This statement is written on behalf of Tuesday Club. A group of students from Contemporary Art Practice: Performance & Moving Image who are collectively taking a leave of absence from the Royal College of Art, as an action against the economic suffocation of Contemporary Arts Practice (CAP).

The reason for this collective action, effective from January 2019 to January 2020, is due to lack of facilities, resources and institutional support in Battersea Campus that each student has experienced since joining the programme. Below, we have detailed specific problems we see as impacting our education at the RCA. We have also included a list of current students who agree with our demands, showing that this statement further addresses a greater college-wide concern.

We do not wish for this statement to be read as a complaint for pathway staff members and tutors on CAP, all of which who are fantastic and have been incredibly supportive. Tutors are clearly trying to make it work in these suffocating conditions, but the institutional support is becoming less and less prominent. This action stems from a shared dissatisfaction with the course and towards our future at the RCA. We demand a re-prioritisation of CAP pathway-specific resources, space and academic engagement, and for the RCA to negotiate these changes in open conversation with the tutors and students of CAP. As Masters Degree students, we understand that a self-directed practice is vital, however, the current system RCA is operating under is failing to provide the basic needs of what Contemporary Arts Education should offer.

While we understand that these issues may be endemic and more deeply rooted within the state of UK Arts Education today, institutional expansion at the RCA has lead to reduced facilities, resources and opportunity for academic engagement and is nonetheless at-odds with the reputation the College presents publicly. We are adamantly opposed to the Royal College of Art’s current state of prioritising institutional profit, commercial reputation & neoliberal progression, all at the cost of Contemporary Art education and sustainable support for young artists today. We demand that the Royal College of Art does not sideline Contemporary Art Practice as a non-commercial arts course, effectively suffocating the production of experimental art. We believe the issues below need to be addressed urgently:

Spaces and Equipment:

Project Spaces

The current project spaces are not working. They are too small to realise larger works or test out works to an audience; not able to fully black-out; are noisy; not private or lockable; do not have adequate / functional equipment (such as HD projectors). Are not available for long enough period - inhibiting development of group projects or long-durational work.

Studio Spaces

Studio spaces are too small, especially compared with other courses. Whilst some students may have ‘post-studio’ practices, the wide range of disciplines in Contemporary Art Practice relies on expanded media, the creation of installations & performing space. The RCA should be offering the means to work in this way if they want to create a supportive educational platform for artists.

Resource Store

There is currently a huge lack of facilities compared to the amount of students studying. Pathways should have access to their own specific equipment which is not available to the whole school. The current system leads to long waits of up to a month for equipment, and students having to outsource facilities instead.

Support:

Encouragement & Support for Student Run Projects

Attempts at collectively organising student-run events were dampened by members of staff. For example, self-organised film screenings proposed by MI students: emails enquiring booking out lecture theatres (which are the only current adequate screening spaces) were ignored by administrative staff for months. This finally resulted in a suggestion from Students Union to request staff members to screen films instead.

The RCA must encourage and provide the facilities for students to self-organise their own events. Collaboration & collectivity is a fundamental necessity for young artists today, to be able to make experimental artwork and create radical change.

Lack of Support from RCA to realise projects

The institutional failure to provide basic facilities has resulted in staff offering quick fix solutions, denoting the studying of historical & relevant schools of artistic and academic movements.

In one instance: upon not being able to book 16mm film equipment due to lack of facilities, staff suggested the student use digitally-added film grain rather than continuing with learning 16mm filmmaking.

Funding:

Experimental Arts Practice & Non-Commercial Courses

We demand that the Royal College of Art does not sideline Contemporary Art Practice as a non-commercial arts course, effectively suffocating the production of experimental art, and feed the funding that CAP desperately needs into improving the facilities and educational quality.

International Students

This year tuition fees rose again by £5000 for future international students. This is a manipulative use of institutional power. Considering the current course quota for high-paying international non-EU students is now 50%, the College’s international recruitment is designed to squeeze money from high paying PoC students & exclude those who cannot afford from applying to study. The college should end this treatment of international students and stop using students as products for profit and commercial gain.

Zabludowicz Arts Trust

The Royal College of Art divest all affiliations of any form with the Zabludowicz Art Trust, resisting the use of the arts and cultural sectors to hide and enact violent and brutal Israeli state policies on Palestinians. This is in context with the demands of Boycott Zabludowicz (https://boycottzabludowicz.wordpress.com/). The silence of the RCA on their affiliation with Zabludowicz is unacceptable.

Tuesday Club are staging a ‘leave of absence’ - a collective action, with the intent to push the RCA to develop the course urgently. The changes we are demanding for CAP cannot, however, be made instantly. As such, we see this action as the most effective way to receive a response from the College.

We want to become a network of collaborative thinking artists to nurture each others’ abilities, but our efforts for doing so currently seem more accommodated in sites outside of the institution. Until the Royal College of Art takes action to fix these issues, over 2019 we will instead be choosing self-organised models of arts education by grouping our skills together; running our own programme as a pedagogical collective and organising public events.

Signed,

Robert Bridger, Giacomo Goldoni, Tamsin Kavanagh, Zara Miller & Lou Lou Sainsbury

Current students of Contemporary Art Practice who agree with our demands: