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School

School

An old boat yard on the harbour arm, four studios, a foundry, a darkroom and one very long wall. Since 1997.

How it started

In 1997 a painter called Coraline Thornquist rented a leaking boat store on the harbour, put four easels in it and advertised for students in the local paper. Three came. One of them still teaches here.

The school grew a studio at a time, as the boat yard emptied out. The print shed came in 2004, the foundry in 2011, the darkroom in 2016. We never grew the class size.

The rooms

A painting studio full of easels and canvases
Studio A

North light, twelve walls, the life room behind a curtain.

A student at a screen printing table
The print shed

Three presses, a screen room and the type wall.

A sculptor carving in the workshop
The yard

Modelling stands, a plaster room, two kilns and a foundry.

A long gallery with paintings along both walls
The long wall

Forty metres of plywood, repainted white every summer.

What we believe

  • Small rooms

    Twelve to a studio, so a tutor can know every piece of work by name.

  • Hands first

    Every process is learned by hand before a screen is allowed near it.

  • Say it out loud

    Work gets better when it is talked about, kindly and honestly, every week.

  • 12students in every studio
  • 1997the year we opened the yard
  • 60+crits in two years

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.