Save Dartington College News http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:43:43 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/html/images/sdc_rss_logo.gif http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org Save Dartington College http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=225&_Template=news_detail.htm An old friend of mine, a bit of a firebrand, used to tell me that if you were on the left or genuinely radical you'd better get used to supporting lost causes because you're bound to lose more than you'll win. On the other hand, he'd add, lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for. And that's how it is now with the Dartington College saga. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=226&_Template=news_detail.htm Now that the Pirates of Penryn have got their greedy mits on the booty they've set their course for homeward leaving the creaking hulk of Dartington College to sink unceremoniously without trace. The last members of the crew - the staff who never put up much of a fight, never mind the necessary mutiny - now wander round in post-traumatic shock, and the galley slaves, the students, watch the water rise over one of the most piss-poor deals imaginable. But then, when were they ever worthy of consideration? Remember when Cap'n Brewerton and Bosun Lindsay along with those besuited faceless apparitions, the College Governors, walked all over them? More effective than flogging them - just ignore them. I wandered around the college recently. I couldn't believe it. There were always students milling about outside, round the coffee machines, hanging out around Higher Close, rehearsing new work, occupying the music practice rooms. Now you can walk into any practice room and stay as long as you want. You don't hear much in the way of distant music wafting around the campus. It feels like a ghost town - or like a place where a terrible crime was committed and everything has been left exactly as it was years ago. Those staff who have remained, along with those who have recently replaced those who got out before the writing on the wall had a chance to dry, hardly give off that Dartington exuberance, that sense of optimism and dedication that was once so attractive but has now descended into a kind of deadened, anaesthetic incredulity. It's like a relationship that's over, but both partners have to live in the same house for a while. It's increasingly difficult to know what to say when you pass on the stairs. It's like waiting for an execution. I'm reminded of that wonderful Mike Leigh film "Secrets and Lies" in which the members of a working class family keep secrets and tell lies about each other believing that this helps to hold the family together. Of course, the exact opposite is the real truth, and there's a great scene near the end where all the truths come pouring out in a kind of family enquiry. That's the stage we've got to in the Dartington College affair. Its time for a public enquiry at the highest level into the tasteless tapestry of secrets and lies that have only fooled the most gullible and, of course, those who want to believe them. Which is hardly any. The comparison with the movie stops there, of course. The dramatis personae of the Dartington stitch-up are not working class. More like the upper middle class poncey new elite that knows what's best for the rest of us proles who only pay the taxes and their inflated salaries. (Bread? Circuses? Let them eat replacement activities…) We need an enquiry into what happened between the first Port Report, which recommended that the college stay put, and the second which suggested it "relocate". We need to know why such a huge turnaround happened, who fell out with who and why. We need to know who calculated that the college was "unsustainable" on the Dartington Estate, who they consulted, how they arrived at their figures, and who checked them over. Given that the news of closure was the result of a leak to the press, we need to know, when it would have been disclosed, and why students were never told - not then, and not at subsequent interviews. We need to know why £20 million - the sum I heard the Dartington Hall Trust's CEO Vaughan Lindsay give at a meeting in November 2006 - has not been made available to keep the college where it belongs, yet much more than that has magically been found to fund the so-called merger with University College Falmouth. Dartington Hall Trust, the Higher Education Funding Council, the Regional Development Agency, the European funders, the college Governors, and the college executive have all been hell-bent on destroying the college, citing unsolvable financial problems as the reason. Given that money is available for the destruction of the college we need to know why moving to Falmouth is everybody's pet project, who gets what out of it, and why the option of staying at Dartington was never put to any funding body, quango or executive. We need to know what, exactly, is so odious about Dartington College of Arts that all the gangsters and pirates of the Ed. Biz and beyond have ganged up against it. We need an enquiry into why no funding body was ever approached to fund the college on the estate. We need an enquiry into why the views of all democratically publicly elected bodies and representatives were ignored, marginalised or simply trampled on. In particular we need an enquiry into the behaviour of characters like Mark Taylor, Vice Principal, whose letter to the Mayor of Totnes warning him off the Save Dartington College Campaign was unprofessional and an utter disgrace. Not that I would expect anything else from the man who, at the Hearing against me, gleefully twisted my words and got me the sack. I need an enquiry into why that was ever allowed to happen. And we need to be clear about who really deserves the sack. Mr. Taylor? Or perhaps the Regional Development Agency that made crucial decisions on the basis of false information, bugged meetings with Save Dartington College Campaigners, reconvened to make the same decision again despite - on its own admission - the "driver" of the Dartington