£4.5m art and design block has been opened at Bedales School in Steep.

The two-storey timber-clad building combines all the art and design disciplines under one roof – painting and fashion, industrial design and sculpture, woodwork, jewellery, ceramics, print-making, sculpting and drawing.

The school raised £1,157,000 towards the building, designed by architects at the Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

Students from the three Bedales schools and a past student cut ribbons to open the new building on Saturday, June 23.

Bedales headteacher Keith Budge said: “This marks an exciting new chapter in Bedales’ Art and Crafts heritage. The event was a wonderfully fitting finale to the construction project which has enjoyed such fantastic collaboration between all those who helped create this beautiful new building, for which the school is immensely grateful.

“I particularly enjoyed our students’ involvement in the celebration: Bedales musicians provided a suitably inspiring start and it was fitting for one of our former students, Katie Shannon, to represent the Old Bedalian community – as a sixth former she led the student consultation for the building.”