art, and the school gained a reputation for excellence in both painting and design. Scottish artists who were trained at the Academy include John Brown, Alexander Nasmyth and Andrew Wilson. In 1858, the academy was affiliated to the Science and Art Department in London, known as the "South Kensington system", under which it became the Government School of Art for the city of Edinburgh. A School of Applied Art was also established under this system. The Drawing School became part of a system of schools managed on similar lines, and distinctive teaching practices were lost. In 1903 it amalgamated with the School of Applied Art. In 1907, the Scottish Education Department took over responsibility for the school, and it became Edinburgh College of Art. ECA was officially recognised by the Scottish Government as a Small Specialist Institution for the teaching of art, design and architecture prior to the merger with University of Edinburgh in 2011. From 1968 it was associated with Heriot-Watt University for degree awarding purposes but the validation agreement with Heriot-Watt University was due to end in 2012. In 2004 ECA partnered with the University of Edinburgh for degree awarding purposes, an Academic Federation Agreement to facilitate closer collaboration was put in place between the two institutions in 2007 and they merged in 2011. At the time the merger plan was announced in January 2011, Scottish Government Education Secretary Mike Russell criticised the financial management of ECA. The joint Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) formed in August 2009 as a joint venture between ECA and the University of Edinburgh. The first professorship in an ECA subject area was the Reid Professor of Music, which was created in 1839, with the first holder being Scottish composer John Thomson who conducted the first Reid concert in 1841. The Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art founded some forty years later, the first of its kind in the British Isles and a turning point in the teaching of the History of Art. In 2005, the College joined with Edinburgh Napier University to launch the Screen Academy Scotland, a new centre of excellence in film learning and education. College buildings With the creation of Edinburgh College of Art in 1907, the institution moved to new premises on Lady Lawson Street. Formerly a cattle market, the site lies above the Grassmarket and opposite Edinburgh Castle. The red sandstone main building was