Hall Trust evicting the college was now seen to be false. We need an enquiry into why those bodies responsible for appalling decisions didn't even turn up to the Devon Country Scrutiny Meeting to answer questions. That covers the Dartington College of Arts Executive, the Regional Development Agency, and the Dartington Hall Trustees. If we recall that the Mayor of Totnes plus half a dozen Save Dartington campaigners did attend that meeting we get a fair picture of who really cares about this nasty business, and who couldn't give a toss now that they think they've got their way. We need an enquiry into why proposals which could have kept a college on site were rejected out of hand. There was idea which argued that although Dartington might become part of Falmouth it could still have been University College Falmouth's arts campus. There was the King-MacAdie plan which solved the student residencies problem by placing them off the Estate - with the cooperation of the Duke of Somerset, no less. Why did the two local businessmen who had put time, effort and ingenuity into their plan feel so insulted and alienated when they tried to explain it to a brick wall? We need an enquiry - urgently and before it happens - into what, exactly, is going to merge with Falmouth.. According to Mark Taylor's written submission to the Devon County scrutiny meeting which he did not attend, Dartington College of Arts is wholly the property of the Dartington Hall Trust. It has now, as from April 6th, merged with University College Falmouth. So we need an enquiry into how this is possible. Is it a legal entity or an abstract notion that has "merged". We need an enquiry into why it is costing millions to merge. A mere handful of academic staff might move, no support staff as far as we know, and not all the courses - apparently - will continue. Will the college prospectus be used in the merger? Not likely. The Falmouth people don't like it, have demanded its withdrawal, and insist on it being re-written. More money wasted. What else might "merge"? The assets of the college? Wrong again - they're owned by the Trust. Students? Now let's stop guessing. Recruitment is down thirty per cent and more on some courses. What about the recently opened buildings and state-of-the-art studios constructed with public money? Well unless they're moved brick by brick that's going to be a problem. In any case the Trust owns them - or rather the Trust is poised to nick them when the college vacates them. (But never mind. University College Falmouth will be erecting new buildings so the money can be spent twice.) Not even the name of the college can merge - the Trust owns it. The tax-paying public is entitled to know why scads of its money is being poured down the drain, or worse, ending up as part of the real estate of a private concern. That's another reason we need an enquiry. We need an enquiry into the bullying, mobbing and coercive tactics that typified the management of the college when Andrew Brewerton was Principal. This extended to staff and students. It involved the right to free speech. It may be that some victims of the bullying may wish for their own reasons to keep what happened to them secret. This, of course, would only prove the effectiveness of the bullying, and if such an enquiry happens - as well it should - these cowardly ones should consider the harmful effect of their silence. We need an enquiry into the role of the Schumacher College in all this. Schumacher's Director Karen Blincoe commented in the Totnes Times of January 31st 2007 that people "who study at Schumacher College do so because they want to be of service to the planet, rather than themselves". Given the context of distancing Schumacher College from the Save Dartington College Campaign, this was a clear dig at the arts college and a stupidly ignorant view of the arts to boot. None should be surprised at the indecent haste with which Schumacher College's intention to take over the arts college campus was recently declared. Gordon Brown said recently: "We want every town and city to have a college or university". In light of this we need an enquiry into why Totnes, Seale Hayne and Exmouth are losing theirs. Or maybe Brown's predecessor Tony Blair might provide an answer. After all Andrew Brewerton was on his committee which dealt with Higher Education. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=224&_Template=news_detail.htm Dear Mr. Brewerton John Bull apparently informed all members of staff that today (Thursday 20th) is to be your last day at Dartington College. I wish I could mark your departure with the wishes of goodwill I have generally offered to Dartington's previous departing principals (which in your case surely has a double meaning). http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=221&_Template=news_detail.htm Why does the RDA/UCF bullying of the Save Dartington Campaign not surprise me? - simply, of course, because the implementation of the plan to destroy Dartington College of Arts had been characterised by bullying from the word go. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=222&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 19 March 2008 Devon County Council is demanding answers over how the Government's Regional Development Agency came up with £3.5million of taxpayers' cash to support the controversial Dartington College of Art move to Cornwall.And the leader of the county's Labour group, Saxon Spence, has declared the answers should be made public. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=220&_Template=news_detail.htm Too much. Out of reach of the campaigners to save Dartington College. In order to proceed with their Judicial Review Application campaigners were faced with possible costs of at least £36,000 and a possible £44,600. Faced with such figures the Campaign had no option than to withdraw their legal challenge. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=223&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS 11:00 - 15 March 2008 The 11th hour legal battle to stop the Dartington College of Arts move to Cornwall has finally been lost amid fears over court costs which would have run into tens of thousands of pounds. