The Drawing Schools provide a stimulating and safe environment for all boys who wish to pursue art, whether they are studying it as a subject or not.
Boys freely explore the visual arts, with access to a wide range of traditional and contemporary techniques guided by teachers. Those who wish to take art as a leisure activity still work towards objectives and high standards, and receive the same advice as our examination candidates. Our main objective is to lay the foundations of a lifelong involvement for boys in the creative world of all expressive and visual mediums.
Our outreach programme allows students and teachers from other schools to share techniques and teaching materials. The department has also produced a research document in conjunction with CIRL to encourage all forms of drawing, entitled Printmaking Towards Drawing.
Eton are making big investments in time, money and commitment to the visual arts.
Bob and Roberta Smith RA, BBC Radio 4
Facilities
The Drawing Schools has a large range of art activities on offer, such as painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, animation and computer graphics. There is also a well-stocked resource in the Gordon-Ives Memorial Library.
boy submissions to our co-curricular art galleries during the COVID-19 school closure.
Exhibitions
There are visiting shows in the main gallery. In recent times, exhibitions have featured major British artists both past and present, including Ben Nicholson, Julian Opie, Terry Frost, Anthony Frost and Barbara Hepworth. Two major exhibitions of boys’ work are showcased every year on St Andrew’s Day and the Fourth of June.
Royal Academy Schools
In recent years we have collaborated with the Royal Academy Schools, which is the only free art school in the country where postgraduate students are supported by the Royal Academy (RA). With the help of Eileen Cooper RA and Rebecca Salter RA, the current president of the RA, each year we offer two promising students the option to be artists in residence. This enables the boys in the Drawing Schools at Eton to have an insight into what happens at the contemporary British Art College. Recent artists in residence include the very up-and-coming Liana Lang, Guler Ates and Katherine Jones RE.
