THE director of Glasgow's School of Art has announced she will leave her post in August next year, after completing 14 years in the job.

Professor Seona Reid has led one of the nation's leading art schools, with alumni laden with arts prizes, since 1999 and will leave several months before the completion of the £50m new academic building which will open in autumn of next year.

Philip Rodney, chair of the governors of the GSA said: "Seona has made an immeasurable contribution as director of the GSA and her outstanding leadership of the school, reflected in the current standing of the GSA nationally and internationally, is testimony to that."

Professor Reid will officially retire on August 31 next year and a search process for her successor will begin this week.

She said: "Walking into my office in the Mackintosh Building always reminds me what a joy it is to lead the Glasgow School of Art.

"Some of the rewards are physical and visible – our new Steven Holl [designed] building and the endless inventiveness of the work in the annual Degree Show, for example – but some of it is simply the knowledge of the success of our staff and students and the tremendous impact they are making on cultural, social and economic life."

The Holl building, which is under construction, has met some unfavourable responses but will perhaps be seen as Professor Reid's biggest contribution to the school, although she also oversaw an £8.7m project to conserve the main Mackintosh building, its collections and archives, at the centre of the Garnethill estate.