Art, Town and Gown: Siting Public Artworks in Kingston Upon Thames

The art school in Kingston lies down a quiet suburban street a short walk from the town center. At its rear, the Hogsmill stream flows by, just a few miles downstream from the point Millais chose to model his Ophelia. From this idyllic setting, the visual and aesthetic character of Kingston as an urban space has been subtly affected and altered. The purpose of this chapter is, via a number of case studies, to delineate the relationship between Kingston School of Art and its surrounding environs, and in doing ask how the presence of the art school has impacted on the artscape of Kingston. What precise role can we ascribe to an art school in creating a mode of looking and developing the physical markers of aesthetic appreciation within an urban location? And how have the many artists connected to the institution materially affected how the spaces of Kingston have been viewed artistically over the years?