ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes a brief context of art school education in the United Kingdom and then looks at London's urban context to highlight the conditions that have amplified the contestation of space for artistic production. It focuses on artists' role in appropriating space and engaging a diverse public including the local community. Evidence from the campaign design project 'London is changing', set up by a lecturer in communication design at Central Saint Martins, depicts the many accounts of relocation to, from and within London as a measure of the direct impact of recent economic and policy changes to the culture and diversity of London. Turps Art School grew out of the initiative of professional painters and lecturers, who published an independent painting magazine called Turps Banana. The school operates without any formal hierarchy and its members are as actively involved as their other professional commitments with full- or part-time work allow.
