How a Cambridgeshire woman brought modern art into schools

Each county’s library service stored the artwork – which could be paintings, drawings, sculptures or textiles – and then loaned them out to schools on rotation.

Mr Cantus said the idea was “every term, there would be something fresh to look at”.

“The school could use a painting of, for example, a tractor, to teach about farming, the weather, machinery – or art,” he said.

The scheme caught on and collections of art to lend to schools, external were established by many authorities, including Rochdale, Manchester, Carlisle, Southend, Great Yarmouth, Derbyshire, Lancashire, the West Riding, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.

Mr Cantus said: “Most of the children would never have had the opportunity to go to museums, there were no school trips, so the idea was to bring museum-quality art to schools.