The Power of Community

Totnes is a unique place. Cromwell mustered his first citizen's army on the grounds of St Mary's church. Babbage, inventor of the first computer was born here. Stravinsky and Morton Feldman (to name just two) taught here, at the Dartington Summer School. Last year we were named as one of the '10 funkiest town's in the UK'. You'd be hard pressed to find so many artists and musicians in such a small georgraphical area anywhere outside the great metropolitan areas. Tagore stood on the hill of what is now the Dartington Estate and said 'here!'

The prospect of losing our College of Arts, and without exageration our way of life, to the number crunching steamroller is not something we are willing to contemplate. The question is 'How did we get here in the first place?'

The principal of the college, Andrew Brewerton, and the CEO of the Dartington Hall Trust will tell you that they have spent the last two years in a concerted, but ultimately vain attempt to stave off the inevitable. The state of the student accomodation, the realities of higher education funding, the relentless pressure from the government for small colleges to merge and expand, have all conspired to thwart their efforts. There is, unfortunately, no alternative...

The one place they omitted to look for solutions is in their own back yard. They made the error of not taking into account the will, determination and abilities of their own community. Totnes and the surrounding area is full of people with experience in sustainable, ecologically friendly building. It is full of creative people who could think up ways of generating income for the college, if only they were asked.

Technorarti Tags: Dartington College of Arts