staffordshire ...

. It was named after the British sculptor

Elisabeth Frink Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...

(1930–1993). It was a small academy with a specific discipline of study closer in spirit to a ''master and apprentice'' structure than an educational institution. It was directed by the British sculptor Rosemary Barnett; other artists involved in its educational role included Harry Everington,

Alan Thornhill Alan Thornhill (1921 – March 4, 2020) was a British artist and sculptor whose long association with clay developed from pottery into sculpture. His output includes pottery, small and large scale sculptures, portrait heads, paintings and dr ...

and Ken Ford. Its prime aim and charitable purpose was to provide an education in the observational and technical disciplines of figurative sculpture and to support and encourage the creative potential revealed in the process. Everington met Barnett in 1990 at the Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture in

Stoke on Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire and one of the largest cities of ...

. When, in 1993, the funding was removed from the Doulton School, they both set about establishing a successor to it, which would try to give some balance to the trend towards conceptual work in sculpture schools. The school covered every aspect of figurative sculpture, including welding, carving in wood and stone, letter cutting, mould-making and casting – in addition to modelling in clay. The Frink School opened in 1996 in Longton, moving to Tunstall in 1999. It initially ran a two-year full-time course, with about 4–9 students entered the school per year. Rita Phillips joined Barnett in teaching. The school ceased running full-time courses in 2005. The tutorial direction was more concerned with revelation in sculpture than its viability in the art market or the gallery. For two years of their lives, the members of this community were expected to search with perception and imagination and find sculptural means to express that which they could discover. It was expected that this would serve them for the rest for their lives. The patron of the school was Lin Jammet, Elizabeth Frink's son.

References

{{coord, 53.045, -2.198, display=title, region:GB_scale:10000 Art schools in England Education in Staffordshire Educational institutions established in 1996 1996 establishments in England