Sheffield Junior Art Department and how the Junior Art Department shaped the arts, crafts and design careers of its pupils and of its teachers in mid-twentieth-century Britain

Abstract

The institution that was the Junior Art Department (JAD) and its role in teaching children who went on to have successful careers in the arts, crafts, and design in mid-twentieth century Britain have been little documented. Here I recall the nature of JADs in the United Kingdom during the postwar period, with the Sheffield Junior Art Department as a case study. I characterise the JAD movement in the context of British education at the time. I discuss the artists and craftspeople the JADs encouraged and the student–teacher relationship it engendered. I record Sheffield Junior Art Department, how it and its teachers influenced the pupils who passed through it and how in turn the school influenced its teachers’ careers both teaching and making craftwork in mid-twentieth-century Britain. I hope that this essay might contribute to debates on the values both of the specialist teaching of gifted pupils and of the arts and crafts for everyone.