‘The buildings were a sign of civic pride’: anger as art colleges around the UK close their doors

The Derby School of Art now stands empty. Many more across the UK are also vacant or have been razed to the ground. Photograph: © Matthew Cornford, The Art School Project

On a trip to Norfolk back in 2009, artist and academic Matthew Cornford decided to take a nostalgic look at his old art school. Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design may not have been an elite establishment – one of its best known alumni is Keith Chapman, creator of Bob the Builder – but the grand building with its terracotta roof, turrets and art deco flourishes meant a lot to Cornford, and to the other generations of students educated there.

Cornford discovered, though, that the place was deserted and derelict. “I found it really moving,” he says. “You think of somewhere you study as being permanent; this place I had a qualification from was now just a piece of real estate.”