The Glasgow School of Art has no shortage of famous former students.The Glasgow School of Art has no shortage of famous former students.
The Glasgow School of Art has no shortage of famous former students.

Famous Glasgow School of Art Graduates: Here are 10 well-known faces who studied at the art school - from Peter Capaldi to Frank Quitely

It’s produced the majority of Scotland’s leading contemporary artists – along with no shortage of musicians, actors and media figures.

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.

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.

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