The subject of art teaching was formerly disregarded by the universities, but has become definitely within their province since the founding of the Slade professorships at Oxford, Cambridge, and London Universities, and of the professorship of fine art at the University of Edinburgh.
The chief schools of art in Great Britain are the schools of the Royal Academy in London, the Slade School at University College, London, and the Royal College of Art at South Kensington, also the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and the other large metropolitan schools of the London County Council.
In most of the English provincial towns are municipal or other schools of art under the control of the Board of Education.
In Scotland the chief schools are the four central institutions--the Edinburgh College of Art, and the schools of art of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee. In each of these a diploma is given on the satisfactory completion of a prescribed course of study.
In Ireland the chief schools are those of the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, and the provincial schools of art under the Department of Agriculture and Technology.
On the Continent the chief centre of artistic training has for many years been in Paris. Advanced students from most European and American art schools spend some of the later period of their study in the schools of Paris, in painting, in sculpture, or in architecture. There is, naturally, a valuable incentive and stimulation due to this gathering together of advanced students from all countries, as well as to the high academic tradition and sense of style of the French.
The 'atelier' system, which is followed in the French schools, is simple and personal. The expenses of an 'atelier', or studio, are borne by a group of students by the consent and under the guidance of an artist of reputation, who visits the 'atelier' at stated intervals, but is not concerned in its administration. In this way the relations between the professor and his pupils are extremely direct and personal. Most of the distinguished artists of Paris are attached to some 'atelier' to which chosen pupils are admitted.
There are also in Paris excellent schools for training in the applied arts, schools for furniture-making, printing, jewellery, and other artistic trades. These are on private foundations, but also receive State aid.