College of Fine Arts Trivandrum 4.46

The College of Fine Arts Kerala is a fine arts college located in Thiruvananthapuram (known as Trivandrum during the colonial era), India.HistoryThe college was founded in 1888 by Moolam Thirunal Sir Rama Varma, the Maharaja for the state of Travancore. The college was first known as H. H. The Maharaja’s School of Arts, Travancore. M.R.Madhavan Unnithan was heading the institution during 1920s. He was superintendent during 1920s to 1930s. After him T.S. Seshadri was designated as the superintendent and appointed by the Diwon of Travancre, Sir. C.P. Ramaswami Iyer. Seshadri was a Travancore palace artist who was very famous for oil paintings and portraits.In the beginning the school offered courses for drawing and painting, and three subjects of handicrafts namely ivory work, pottery and smithery. There were a two years junior course and two years senior course. An entrance test was there in freehand drawing even during 1930s. The selected students were given a scholarship of Rs.5/- for the junior course and Rs.7/- for the senior course during 1930s. It was under the department of education and by 1930s, it was brought under the dept of Industries ignoring the protest from the Dept of Education. When University of Travancore came into being it was brought under the University. In 1957, after the formation of first democratically elected government in Kerala, the School of Arts was brought under the Directorate of Technical Education. In 1975, the school was upgraded as the College of Fine Arts and became affiliated with the University of Kerala. In 2001, the college celebrated its silver jubilee year with exhibitions, seminars and workshops.