School of Art facing renewed questions about students’ missing work and art supplies

On October 3, we published a story in which several students from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies accused the school of losing their art supplies and work over the summer break.

A former student has now come forward alleging that the same thing happened to them last year, raising doubts about the school’s claim that this was just a one-off mistake.

The school provides student storage space across most floors of its building. In order to claim a locker, students are expected to write their name on a label and provide their own padlock. 

Although the lockers are allowed to be used over the summer by returning students, when some returned to the school after the break they discovered that their belongings had been removed without warning. 

Isabella Inga, a former Fine Arts student, contacted The Gryphon after reading the story.

“It happened to me last year and no one would listen to me or believe me.”

“I spoke to my tutors and the technical team and they said it had been moved to certain rooms. When I looked in those rooms there was always nothing there.”

“Eventually after a couple of weeks, they said that’s where it would be and if it wasn’t there there was nothing more they could do.”

She says she had approximately £200 worth of art supplies in her locker. 

“It was materials I had been accumulating over the past 4 years of my life.”

“I lost all my acrylic paints and paintbrushes. Additionally spray paints, plaster, fabric, pencils, some oil paints, tote bags full of stuff.”

She claims, like the students affected this year, that she wasn’t told her secured locker would be cleared out.

“They said anything left in the storage chests in the studios would be thrown away but I didn’t have anything in them.”

Like the other students, she says the school said that lockers would be temporarily relocated during the Fine Art final year degree show.

The show, which showcases work by graduating students, temporarily turns classrooms and hallways across the school into an art gallery.

This year the event encompassed painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture, alongside sound, ice and moving image installations.

Isabella says she wasn’t offered any compensation from the school and was instead told she would have to replace the supplies herself if she needed them for her work.

She tells me the incident was one of the factors in her decision to drop out from the University of Leeds last year.

She has since enrolled into another university. 

A University of Leeds spokesperson said: “We were sorry to learn of this incident and we will be contacting the former student about her missing materials, and putting plans in place to avoid a repeat of such incidents.”

One of the students affected this year, Nathaniel Mercer, had a meeting with the head of school after the story by The Gryphon was published.

He says the school has promised to replace supplies which he needs for studio practice but “can’t do anything about the artwork lost.”

Isabella says there has to be change going forward.

She wants an explanation as to what went wrong and what students should do in the future if they are in a position where they have to leave belongings in the school.