the Canterbury College of Art at this time was the number of former-Leeds College of Art tutors and students who started working there. This arose from Thomas Watt being made Head of Fine Art at Canterbury in 1968, Watt having previously been a teaching colleague of Harry Thubron at Leeds College of Art. Under Watt the radical Leeds teaching methods developed by Thubron were imported into Canterbury through the employment of other artists from Leeds, such as Stass Paraskos, Tom Pemberton and Dennis Creffield. Another key member of staff was Eric Hurren, who led the Foundation Course in Art and Design from 1963 to 1988. The merger of institutions to create KIAD was not without controversy and was effectively imposed on Kent County Council by the central government's National Advisory Board for education. This was in spite of concerted opposition from the County Council, the colleges concerned, the local Member of Parliament, David Crouch, and a large number of figures in the art world at the time, who petitioned Parliament. In the government's original proposal the intention was to merge the colleges and then close at least one of them. The creation of KIAD was, effectively, a compromise solution that saw duplicate courses at the different sites closed, but the individual colleges themselves remained open. One of the ironies of the history of Canterbury College of Art is that the original home of the art school, in Cooper's house, again became a place for teaching art in 2004 when another educational institution in the city, Canterbury Christ Church University, used the building to house its fine art faculty. Notable alumni and staff Students Wale Adeyemi, fashion designer Jal Patel, Published Author Charlie Adlard, comic book artist Justin Bere, architect Billy Childish, foundation 1977 (who was banned from the Rochester site at Fort Pitt in the Medway Towns in 1981 for publishing "obscene" poetry) Babette Cole, children's writer and illustrator Sharon Bennett, English illustrator, designer, artist and author John Copnall, abstract artist and teacher, Wendy Dagworthy OBE, fashion designer, Royal College of Art professor Roger Dean, artist Marcus Dillistone, Royal premiered film director, music producer Athens 2004 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies Tracey Emin, 1999 Turner Prize nominee Clive Evans, known as "Clive", London couture designer of the 1960s Lizzie Farey, wood artist Brian Froud, fantasy artist Gordon Frickers, marine artist Lasse Gjertsen, videographer Jackie Hatfield, artist and writer Tony Hart,