University College Dublin

 The Metropolitan School of Art began as an academy established in 1746 by the Royal Dublin Society, for the promotion of drawing and painting. During the first hundred years of the School’s existence, instruction was free of charge; and the four departments of figure drawing, landscape and ornament, architecture, and modelling, provided courses useful to sculptors, embroideries, weavers, printers, silversmith and workers in other crafts. In the nineteenth century, the School was successively under the control of the Royal Dublin Society, the Board of trade, the Department of Science and Art, and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. Following it’s transfer to the last-named body, classes were established in the principal artistic crafts, including metalwork and enamelling, mosaic, embroidery and woodcarving. The School also acquired a high reputation for it’s part in the development of stained glass and for the felicitous influence which, under the guidance of Sir William Orpen, it exerted on painting in Ireland. In 1924, control was assumed by the Department of Education; an extension and development of the School, was established.The National College of Art is the principal institution of the system of Art Education in Ireland as administered by the Department of Education. It’s general purpose is to promote the advancement of Art, to advocate and maintain the highest artistic values in national culture, and to combine artistic design with practical skill in the interests of industry. There are three schools; the School of Design, the School of Painting and the School of Sculpture, with a Preliminary School, which includes an Upper and a Lower Division. In this way, the College provides for the study of the Fine Arts and of the Decorative Arts and Crafts, and for the training of Art teachers eligible for employment in post-primary schools. The College has working arrangements with University ColIege Dublin and with the Bolton Street School of Technology. It also maintains liaison with the National Library, the National Museum, and the National Gallery of Ireland.Outside Dublin, whole-time day course and part-time evening courses are provided at the Crawford School of Art, Cork, and the Schools of Art in Limerick and Waterford.To foster the study of the History of Art, Miss Sarah Purser and Sir John Purser Griffith established, in 1934,two equal funds, one to be administered by Trinity College, and the other by University College Dublin, the income from which provides Travelling Scholarships. and prizes to be competed for every year, alrtenately in each University. Extra-mural courses are given at University College Dublin, which College also provides courses leading to a degree in the History of European Painting taken with another subject. Lectures are also provided, mainly for post-primary students, in the National Gallery.