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=218&_Template=news_detail.htm Guardian Online - Anthea Lipsett Monday March 10, 2008 EducationGuardian.co.uk Campaigners fighting to prevent the merger of the world-renowned Dartington College of Arts with University College Falmouth are to call for a judicial review this week. Supporters have vowed to fight the decision to move the college from its south Devon home and merge it with the university college 90 miles away in Cornwall by 2010. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=219&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS 11:00 - 08 March 2008 The legal battle to stop Dartington's art college from moving to Cornwall is being offered council cash backing. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=216&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 29 February 2008 Dartington campaigners have won a High Court hearing which could put them on the road to scuppering a Dartington College of Arts pull out. If the judge backs their call for a judicial review over the world famous arts college's move to Cornwall, it could put the whole merger with University College Falmouth in doubt. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=215&_Template=news_detail.htm BBC News Omline Devon campaigners have said the fight will go on to save Dartington College of Arts and prevent a merger with University College Falmouth, Cornwall. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=214&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 19 February 2008 The battle to save Dartington College of Arts for Dartington now looks all but lost as the final pot of gold is put in place to make the move to Cornwall possible. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=213&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 16 February 2008 An all-important decision to fund Dartington College's controversial move to Cornwall will take place on Monday. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=217&_Template=news_detail.htm The "Dartington ethos", for members of Save Dartington College Campaign and our vast number of supporters, has repeatedly figured in our arguments and discussion about the college. It refers to the college's special flavour and approach - the reason it is so valued by so many people in the arts. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=210&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS 05-02-08 Campaigners are expected to keep up focus on their High Court bid for answers over the future of Dartington College later today. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=209&_Template=news_detail.htm It's clear that some high-up personnel in the South West Regional Development Agency have been lied to - by whom is anyone's guess. (I'd better keep my theories to myself…) If were them I'd be furious. Jane Henderson and Juliet Williams of the SWRDA both asserted, in a bugged interview with three Save Dartington College campaigners, that the college had been given notice to quit ("vacate the site") by 2010 by the Dartington Hall Trust. This they said is "the gun to the head", the "driver" behind the urgency to support the plan to merge with University College Falmouth. Ms Henderson admitted that there had been a change of view from the idea, supported by the first Port Report, that the college's best option was to stay on site, to the current plan to "relocate" it. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=211&_Template=news_detail.htm Campaigners fighting the relocation of a top arts college in Devon were hopeful of a reprieve last night after a Government body helping to fund the move agreed to hear their case again. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=208&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS 31 January 2008 The future of Dartington College of Arts is still in the balance today after a surprise turn of events which has left one Government body saying yes to vital millions... while another is saying 'maybe'. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=207&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS 11:00 - 26 January 2008 The battle over the future of Dartington College of Arts today took a bizarre new turn as campaigners revealed they were secretly taped as they met with members of the South West Regional Development Agency. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=206&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS 11:00 - 23 January 2008 The future of Dartington College of Arts could end up at the centre of a High Court battle as campaigners call for a judicial review over Monday's decision to pump £3.5million into moving the college campus to Cornwall. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=203&_Template=news_detail.htm Herald Express Dartington College of Arts bosses have accused anti-closure campaigners of threatening the future of jobs at the famous education site. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=204&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS Torbay is resurrecting its battle to save Dartington College of Art with a last minute bid to halt plans to shift the entire college campus to Cornwall - along with the £4 million it is worth to the South Devon economy. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=202&_Template=news_detail.htm Dartington College faced with closure Dartington College in Devon, an arts college with a unique international reputation, a vital part of the English cultural heritage, intimately connected to its environment on the Dartington Estate, is faced with closure under a proposed takeover bid by University College Falmouth (UCF - which is not a university). http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=205&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS Totnes could end up bringing in a 'private investigator' to start digging into how the decision to move Dartington College of Art to Cornwall was originally made. