Leith: Scotland’s Independent Art School, by George Ramsden
Founded in 1988 in a former church for Norwegian seamen by the inspirational teachers Mark and Lottie Cheverton, Leith Art School comes of age this year. This book tells the story of its founders and recounts how the school survived their tragic early deaths (aged 39 and 31 respectively) in a road accident. Mark was a printmaker and Lottie a painter, both very talented, and with a vocation to raise a Christian voice in the arts.
The text is a patchwork of reminiscences from friends and family held together by the narrative of a successful teaching project. That such small independent schools can still thrive in today’s increasingly regulated society is a blessing. Some of the richness and breadth of the old art schools of 50 years ago, when anyone could enrol for a thoroughly liberal education, persists in such endeavours.
Copies of this book should be on every art educationist’s desk and made available to the scores of art-challenged vicars up and down the country. Good teaching is about arousing enthusiasm: Leith evidently achieved this abundantly. Long may it continue.
Leith: Scotland’s Independent Art School by George Ramsden, Stone Trough Books, £25 (+ £4.50 p&p), pp. 144, ISBN 9780954454227. Cheques payable to The Leith School of Art, 25 North Junction Street, Edinburgh EH6 6HW. Tel 0131 554 5761.
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