An independent liberal art school for the 21st century.
The Margate School (TMS) is an independent not-for-profit liberal art school based in and for Margate, which is a seaside town in Kent on the South East coast of England. We integrate our post-graduate provision, with our technical and studio facilities reaching out to industry and diverse communities locally and further afield. We incorporated in 2015 and last year we took on the derelict former Woolworths building in Margate’s High Street, just a stone throw away from the beach and the Turner Contemporary Gallery and within easy walking distance from the train station.
The exciting local cultural offer, tourism and leisure facilities, cafes and restaurants somewhat camouflage the fact that we are also situated in one of the poorest wards and most pressurised high streets in the country. Our open door policy, public events and outreach work help to reinvent our High Street and help to alleviate the social pressures that come with social and urban deprivation and which is essential to our mission. Our key partner and supporter is the French art school called L'Ecole Supérieure d'Art et Design Le Havre-Rouen (ESADHaR) based in Normandy accredit our Masters degree in Fine Art.
Our vision is the successful establishment of an international networked liberal art school which operates independently and on a self-sustaining basis in and for Margate benefiting and yet creatively and socially engaging our students, partners and local communities. Above all, The Margate School is about people and as such the curriculum is guided by project-based collaborative learning in the expanded field, that means that we seek opportunities to apply the learning outside the immediate context of the School. We believe that learning in a collaborative and critical environment will nurture independent thinking, self-confidence and raise aspirations. We are inspired by Margate’s past and passionate about the future.
The Margate School was initiated and founded by Uwe Derksen, following over 30 years in higher education and having developed a particular interest in the interface between education and learning on the one hand and the community and societal setting on the other, especially within the context of the arts.
The Margate School’s motto:
Officinae humanitatis - fabricando fabricamur
(studios of humanity - we become humans as we engage humanly in the world we occupy — Johannes Comenius)