History

The National Art School stands on unceded Gadigal land. Long before sandstone walls were raised here, this ridge was a meeting place. A high point between the waters of Waalamooloo, Rushcutters Bay and Warrane. Creativity, making and cultural exchange have been part of this place for countless generations. 

The Country around what is now Darlinghurst was shaped by dry sclerophyll forests, red gums, banksia and heath, opening into grasslands and wetlands to the south and rich fishing grounds to the north. Gadigal families travelled along the walking paths that crossed this hill, gathering food from abundant creeks, fishing from the harbour in nawi (canoes), and sharing stories, culture and ceremony. 

The arrival of the British in 1788 brought profound and immediate upheaval. Disease, dispossession and violence devastated local communities. Early records estimated 1,500 Aboriginal people lived between Broken Bay and Botany Bay; recent research suggests closer to 3,000 – 5,000. Within a year of colonisation, smallpox had killed around half. Yet even in this devastating period, resistance was strong. Pemulwuy, a Bidjigal man from Botany Bay, waged a long guerrilla campaign against the colony from 1788 to 1802, a powerful assertion of sovereignty that remains central to Sydney’s story. 

As colonial settlement expanded, Gadigal people were displaced from this ridge, though communities persisted nearby in Gurrajin (Elizabeth Bay), Potts Point and Waalamooloo well into the 19^th century. These neighbourhoods remained important Aboriginal places long after the frontier violence of the early colony. 

When construction of Darlinghurst Gaol began in 1822, Gadigal and other First Nations people were living in an already transformed landscape. Once the gaol opened in 1841, colonial law brought many Aboriginal people into the prison system. Some were imprisoned for frontier conflicts as colonial expansion pushed inland. Others were incarcerated for acts tied directly to the pressures of navigating a society that had violently altered their world. Some were detained for minor offences. Others were condemned to death, often under deeply unjust conditions. 

At least four Aboriginal men were executed at Darlinghurst – Mogo Gar (1850), John McGrath (1875), Jimmy Governor (1901) and Thomas Moore (1903). Many more served long or hard-labour sentences. Conditions in the gaol were harsh, contributing to illness and death. Yet even here, skill, labour and creativity were present. Some prisoners worked as stonemasons or weavers. In 1876, mats woven by Aboriginal inmates were exhibited internationally in Philadelphia. 

One of the most documented First Peoples prisoners was Jimmy Governor, a Wiradjuri man whose life and persecution have been revisited across literature, film and art. His story continues to resonate – in Stan Grant’s writing, in the artworks of Daniel Boyd, in student responses exhibited on site – a reminder of how the gaol’s history continues to echo through contemporary culture and practice. 

These walls hold many untold stories. Because the heritage of Aboriginal prisoners was often omitted from admission registers, the full picture of First Peoples’ incarceration here remains incomplete. Historians, archivists and communities continue the work of uncovering these histories. 

Alongside this difficult past, the story of First Peoples at the National Art School is also one of creativity, resilience and leadership. Of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who have studied here, many have gone on to shape Australian art. Thainakuith artist Thancoupie is celebrated as a groundbreaking ceramicist. Boomalli founders – including Fiona Foley, Jeffrey Samuels, Fern Martins and Euphemia Bostock – helped redefine contemporary Indigenous art. Karla Dickens credits her time at the National Art School as life-saving, later becoming one of Australia’s most acclaimed artists. 

This legacy continues through the work of Tony Albert, Daniel Boyd, Rubyrose Bancroft, and the collective proppaNOW, who have all exhibited here. Their voices – and the programming, teaching and leadership of NAS’s First Peoples Programs – keep Indigenous creativity and knowledge at the heart of the School’s future. 

Today, the site holds all these histories at once: Gadigal Country, a place of ceremony and connection; a site of incarceration and injustice; and now, a space of learning, making and cultural renewal. The National Art School acknowledges these layered histories and commits to honouring First Peoples’ sovereignty, creativity and continuing presence here, always. 

Forbes Street gate, Darlinghurst Gaol, c1890.

Its layered history gives the National Art School campus a unique atmosphere: a space of making and renewal, where art continues to reshape what this place means. 

The National Art School occupies one of Australia’s oldest and most intact examples of colonial sandstone architecture. Construction of Darlinghurst Gaol began in 1822, using sandstone quarried and carved by convict labour to form the imposing walls that still surround the campus today. Intended to replace Sydney’s overcrowded earlier gaol, the new site sat upon Woolloomooloo Hill, which was at that time the edge of the city and a commanding vantage point overlooking the harbour and settlement below. 

The final plan, designed by colonial architect Mortimer Lewis and Royal Engineer Captain George Barney, followed a radial panopticon plan: a central rotunda with cell blocks radiating outward. The first prisoners arrived in 1841, even as the gaol continued to be built around them. Over the next decades new wings, workshops, watchtowers and administrative buildings expanded the site, creating a dense complex of confinement. 

Life inside was harsh. By the late 19^th century the gaol had become overcrowded and conditions deteriorated. Author Henry Lawson, who served time here, wrote of its psychological weight in One-hundred-and-three. In its 73 years of operation, thousands were incarcerated here. From debtors and petty offenders to notorious bushrangers and the last woman hanged in New South Wales, Louisa Collins. 

Darlinghurst Gaol closed in 1914 and briefly served as a military detention barracks during World War I. When the Army vacated the site in 1921, its buildings were stripped, damaged and out of use. Instead of being demolished, they were repaired and adapted, transforming cells into studios and exercise yards into teaching spaces. 

In 1976 the site was listed by the National Trust, and in 2021 was added to the NSW Heritage Register, recognising the extraordinary cultural significance of this place. Today, the walls that once held people in now hold space open for creative practice, renewal and imagination. 

Our campus stands on Gadigal land in Darlinghurst, Sydney, within the sandstone walls of the former Darlinghurst Gaol. It is a site layered with history, reinvention and creative resilience.  

While NAS has taught here for more than 100 years, its story begins in 1843, when artist John Skinner Prout led some of Sydney’s earliest art classes at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts. 

By 1883, this teaching evolved into the Sydney Technical College, which included a growing Department of Art. In 1922, the department moved into the decommissioned Darlinghurst Gaol, transforming a place once defined by confinement into one of creative possibility. Studios replaced cells, and in the 1920s NAS established its now-distinctive studio-based model of learning, offering a five-year Diploma in Art under Samuel Rowe and renowned English sculptor G. Rayner Hoff. 

Through the 1950s and 60s, NAS grew in reputation and influence. Students who passed through these studios – including Colin Lanceley, Ann Thomson, Elisabeth Cummings, Ken Unsworth, Martin Sharp and Vivienne Binns – would go on to shape Australian art and cultural life. 

The 1970s brought uncertainty, as proposals emerged to move the School off the Darlinghurst site. Staff and supporters fought to remain, but in 1975 part of the art program was relocated to what later became UNSW Art & Design. A smaller School stayed in Darlinghurst, continuing to deliver visual art programs through TAFE with the support of dedicated staff and the newly formed Friends of the National Art School. 

Independence was finally won in 1996, and NAS began offering accredited degrees, ultimately becoming a fully independent tertiary institution in 2009. In 2019, The National Art School was recognised as a State Significant Organisation and granted a 45-year site lease, securing its future. 

Today, we continue to evolve as an independent art school with deep roots, bold ambition and over a century of artists who have made their mark.