Glasgow or Edinburgh art school

[wido]

If you had your pick? Which would you choose?

@wido yes trying to do an advanced Higher and a portfolio at the same time was too much for DS.
I think art degrees can be quite competitive, after all you can all see each others work all the time!
I do think tutors seem a bit more aware of being sensitive with criticism and not having obvious favourites than they used to be. The creative industries are competitive though, you have to be able to cope with a certain amount of rejection!
From my experience ( I have taught in an art school as well a being a student) a lot can depend on the year group, the groups are small compared to uni and everyone spends a lot of time working together in the studio so a few competive characters can affect the vibe, but youngsters seem a bit more aware of being sensitive to others feelings these days.
In my day most of the tutors were male and often showed bias in favour of male students and far to many of them drank too much. Now most tutors are women and the atmosphere is quite different!
Ie, I think there is now a healthy amount of competitiveness ( at least in the Scottish Art Schools, I think it's a bit different in some of the London ones) whereas in the past it could be a bit toxic.

Another vote for Dundee! I know that wasn't the question- but it's got a great reputation.

Good to know. Thanks for the comments. Glad it's worked well for your son.

Yes I hear great things about Dundee too.

One of mine was known as the girl who turned down Glasgow in favour of Dundee, mainly because the course she wanted was more computer based on Glasgow. Dundee was fab, great city to live in , most places walkable , and not nearly as expensive a place to live as Edinburgh in particular. You’ll need to look into and compare courses .

Really interesting to hear the views on different art schools. I went with dd to the recent open days for GSA and ECA. We liked Edinburgh quite a lot and, for a fine art student, the situation and outlook is much nicer (a little thing, I know!), i.e. the studios overlook the castle, whereas at GSA they overlook the M8.

Dd really wasn't taken with Glasgow and the level of the third year work didn't impress us terribly. There seems to be a strong focus on conceptual work, so if that's important to you, it might seem great. But, for example, no life drawing classes within the curriculum (although some outwith it).
I think it put dd off, to be honest, which is a shame as it seems to have a good reputation.

Having said that, we recently went to the New Contemporaries show in Edinburgh, a display of recent graduate work from all the big Scottish art colleges, and there was a lot from Glasgow and some we really liked, but also great work from Edinburgh and DofJ, just one piece from Gray's.

Would anyone know which Scottish art school is best for a more skills-based approach to art? Perhaps more traditional, with a focus on drawing and painting and less conceptual?

Edinburgh is less " old- fashioned" than it was but I would say it still has the edge on Glasgow for more traditional fine Art. Which is ironic as Glasgow was so famous for figurative painting in the 80s.

I don't actually know if there are still compulsory life drawing classes at ECA. I'd be surprised if they weren't offered.

Heriot Watt School of Textiles in the Borders then. World class. No city life but the absolute best textiles education you can get in Scotland. The students regularly win international prizes, there are close ties with industry and fashion houses. Its rural but less than an hour from Edinburgh by train, so hardly onerous.
I admit that I'm biased, as I went there when it was the Scottish College of Textiles, centuries ago, and still visit every year.

@CocoapuffPuff I tried in vain to even get my DS to go to an open day to Heriot Watt, he refused, desperate for some urban grit after spending his life up to now in a village. I thought it looked amazing, the range of equipment and variety of courses.

It's not a campus for everyone. It suited me, because I'd have hated being in a city, and the small college was perfect. My friend went to Glasgow uni recently and was one of 180 students on her course in her year. At Galashiels, you're one of about 26 to 30 per course per year. Proportionally, you get way more attention from lecturers and tutors, share facilities with fewer others, etc. Campus is quieter and students have fewer distractions.
Those are negative aspects for some personalities, and drop outs tend to happen for social reasons as well as academic. When there are only 1200 students on campus, you can only ruffle so many feathers before you run out of new friends....

If it’s textiles then I would suggest Edinburgh as they have better links with the dedicated textiles campus at Herriot-Watt uni in Galashiels.

@Dineasair I don't think they do have formal links anymore as The Scottish College of textiles is still part of Heriot Watt and ECA is now part of The University of Edinburgh. I didn't see it mentioned in any of the bumf I looked at when DS3 applied but I'm not 100% sure about that.
It seems like a lovely dept though, DS3 had an offer from them so went to the offer holders day.

For Textiles I'd be looking at Heriot Watt or Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee