project background

Artists Access to Art Colleges (AA2A) is a project run by CHEAD (Council for Higher Education in Art and Design), and funded by the Arts Council England.

The AA2A project is a national set of schemes, providing visual artists and designer makers with the opportunity to undertake a period of research or realise a project, using workshop and supporting facilities in fine art and design departments of Higher and Further Education institutions. This gives participating artists and makers the opportunity to use equipment which otherwise might not be available to them, as well as benefiting the institution by bringing in ideas and techniques which may not otherwise enter the college environment.

There are currently 21 colleges in England hosting AA2A schemes. Each participating institution offers places to four artists or makers. Typical supporting facilities available to artists/makers include college lending libraries, access to lecture programmes, life rooms, etc. Each artist/maker has up to 100 hours access which they can use over a period of at least 17 weeks, between October and April.

In the first three years of the project each college also ran an annual event to profile the work produced during the scheme. Since then, colleges have been documenting the work produced for inclusion on this website. Many colleges have also continued the tradition of running exhibitions as part of their AA2A scheme

Since 1999 aproximately 525 artists/makers have taken part in AA2A. In 2006/07 another 82 will be working alongside students using workshop equipment and supporting facilities.

After initial research and piloting which was managed by Norwich School of Art and Design, the full AA2A project was launched in April 1999. This phase of the project was managed by NAFAE (National Association for Fine Art Education) with three years funding through the Arts Council's A4E Lottery scheme. As the remit of the project was extended to cover areas other than fine art, the management of the AA2A project moved to CHEAD (Council for Higher Education in Art and Design). Funding, through the Arts Council's Grants for the Arts programme has been secured until 2008. The project is run by the National Co-ordinator and is managed by a steering group.

For table of participating colleges from 1996 click here

Classic British Mammals by Tozzy Bridger. Photo the artist.
Garden at the Other World, by Claire Harrison. Photo Nick Blood.
Untitled, by Philip Barnes. Photo Simon Ringe.