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=201&_Template=news_detail.htm The future of Dartington College of Arts could be fought out in Europe amid the latest claim that pumping millions of pounds into shifting the unique campus from one part of the country to another could breach Euro rules. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=199&_Template=news_detail.htm These are the full notes for the speech made by Sam Richards at the Save Dartington College Day on 27.10.2007. The speech was shortened and improvised around on the day… http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=200&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS An army of around 400 people took their battle to save Dartington College of Arts to the streets of Totnes. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=197&_Template=news_detail.htm Totnes is going to the Government to demand a public inquiry over the way the Dartington College of Arts pull-out has been handled. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=196&_Template=news_detail.htm Save Dartington College campaigners are calling for the resignation or dismissal of the college principal, Professor Andrew Brewerton. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=195&_Template=news_detail.htm In the summer of 2006 the Dartington Hall Trust and Dartington College of Arts decided that they would rather see the precious legacy with which they had been entrusted destroyed than abandon the entrenched corporate mindset that governs their thinking and their actions. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=192&_Template=news_detail.htm The experience of working with the Save Dartington College Campaign (SDCC) has underlined one thing. Democracy? Forget it. There isn't any. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=193&_Template=news_detail.htm Andrew Brewerton's letter to the Independent calls for some comment. First let us, as a Campaign, note a moment of agreement with Mr. Brewerton. The Independent's portrayal of Dartington as "wacky, zany - threatened", and the silly remark about the "local hippie community" is not worthy of a quality newspaper. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=194&_Template=news_detail.htm After the Independent's reportage of the Dartington College affair on Thursday August 2nd I wrote a letter to the Education Page making a number of points. This letter was published, alongside letters by Principal Andrew Brewerton, Student President Daniel Cooke and, from the Save Dartington College Campaign, Allen Saddler. My first eight paragraphs were cut. I am aware of the journalistic need for brevity. However, sometimes the necessity of contextualisation should take precedent. Hence we publish here my full letter. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=191&_Template=news_detail.htm The Independent - By Lucy Hodges Published: 02 August 2007 Dartington is a successful college with a colourful history. So why is it facing closure? http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=188&_Template=news_detail.htm Dear Mr. Brewerton I, along with thousands of others, regard the plan to close Dartington College of Arts, along with its traditions, social and economic function in South Devon, as an avoidable tragedy. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=189&_Template=news_detail.htm Western Morning News - John Kirk 11:00 - 27 July 2007 Campaigners battling to prevent a college moving 80 miles across the Westcountry have vowed to "fight until the removal vans arrive".Richard Gonski, chairman of Save Dartington College, made the comments after bosses of the institution, based near Totnes, formally agreed to merge with the University College Falmouth. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=190&_Template=news_detail.htm Just check this through with me. I may be missing something.. HEFCE. The government funding body for Higher Education, funded the building extensions at Dartington College. New state-of-the-art studios, presumably for the benefit of the staff and students. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=186&_Template=news_detail.htm TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT Melanie Newman - Published: 20 July 2007 A lecturer is set to lose his job because his apology for publicly criticising the principal was judged to be insufficiently sincere. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=187&_Template=news_detail.htm Despite opprobrium from the local community, and a heartfelt open letter from the Save Dartington College Campaign, the Dartington College of Arts Governors, on July 13th, continued to give the green light to the detested, depressing trail to Falmouth, without even a footnote as to the effect this will have on the Totnes area. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=185&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 17 July 2007 Getting hold of the cash is the biggest single risk factor involved in the highly controversial move to merge Dartington College of Art with a Falmouth college and turn it into part of a new Cornish university, a new report has revealed. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=184&_Template=news_detail.htm The much-criticised, unaccountable South West Regional Assembly is to be scrapped and its powers handed back to elected councils, the WMN has learnt.Gordon Brown plans to demolish one of the few legacies of ex-deputy PM John Prescott by wielding the axe on the £2 million "talking shop". http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=182&_Template=news_detail.htm We understand that on Friday of this week you will meet to consider the academic vision involved in the proposed merger with University College Falmouth. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=183&_Template=news_detail.htm I understand that Vaughan Lindsay of the Dartington Hall Trust and Matt Griffiths of Dartington Plus have been asking for ideas that might work at Dartington. I believe I saw a poster saying "Why Not Do It at Dartington" advertising a public meeting which, alas, I could not attend. