The Bournville Centre for Visual Arts (formerly Bournville College of Art and also known as Bournville School of Art) is an art school

Art school

Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...

 in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is located at Ruskin Hall on Linden Road in the area of Bournville

Bournville

Bournville is a model village on the south side of Birmingham, England, best known for its connections with the Cadbury family and chocolate – including a dark chocolate bar branded "Bournville". It is also a ward within the council constituency of Selly Oak and home to the Bournville Centre...

. It is part of Birmingham Institute of Art and Design

Birmingham Institute of Art and Design

The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design is the largest British university art and design teaching and research centre outside London. It is a faculty of Birmingham City University and the largest, most successful department of the university.-History:BIAD dates back, in various incarnations, to...

 (BIAD) at Birmingham City University

Birmingham City University

Birmingham City University is a British university in the city of Birmingham, England. It is the second largest of three universities in the city, the other two being the Aston University and University of Birmingham...

, having merged with the university (then Birmingham Polytechnic) in 1988.

The school was refurbished for £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

6 million in 2002 and reopened on 21 October 2002, precisely 100 years after the foundation stone for Ruskin Hall was laid. It is home to the International Project Space

International Project Space

The International Project Space is an art gallery located at the Bournville Centre for Visual Arts, a campus of Birmingham City University's Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in the Bournville district of Birmingham, England.The gallery opened in 2002 and hosts a programme of exhibitions by...

, and is the site of Birmingham's annual Creative Partnerships exhibition, a showcase of contemporary and visual art produced by local school students. The centre was the subject of controversy in 2008 regarding an exhibition honouring the work of author J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard

James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction...

, which included sexually explicit images (described as "heavily pornographic

Pornography

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

" by a local councillor) and the wreckage of a car.

The school's portfolio of courses comprises a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in visual arts

Visual arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

 by negotiated study, a foundation diploma

Foundation Course

A foundation course is a preparatory course for university-level art and design education, used particularly in the United Kingdom.-Description:...

 in art and design, and a range of self-development classes in ceramics

Ceramic art

In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...

, drawing

Drawing

Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...

, painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, and photography

Fine art photography

Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides a visual account for news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to...

. Alumni of the school include photographer Richard Billingham

Richard Billingham

Richard Billingham is an English photographer and artist who is best known for his photobook Ray's A Laugh which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray, and obese, heavily-tattooed mother, Liz.-Career:...

, artists Roger Hiorns

Roger Hiorns

Roger Hiorns is a British artist. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2009.Hiorns was born in Birmingham. He attended the Bournville College of Art from 1991 to 1993, and Goldsmiths College in London from 1993 to 1996. He lives in London....

 and Donald Rodney

Donald Rodney

Donald Gladstone Rodney was a British artist. He was a leading figure in Britain's BLK Art Group of the 1980s and became recognised as "one of the most innovative and versatile artists of his generation." Rodney's work appropriated images from the mass media, art and popular culture to explore...

, illustrator John Shelley

John Shelley (illustrator)

John Shelley John Shelley John Shelley (ジョン・シェリー）Born 28 June 1959 in Birmingham, is an award winning British-born illustrator, particularly noted for his work in Japan.-Career:...

, video artist Marty St. James, and actress Marjorie Yates

Marjorie Yates

Marjorie Yates is a British actress most famous for her role as Carol Fisher in the Channel 4 drama Shameless.Yates was born in Birmingham, England, and studied at the Bournville College of Art...

.