Head of Painting
Ilsabet Moravec
Paints very large and very slowly. Shows with a gallery in Antwerp.
“Stop being careful in week one. You can be careful in year two.”
Independent school of art & design
Next open daySat 6 MarchGesso
Two-year studio programmes in painting, print, sculpture and photography. Twelve students to a studio, a crit every Friday, and a wall that is never empty.
The school
We teach art the way it is actually made: slowly, by hand, in a room with other people, with honest crits every week. No lecture halls, no online modules. A studio, a wall and a tutor who knows your work.
this is the whole method
- 12students in every studio
- 1997the year we opened the yard
- 60+crits in two years
Programmes
Four studios, one wall
Every programme runs for two years, full time, in its own studio. You can cross into any other studio on Wednesdays.
The crit wall
Pinned up this term
Every Friday each student pins up the week's work. Here is what is on the wall right now. Drag the prints around, the tape holds.
A week at Gesso
How a week runs
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Mon
Studio day
Long day in your own studio. Tutors walk the room, nobody lectures.
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Tue
Technique
One craft, taught properly: stretching a canvas, mixing an etching ground, loading a film.
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Wed
Open doors
Every studio is open to everyone. Print students paint, painters cast.
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Thu
Visiting artist
A working artist spends the day with you and leaves a brief.
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Fri
Crit
Everything goes on the wall. Two hours, everyone talks, nobody hides.
Tutors
Taught by people who still make work
All our tutors keep a studio practice. Most of them have a show on somewhere while they teach you.
Head of Print & Type
Yusuf Achterberg
Letterpress printer and publisher of small, loud books. Has ink under every nail.
“Print thirty. The twenty-ninth is the one you will keep.”
Head of Sculpture & Clay
Anselm Kreutz
Casts in bronze, carves in stone and runs the yard foundry twice a year.
“Walk round it. If it only works from the front, it is a picture.”
Head of Photography
Noor Sandvik
Documentary photographer, three books, still prints every one of her pictures by hand.
“Twelve frames on a roll. Make each one cost you something.”
Open days
Come and see the wall
Walk the studios, sit in on a crit and bring a portfolio if you have one. Places are small, so we ask you to book.
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6 MarSaturday
Open day10:00 to 14:00
18 places left
Book a place -
19 MarThursday
Evening crit, sit in18:00 to 20:00
8 places left
Book a place -
10 AprSaturday
Portfolio review10:00 to 16:00
Full, waiting list
Book a place -
15 MayFriday
Degree show preview17:00 to 21:00
40 places left
Book a place
The first crit I wanted to leave. By the third I could not wait for Friday. Two years later I still pin everything up before I trust it.
Applications open
Pin your work up with us
Applications for September close on 30 April. Send a few images of what you make, then come in for a conversation.
