West Dean determined to keep threatened crafts alive

West Dean College chief executive Alexander Barron has offered to work in creative partnership with other educational bodies to preserve rare skills and crafts which could be threatened with extinction by the coronavirus crisis. Alex has written an open letter underlining the power of collaboration and extending an invitation “the likes of which would have seemed unnecessary and unimaginable less than two months ago”. The invitation is to any institution or person responsible or involved in providing education in creative arts, craft or conservation; the proposal is one of partnership, either temporary or permanent, to help protect high-quality courses and teaching which might otherwise be lost. As Alex says, it is an invitation which completely reflects the reason West Dean

College was set up in the first place. “2021 is our 50th anniversary next year, and in a normal year, this year we would be thinking about planning big VIP parties. But actually the proposal that we have put out is the reason the college was actually founded; and if we are able to save even one course, then that will be a great way to celebrate our anniversary. “Every educational institution is going to have to think about what things it will do in the future and what things it won’t do. And the sad thing is that a lot of practicebased courses are expensive, and some of the casualties might well be the kinds of courses that other people were offering.” Hence the West Dean proposal. And the offer stays on the table: West Dean wants to help: “At this moment of turmoil, it is so important that we prevent these skills from being lost. And that’s where we can help. Everyone is going to have to make difficult decisions, and we are not thinking that we won’t have to make difficult decisions ourselves, but the core of what we do here is to protect these kinds of skills.” An example would be foreedge painting where a scene is painted on the edges of the pages of a book. There are only a handful of people who still do it. West Dean has recently introduced a course to conserve the skill. Similarly, fan-making is threatened. “Some of these skills could be lost, and that’s what we are most concerned about. We think there is a real risk.” Ensuring their survival is all part of adapting to difficult times. Alex is delighted with West Dean’s response so far. “Obviously for so many institutions, the lockdown meant immediately rethinking what we do on a day-to-day basis. West Dean is about art. It is practice based. There are some universities that are already used to delivering an awful lot of online teaching because they are theoretical and lecturebased. They transfer quite readily to online. “But we are practice based, and we had to think quite differently about how we still deliver. But West Dean is still operating. We are still teaching and we are still hoping a number of our students will graduate this summer even if there is not a graduation day. The students have responded very positively to that, and the tutors have reacted very positively. And we have found innovative ways of delivering that education.” Sadly, the short courses (where people come to West Dean for from one day to five) have had to be paused: “And that is a huge blow. It is horrible not to have them going on, and it is really disappointing for the tutors and their students. But everybody understands why. “But we have been pushing quite a bit of creative online work and that could well be a benefit for the future. You either give up or you up your game, and West Dean has never been about giving up. We have upped our game, and we have incredible people working for us who are incredibly dedicated.”