During colonial times To train art teachers for British-administered public schools of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, a Department of Arts was introduced in 1930 in the Bakhtalruda Teachers Institute. This was incorporated in the Institute of Education of the former
Gordon Memorial College in 1943, and in 1945, a School of Design was established. Jean-Pierre Greenlaw, a British art teacher, became the first director of this school and became an influential figure in the country's artistic scene. In 1951, the school was moved to the Khartoum Technical Institute, and in 1971, it became the College of Fine and Applied Art in the
Sudan University of Science and Technology (SUST). From the beginning, the school was set up in the tradition of British
art schools, offering courses in theoretical and
applied arts in carpentry, architecture, painting, geometry and design. Its aim was to produce teachers for secondary schools and
vocational training. From 1963 to 1977, professors and teachers from the
Royal College of Arts, the
Central School of Art and Design and the
Slade School of Fine Art in the United Kingdom served as members of the evaluation committees and
external examiners.
After independence After the country's independence in 1956, the first Sudanese artists trained at the school continued their studies in the United Kingdom, with some of them later becoming teachers at the college. After the School of Design had opened in 1945 and up to the 1970s, an early generation of visual artists emerged, who incorporated both African and Islamic art traditions as well as inspiration by western
modern art movements, trying to find their own Sudanese visual identity. In the 1960s,
calligrapher Osman Waqialla started an artistic movement later known as the Khartoum School of Modernist art, with
Ibrahim El-Salahi,
Ahmed Shibrain and
Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq becoming internationally known Sudanese artists. Among other notable Sudanese artists who studied or taught at the college are
Hassan Musa, Muhammad Omer Khalil, Musa Khalifa,
Mo Abarro and
Rashid Diab. In 1978, a modern complex for the college was designed by Sudanese architects Abdel Moneim Mustafa Ayoub and Omer Salim. It was constructed for approximately 600 students, with spaces for teaching, practical classes, administrative, social and residential facilities, with surrounding open spaces for exhibitions and recreational use. Following the military governments under
Omar al-Bashir and their
Islamist orientation, artists and artistic scenes suffered from a 30-year long period of very difficult political and economic constraints. Among other factors, this was marked by many artists leaving the country, US-imposed sanctions, and the closing of many western embassies in the 1990s. The college budget and conditions for appointing teachers and training students severely suffered during this period, with standards of teachers' qualification and for admission of new students falling. Even though the college continued to exist, many young Sudanese artists had to develop their art in a socially restricted environment and were practically cut off from artistic innovation in the rest of the world.
21st century In the 21st century, the college is still suffering from inadequate budgets and a shortage of teaching materials and staff. Responding to contemporary developments and needs of the society, it strives to embed its teaching of modern art and design technologies in programmes of
sustainable development. This includes artistic training for documenting and reflecting social issues such as public health. It also sees itself as a regional resource centre for
Afro-Arab arts. The different undergraduate courses offer specializations in painting, sculpture, graphic design, calligraphy, drawing, ceramic, textile, interior and industrial design as well as in printing and book binding. As Sudanese academic Ahmad Sikainga wrote in 2012,
modern art movements in Sudan and their social background have not attracted much analysis by
art historians. During the
Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19, however, the role of artists has been reported more often in international media. Before, during and after the revolution, artists have creatively expressed their views on society and politics, while this expression had been severely limited by the former government of Omar al Bashir. As an expression of their participation in the
ongoing protests against the
military government since 2019, students of the college exhibited a memorial sculpture representing the slogans
Freedom, Peace and Justice. In September 2021, the Documentation Centre of the college completed a training course for visual documentation in cooperation with the
Sudan Memory programme and the
British Museum. During the closing ceremony, professor Omer Mohamed Elhassan Darma paid tribute to the fighters and martyrs of the December revolution and said, "the students of the College of Fine and Applied Art played important roles through murals and wall drawings that reflected stories and details of the struggle of revolutionists". == See also ==