Title: The Drawing Experiment at the Royal College of Art, 1995–2001
Abstract: This chapter recounts the history of the reorganization of the Drawing Studio at the postgraduate Royal College of Art, London. Special workshops for all design and art courses in the college were set up in association with an ambitious international public lecture program dealing with body politics and other culturally relevant topics. The underlying aims of linking art and design theory and practice through the mediation of drawing were therefore amplified by presenting drawing as a discursive and critical practice. In 1997 the Drawing Studio was expanded through the establishment of the Centre for Drawing Research, the first PhD Drawing Research program in the UK. The rationale behind this college‐wide pedagogic experiment is contextualized in relation to the state of practice, exhibition publications, and drawing theory in the 1990s and it is proposed that the collaborative, performative, and immersive aspects of this intensive program represented an unique initiative at the time.