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=181&_Template=news_detail.htm Papers name 46 institutions in crisis THE GUARDIAN - Polly Curtis and James Meikle Saturday July 7, 2007 The Guardian A secret list of nearly 50 universities and colleges at risk of financial failure has been drawn up by government officials since tuition fees were introduced, the Guardian has learned. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=180&_Template=news_detail.htm http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=177&_Template=news_detail.htm These few thoughts are based on the short speech I made on Wednesday June 27th when the Save Dartington College Campaign launched its document: "What Is Really Happening at Dartington College of Arts: The Peoples' Report". http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=178&_Template=news_detail.htm To understand this story you have to know that the current Dartington College of Arts Executive and Board of Governors aim to close the famous college on its historic, iconic campus in South Devon and merge it with the new metropolitan style University College Falmouth eighty six miles away. You also need to know that this was planned in secret, and that no one would have known about it were it not for a leak to the local press in November 2006. No one outside a small power elite wants this "relocation" to happen. There's no educational reason for it. The college is not failing, and there has been no genuine consultative process. Figures are quoted with no foundation and no right to contest them. I should add that I have been a part time lecturer at Dartington for thirty years and have been committed to its ideals and unique approach to arts education for even longer. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=179&_Template=news_detail.htm New Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be called on this week to save Dartington College of Arts. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=175&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 23 June 2007 Sacked Dartington tutor and musician Sam Richards has told his college bosses what they can do with their job rather than submit to an apology he claims amounts to a public humiliation. And he is now considering whether to take his case to an employment tribunal. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=176&_Template=news_detail.htm Herald Ecpress - 23 June 2007 Tough tv cop June Ackland has weighed into the row over Dartington College saying the pull-out decision was 'a terrible shame'. Actress Trudi Goodwin, who plays the part of the police sergeant in the popular TV series The Bill, was a student at Dartington College of Art 37 years ago. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=174&_Template=news_detail.htm When I left London to live in Totnes, people who I had left in the capital were amazed at how I managed to keep up with contemporary culture, how I saw new trendy films, theatrical experiments and new outrages in music. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=173&_Template=news_detail.htm Herald Express - 12 June 2007 Sacked Dartington college tutor Sam Richards is refusing to reveal whether he has won back the teaching job he had had for 30 years. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=172&_Template=news_detail.htm The Appeal Hearing for Sam Richards will be on Tuesday June 5th at the Higher Close Meeting Room, 1.30 pm. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=171&_Template=news_detail.htm The Save Dartington Campaign seeks to keep Dartington College of Arts healthy and functioning where it presently exists ­ on the Dartington Estate. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=170&_Template=news_detail.htm The Department of Trade and Industry has been asked to open an investigation into allegations of breach of duty on the part of the directors of Dartington College under company law. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=169&_Template=news_detail.htm In a letter sent to all students a few days ago, DCA Student Union President Daniel Cooke joined Andrew Brewerton in attacking the area's two local MPs, Anthony Steen and Adrian Sanders. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=168&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 12 May 2007 Campaigners battling to keep Dartington College of Arts in Dartington have made an appeal direct to Prime Minister Tony Blair pointing to the 'devastating' impact the loss of the college will have on the local economy. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=165&_Template=news_detail.htm BBC Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6445793.stm Campaigners trying to keep Dartington College of Arts (DCA) in south Devon are calling for a government inquiry into a proposed move to Cornwall. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=166&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 11 May 2007 There is no done deal over the millions of pounds needed to fund a Dartington College of Arts pull-out, officials who hold the Euro cash purse strings have assured campaigners. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=167&_Template=news_detail.htm A calm River Dart belies "troubled waters" surging through Totnes Campaigners trying to save a Devon arts college have met with the Regional Development Agency (RDA) in a bid to prevent it moving to Cornwall. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=164&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 10 May 2007 Save Dartington College campaigners meet with the EU's money men today in a bid to persuade them to halt the move and launch an inquiry into the major impact its loss will have on the whole South Devon economy. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=162&_Template=news_detail.htm Western Morning News - 08 May 2007 An mp has accused a regional tier of Government of being "unhelpful" and "talking rubbish" over the relocation of a South Devon arts college. