About the School
The South Australian School of Art is located at City West Campus. The School comes under the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences.
The South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia, has a long and proud history. It is one of the oldest art schools in Australia, commencing in 1856. For many years it was known as the School of Design, then the School of Arts and Crafts, and was housed in the former Exhibition Building on North Terrace in Adelaide. The School has a rich and innovative history to celebrate. In 1892, it was the first in Australia to appoint a woman teacher of painting, Elizabeth Armstrong. She remained in that position until 1928 when she retired. Under the leadership of Harry Pelling Gill and then Lawrence H Howie, Armstrong became one of many women on the staff. By the 1920s, and in contrast to the trend elsewhere in Australia, the majority of staff were women, including Jessamine Buxton, Ethel Barringer and Marie Tuck. In the 1930s and '40s, other women teachers, including Mary P Harris, Dorrit Black and Jackie Hick, were instrumental in introducing students to modernism.
Alumni
A number of well-known artists began their careers at the School. The alumni include Margaret Preston, Hans Heysen, Stella Bowen, Ivor Hele, Jeffrey Smart, Barbara Hanrahan, Mandy Martin, Aleks Danko, Hossein Valamanesh and Zhong Chen. The innovative tradition that marked the School of Design at the turn of the century remains. Today the School sets the pace in contemporary art and graduates continue to win acclaim, prizes and awards for their art and design practice, arts writing and curatorship.