Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art

Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art is an Indian applied art institution based in Mumbai. It is a state government college that was created through its sister school, the Sir J. J. School of Art. The "Sir J. J." in the name stands for Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy, a Parsi philanthropist whose name is linked to numerous historical institutions of Mumbai, such as the Sir J. J. Hospital. In 1958, Sir J. J. School of Art was divided, with the Departments of Architecture and Applied Art becoming the Sir J. J. College of Architecture and Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art respectively.

The Institute of Applied Art history first began with the founding of its sister school, the Sir J. J. School of Art. The school opened through the help of a donation by Jamsetji Jeejeebhai in 1857.

During the Second World War the school was threatened with closure. At the time the school was run by the British Bombay government and its funding came directly from the government. In preparation for the looming war many committees were set up to review excess government expenditure and divert money to defense needs. The close scrutiny of one such "Thomas Committee" fell on the Sir J. J. School of Art. The committee recommended that the school be shut down, claiming that it only contributed to furthering personal talents of artists and was of no use to society in general.

The director of the J. J. School of Art set out to rectify the situation. In 1935 Mr. Soloman was the dean of J.J. In 1946, J. J. School of Art started a new department, the Commercial Art Section, or CAS. The objective of this division was to impart all of the necessary training in art with an eye on students being able to exploit this training for commercial purposes. A direct contribution of this section was to aid the war preparations of the government by designing propaganda and public awareness posters. This exercise was a huge success. Therefore, the government decided not to shut down the Sir J. J. School of Art. The students trained at the CAS soon found that they were in considerable demand from the commercial industries of Mumbai (then Bombay) to design publicity material. Also, the fledgling advertising industry lapped up talent from the CAS, creating a set of people who would end up being counted among the founders of Indian advertising.

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