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=163&_Template=news_detail.htm Campaigners are demanding a top level Government inquiry into £25million proposals to pull the Dartington College of Arts campus out of Dartington amid claims the whole thing has been one big 'stitch up'. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=161&_Template=news_detail.htm After the Save Dartington Campaign alerted the internationally renowned composer Gavin Bryars to the fact that the new College Prospectus contains 'extracts' from his letter of protest, Mr Bryars sent us this: http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=158&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 02 May 2007 Two South Devon MPs have been accused of 'political opportunism' in the row over the future of Dartington Arts College ahead of this week's local elections. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=159&_Template=news_detail.htm The Save Dartington Campaign has discovered a new consultant's report, buried deep in the SWRDA website. We couldn't find it on the HEFCE website at all, although it was commissioned by both organisations. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=160&_Template=news_detail.htm In true Brewertonian style, Andrew Brewerton today launched an all out attack on Anthony Steen, the Conservative MP for Totnes and the South Hams, and Adrian Sanders the LibDem MP for Torbay. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=156&_Template=news_detail.htm THE BREWERTON POCKET GUIDE TO SPIN For this exercise you will need a copy of the new Dartington Prospectus for 2008. However, as a public service we will supply you with the relevant quotes - so you won't have to clutter up your bookshelves with enough spin to make a tornado seem like a gentle evening breeze. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=157&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS - 26 April 2007 Tony Blair has been called on to stop up to £20 million of taxpayers' cash being 'wasted' to relocate Dartington college to Cornwall. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=154&_Template=news_detail.htm In an interview published in today's Totnes Times, local MP Anthony Steen called for a change in management at the College, and claimed that the Principal Andrew Brewerton had tried to 'shut up protest' by claiming that the College would close if it didn't receive the money to move to Falmouth and that was no evidence that the Principal's statement was correct. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=155&_Template=news_detail.htm Adrian Saunders (MP for Torbay) put a question to Tony Blair at Prime Minister's Question Time to-day (April 25) re: the devastating impact that moving DCA would have on Devon and Totnes. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=152&_Template=news_detail.htm We wonder if the Dartington-is-Falmouth lobby (truth-is-lies group- remember Orwell?) is aware that a local controversy involving the unmanageability of increases in student numbers has been rumbling away for quite a while. Where? Where else? Right down there in Falmouth, that's where. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=153&_Template=news_detail.htm It will not come as news to many Dartington students and staff, especially those concerned with writing, that the current battle for Dartington is being fought, essentially, with language as the most prominent weapon. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=151&_Template=news_detail.htm In asserting that Dartington College of Arts needs a new principal, Ian Wellens has put in writing what has been openly discussed in every coffee shop, pub, meeting place and college room for some months. More power to his elbow. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=150&_Template=news_detail.htm We're in a dismal situation. The Governors have opted for Falmouth, in the face of near-total opposition from students, staff and community. A 'consultation process' asked for our views on three options, followed by a letter telling us that one of them (staying at Dartington) was a sort of non-option option. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=149&_Template=news_detail.htm (Or The Dartington Crisis and the Logic of Absurdity) A BASIC STRUCTURE The myth of "Instant Transformation" is typical of our time. It is expressed by rituals, many of which are presented via mass circulation media. It is a way of thinking which pervades the First World. It figures, in my view significantly, in the current Dartington College crisis. It is also characteristic of the culture of waste and spiritual malaise that is such a formidable obstacle to dreams of an enlightened society. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=148&_Template=news_detail.htm THE PORT REPORTS READ ON… For all people interested in the Dartington College crisis this article - the one you are now reading - is of the utmost importance. If, over the last few months, you've had any questions or doubts, read on. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=144&_Template=news_detail.htm On the lunchtime of Thursday March 29th, Dartington College of Arts Studio 3, there was a concert of my music performed by staff and students of the music department. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=145&_Template=news_detail.htm As Falmouth is in the news, readers of this website might like to know a little more about the place. So as a public service here's A Few Facts About Falmouth for the curious. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=146&_Template=news_detail.htm Mr Simon Cassell, a lawyer acting within the campaign group, wrote (as an individual) to the college board of governors prior to their second of March meeting raising questions concerning conflict of interests on the part of members of the board and the trust, breach of duty by the directors of the two bodies, in allowing assets to deteriorate and failing to protect the assets of the college. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=147&_Template=news_detail.htm Dear sir: I understand that you are the chief moving force in the proposal to move Dartington College of Arts down to Falmouth. I have sent a letter to the Board of Governors which will lay out in more detail my feelings as a musician, singer, song maker and teacher. