Blank Canvas

A contemporary and historical look at the relationship between art and music within education in the United Kingdom.

Art school Britain in the 1960s and ’70s was a hotbed of experimental DIY creativity that blurred the lines between art and music. In Blank Canvas, multi-genre musician and university lecturer Simon Strange paints a picture of the diverse range of people who broke down the barriers between art, life, and the creative self.

Tracing lines from the Bauhaus “blank slate” through the white heat of the Velvet Underground and the cutting edge of the Slits, Blank Canvas draws on interviews with giants of the genre across the spectrums of music, gender, and race, from Brian Eno to Pauline Black, Cabaret Voltaire to Gaye Advert. What emerges is a portrait of the era as an eclectic range of musical styles and cultures fused, erupting into a diverse flow of outspoken originality.

Providing a framework for creativity within the arts and education, the book illuminates a path for the cultural evolution of both musicians and artists hoping to create the future.