ART education has to keep up to date, according to Professor Bruce Ferguson (pictured). The former dean of the school of arts at Columbia University and author of the book Thinking about Exhibitions gave a presentation at the Arts and Islands conference, discussing what a 21st-century art school should be.

‘The world has changed and the place of art has changed radically,’ he said. ‘We need to help artists operate in the real world and we should look at the way we train and produce them.’

He said that an enormous expansion in the art world was visible everywhere.

‘There are huge numbers of fairs, an ever-expanding market, an explosion in private galleries, a plethora of publications, art investors and advisers and the artist has become a hip figure of popular status.’ He gave examples of Hollywood actors playing artists in big-budget films.

‘But the curriculum of art education is often dated and impractical,’ he said.