Courtauld to embark on £82m campus project at Somerset House in London | The Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld has unveiled an £82 million campus redevelopment project which it calls a “once-in-a-generation transformation” of its Grade I listed building at Somerset House in London.
Stirling-winning architects Witherford Watson Mann will take responsibility for the project on the education and research center and public gallery following the refurbishment of the Courtauld Gallery site in 2021, expected to take four years to complete. The Courtauld Institute of Art is an independent college affiliated with the University of London, founded in the 1930s, focusing on the teaching and research of art history.
Prof Mark Hallett, director of the Courtauld’s Märit Rausing, said: “Our gallery It is the most elegant and beautiful gallery in the UK and this next phase is about bringing everything under one roof while creating a spectacular new campus for the academic institution… This will be something that will really suit today’s students.”
The refurbishment will take place on the east wing of Somerset House, connecting the institute to several townhouses on the Strand.
The work means the Courtauld’s teaching spaces, currently located in King’s Cross in north London, will be co-located with the gallery, creating what the institution calls a “flexible, state-of-the-art campus and education”. [secure] “It is the legacy of the next 100 years.”
In addition to the announcement, a new research was commissioned by the institution. This research shows that over the last decade the number of UK schools offering art history A-levels has fallen by 37%, from 122 to 77 in 2016. These are all in England, mostly in London and the South East. Only 19 out of 77 schools are public schools.
Hallett said the institution plans to help schools that want to teach art history, but that project is in the early planning stages and no details are ready to be released.
The late art historian and former director of the Courtauld, Michael Kauffmann, moved the institution from its “exquisite goldfish bowl in Portman Square” to Somerset House in the late 1980s. There is also a gallery with a collection of various masterpieces, such as works by Manet. A Bar in the Folies-BergèreBotticelli’s Trinity with the Saints and Van Gogh Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ears.
The change was successful; By the time Kauffman left six years later, student numbers had nearly doubled. Alumni include current British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan, Arts Council England president Sir Nicholas Serota and National Gallery chief Gabriele Finaldi.
Hallett said the renovation is the completion of Kauffmann’s original vision.
He said: “This is a revisiting of what Michael wanted to see happen when he moved the Courtauld to Somerset House, but making sure we are doing things at a really high level in terms of the environment we provide..”
The institution’s gallery reopened in 2021 following a widely acclaimed three-year, £57 million renovation project that the Observer described as a “masterclass in tasteful updating”.
Witherford Watson Mann, the architects behind the redesign, recently won the Stirling award for their Appleby Blue Almshouse residential complex in Southwark, London.
The major refurbishment of the Courtauld’s educational grounds is being paid for by donations: Record £30 million from Reuben Foundation and Blavatnik Family Foundation £10 million to the gallery in 2020.
Other donors include the Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation, Clore Duffield Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Oak Foundation, Julia Rausing Trust, Rothschild Foundation, Georgia and David Winter, and the Wolfson Foundation.
The project is expected to be completed in 2029.
