National Art School (NAS)

The National Art School, on the site of the former Darlinghurst Gaol, stands on Gadigal land. NAS acknowledges the Gadigal traditional owners on whose lands, water and skies we meet and share. We pay our respects to all Gadigal elders, past and present, and honour the diversity, history and creativity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the beginning. In 1822 building began on Darlinghurst Gaol, one of Sydney’s earliest prisons which opened in 1841 and operated until 1914. Of the many thousands of inmates held here in that time, 76 people were hanged between 1841 and 1907. The National Art School moved into the former gaol buildings in 1922, as part of Sydney Technical College, later East Sydney Technical College. The School gained autonomy as an educational institution in 1996, and became the sole occupant of the Darlinghurst site in 2005.