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=143&_Template=news_detail.htm Brewerton has finally given in to mounting pressure and published the first Port Report upon which the whole argument for 'relocation is based'. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=142&_Template=news_detail.htm According to an article in the Western Morning News this week Dartington College of Arts "wants" to merge with University College Falmouth 2010. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=139&_Template=news_detail.htm The Western Morning News of Monday March 12th reported that merger talks are to take place between Truro and Penwith colleges in Cornwall. For those of us opposed to the closure of Dartington College of Arts and the proposed appropriation of some of its resources in favour of University College, Falmouth, this was an interesting read. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=140&_Template=news_detail.htm The task that you are basically expecting me to solve, is this...Not only must I (Prof. Brewerton), meet all of the conditions for sustainability, that were demonstrated in March 2006. I must also, somehow reverse the inherited legacy of estate problems and correct the originally anomaly of the lack of an asset base. Now frankly, I am not capable of solving the colleges' global difficulty, in eighteen months. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=141&_Template=news_detail.htm It's Falmouth or die was the stark message from Dartington College of Arts principal Andrew Brewerton as he faced a hostile public meeting in Totnes. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=138&_Template=news_detail.htm At a Public Meeting held today at Totnes Civic Hall and chaired by Anthony Steen MP, the Principal of Dartington College of Arts, Andrew Brewerton finally agreed to make the first Port Report public. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=135&_Template=news_detail.htm Dear Professor Brewerton. I am appalled at the way my son, Sam Richards, has been treated by the College.Sam came to Dartington by choice. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=136&_Template=news_detail.htm The Dartington trademark is most famously associated with three things, Dartington Pottery, Dartington College of Arts, and Dartington Glass. With the imminent demise of the Art College, the heritage of the Dartington trademark, in so far as it has anything to do with Dartington the place, is moribund. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=137&_Template=news_detail.htm From the Gnostic gospel of Thomas comes the following. "Jesus said: If you draw forth that which is within you what you draw forth will save you. If you do not draw forth what is within you what you do not draw forth will destroy you." http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=134&_Template=news_detail.htm Dear friends, when I heard of Sam Richards' dismissal I was more than appalled, I was furious! In my third letter to Principal Brewerton (by the way, he did not reply to any of them so far), I mentioned that the whole affair reminds me very much of methods of censorship practiced here in Germany not many decades ago. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=133&_Template=news_detail.htm As a student at Dartington College I am disgusted at the sacking of one of the longest serving and well respected members of staff. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=132&_Template=news_detail.htm Sam Richards, the longest serving member of staff at Dartington College of Arts was today summarily dismissed for 'gross misconduct' following a piece of satire he wrote which was published on this website last week. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=129&_Template=news_detail.htm The Save Dartington College website has been inundated over the past week with messages of support for Sam Richards, recently suspended from the College for 'Gross Misconduct'. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=71&_Template=news_detail.htm Vaughan Lindsay, CEO of the Dartington Hall Trust has told campaign committee members that the Principal of the College, Andrew Brewerton had insisted, against his advice, that negotiations over the past two years be held in secret. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=128&_Template=news_detail.htm In his enthusiasm for removing the College of Arts from the Dartington Estate, Professor Andrew Brewerton has been premature in declaring 'victory'. The battle to Save Dartington College is, however, far from over. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=130&_Template=news_detail.htm HERALD EXPRESS 11:00 - 03 March 2007 It's Falmouth - but Dartington College of Arts governors had to walk over the bodies of their own students to get there. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=131&_Template=news_detail.htm If 20th-century utopianism is nonsensical, the work of past and present students mostly unremarkable, the agitation of thus-far dormant townsfolk attributable to fear for loss of revenue, conspiracy theories about the Trust dubious, and this entire campaign hysterical, arrogant, and delusional, why save Dartington College of Arts? http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=127&_Template=news_detail.htm In a statement today on the Dartington College of Arts website, it was announced that the College Board of Governors had decided to vote for 'the Falmouth option'. http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/Application.php?fwServerClass=GeneralDetail&_TableName=News&_RecordKey=119&_Template=news_detail.htm As the day approaches we ask for your focus to shift from the fear of negative announcements. Corporate powers have set in stone the intention to destroy DCA as it exists. We as a community, that has undoubdtedly been blessed by the dreams of Dorothy, Leonard and Tagore wish to show our thanks and awareness to the heart of our society.