Current higher education in the applied arts’ disciplines
Mária Nepšinská
The Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, founded in 1949, celebrated its 60th anniversary. Historically the shaping of the educational process and the foundation of particular departments and studios were determined by social and cultural needs, as well as by the perceptive school management progressively developing the idea of a synthesis of free and applied fine arts disciplines. First came the provision for the teaching of free applied art disciplines, followed, from mid-sixties, by specialised departments of applied art creation being gradually built and resulting eventually in the foundation of the Department of Applied Art (from 1957 runs the Department of Applied Graphics, from 1965, the Department of Glass in Architecture, from.1966 the Department of Industrial Moulding, from 1966 the Department of Ceramics, from 1969 the Department of Book Creation, and, from 1976, the Department of Textile). Applied art disciplines have always ranked among the most dynamically growing and specialising disciplines, which ultimately lead to establishing separate departments. After 1989, much greater cooperation and blending of the boundaries between free and applied spheres of creation have also contributed to the current shape of the Department of Applied Arts as well as of the Department of Textile Production, their utility orientation being based on both the craft and the free art creation. Students’ outputs range from works of free fine arts to utility objects of daily use, which in the discussion on the plurality of art expression contributes to inspirational stimuli of the debate over situating these disciplines in the border area of free and applied arts or design.