Originally founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Government School of Design, it officially changed its name to The Glasgow School of Art in 1853 before it moved from its original home in Ingram Street to the McLellan Galleries in Sauchiehall Street in 1869.
Work on its famous home on Renfrew, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and destroyed twice by fire in recent years, started in 1887 thanks to a donation from the Bellahouston Trust.
Since then the school has expanded to a number of other buildings in Glasgow, organised into five distict academic schools covering architecture, design, fine art, simulation and visualisation, and innovation.
The Glasgow School of Art has been particularly successful in producing leading contemporary artists including, since 2005, an amazing 30 per cent of recent Turner Prize winners (the so-called ‘Glasgow Miracle’). Simon Starling won in 2005, followed by Richard Wright in 2009, Martin Boyce in 2011, Duncan Campbell in 2014, and Charlotte Prodger in 2018.
Highly-rated internationally, the school was named the 11th best educational establishments for art and design in the world.
Here are 10 famous faces that have studied at the school over the years, though not all graduated.
. GSA
The Glasgow School of Art has no shortage of famous former students. Photo: Canva/Getty Images
. Peter Capaldi
Peter Capaldi formed a punk band called The Dreamboys with future American chat show host Craig Ferguson while he was studying at Glasgow School of Art. He got his big break in legendary Scottish film Local Hero and since then has starred in over 40 movies and televsion programmes, including as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and the titular lead role in Doctor Who. Photo: Anthony Harvey
1. Robbie Coltrane
Beloved for his portrayal of Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, the sorely-missed Robbie Coltrane attended the Glasgow School of Art in the early 70s. A huge figure in the worlds of Scottish television and film, his many appearances included Cracker, The Young Ones, Blackadder and Tutti Frutti - along with the James Bond films Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough. Photo: Ian Gavan
2. Alasdair Gray
Author and artist Gray originally studied at Glasgow School of Art, from 1952-57, and it was whilst there he began to write sections of what would later become his most critically acclaimed novel, Lanark, published in 1981. Photo: Geraint Lewis/Shutterstock
3. John Byrne
Paisley-born artist and playwright John Byrne graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1963. He went on to create the BBC Scotland series Tutti Frutti, which starred another Art School student, Robbie Coltrane - scenes from the series were filmed in the library of the Mackintosh building. Photo: Neil Hanna/TSPL
