The Branding of Dartington

Last week, the SAVE DARTINGTON COLLEGE campaign discovered that the Dartington Hall Trust had,in addition to buying up a quantity of domain names of the type dartingtoncollegeofarts.xxx, also applied to the patent office to trademark DARTINGTON COLLEGE OF ARTS, as well as the more generic DARTINGTON, @DARTINGTON and AT DARTINGTON.

Quite apart from the sheer arrogance of this move, (after all DARTINGTON is a place,with a parish council and community)it clearly shows, in my opinion, what the long term objectives of the trust really are - they want DARTINGTON to become a brand.

The Trust has, over the past few weeks attempted to 'limit the damage' in PR terms by portraying our campaign and its members as misinformed and unreliable. These last few weeks have been an umitigated disaster for them, with revelations of their activities coming into the public domain on an almost daily basis. So one has to laugh when having dug their own hole, they carry on digging...

In a statement to the Totnes Times they said:

‘The trust has been registering trademarks and domain names for Dartington for some time to protect the Dartington brand name. Historically we have been very lax on this and many prime trademarks and domain names have been lost. Some time ago trustees agreed that we should capture many variants to protect the Dartington brand, and our recent branding exercise, which the college has been part of, has focused our efforts on this.'

So - an admission of a branding exercise, and the astonishing statement that the college has been part of it! When we informed the College about the application to trademark their name, we were told unequivocally that the Trust applied for the College's name without informing the College itself - this caused outrage among the College Executive.

What is the importance of a 'brand'? A brand is part of an advertising and marketing strategy which attempts to programme an association in the consumers mind, linking the brand (and it's portfolio of products) with certain 'values', such as quality, price bracket, social status and the like. Think 'Harrods' and then 'Woolworths' and you get the idea.

I personally don't have much doubt that the trustees, with CEO Lindsay at the helm as the figurehead, want a brand which exudes 'status' and is aimed at the upper middle class strata of society. Think BMW rather than Ford. The type of students that the college attracts do not exactly fit in with this vision. Creativity, community and the inherent messiness of art outside the confines of the establishment model have no place in their scheme.

Instead, they would like to replace them with a corporate model based on private finance, (from the USA) high status products (famous names and personalities, buzz words like ArtsScope and ArtsPark) and well behaved consumers who will spend money consuming.

The Trust and the other bodies that are working with them on this project have gone to considerable lengths to keep all of this under wraps, mainly through secrecy and outright denial. Hard evidence is hard to come by, so one is forced to expose things bit by bit, like trying to put a jigsaw together. Once in a while they offer you a big piece.

A few days ago, Kate Caddy, a trustee and granddaughter of the Elmhirsts made a statement to the Herald Express which attempted to justify the eviction of the college from the estate. Among other things, she said:

"The projects they set up flew in the face of conventional wisdom. But they were intended to change the world by example, not to create Dartington as an alternative world, a safe haven for dissenters or a refuge for the pursuit of alternative lifestyles."

This description of the students at the College says it all. One wonders how the staff and students at Schumacher College, another institution at the Trust's mercy are feeling right now...

There are many reasons why myself, the campaign committee and a huge number of local people and politicians, college students and college staff have put so much time and effort over the past few six weeks in fighting this appalling decision. At its deepest level, beyond the attempt to save the physical entity we call Dartington College of Arts, we are trying to prevent our local heritage from becoming an outpost for the 'Notting Hill' culture that is trying to establish itself in our midst. We value the networks of people and artists that have been created over decades; we value the unique fabric of our local community; we value the input of hundreds of young, creative and energetic students that choose to spend their college years in our midst; above all we value and treasure the unique heritage and legacy of Tagore and the Elmhirsts which, whatever Kate Caddy says, was based on the idea that local, communal arts and education are essential components of a healthy society. This is our 'brand'. It has no logo. There is nothing to consume. There is no product to sell.