Today's School traces its lineage directly back to 2nd July, 1884, when W.H. Charpentier's private School of Art opened in the old Mechanics' Institute building in Melville Street. Charpentier's School was founded squarely on the principles of the vocationally-oriented 'South Kensington system', which conceived of fine art and design education as an interdependent, indissoluble whole. The rationale put forward by its head, Henry Cole, was that by educating the general public in art they would 'demand good design in manufactures and be willing to pay for them'.
The South Kensington system's promotion of the twin objectives of cultural and economic development had strong appeal in 1880s Tasmania, which was seeking to build an autonomous manufacturing base of its own at the same time as transforming the colony's cultural life.
The twin social objectives of cultural and material development for Tasmania are fundamental guiding principles in the School's perceived mission today. The School of Art plays a unique role in Tasmanian society.
Charpentier's school impressed the then newly-elected Tasmanian Government of 1887 such that with Charpentier's own encouragement, it took over his school 'lock, stock and barrel', renaming it the Government Technical School. This institution in turn, was to be renamed the Hobart Technical College, within which the Art Department continued to flourish for 75 years. An oasis in an artistic desert, the Art Department constituted the major point of reference vis-a-vis the visual arts in Hobart. William Moore, in his seminal The Story of Australian Art (1934) highly praised the school, presenting it as a significant entity in the national artistic scene
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