Description

The International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy offers intensive studio programs for developing painters and sculptors from around the world. Distinguished artists teach and critique, and visiting artists and scholars lecture. Students work full-time in their studios and classes, and take weekly trips to study and draw from the great art of Italy. Students, residents and faculty live and work in Montecastello di Vibio, a hill town in Umbria, one of Italy's most beautiful regions.

The School is one of a very few of its kind: a school of modern art with in-depth training in drawing, painting, and sculpture. Enrollment is limited to about twenty-five students per session, with a 5:1 student/teacher ratio. This positive and intimate environment offers students substantial contact, both formal and informal, with faculty mentors.

Thanks to our dynamic faculty, students come from all over the world. International School artists are of diverse ages and backgrounds: they include undergraduate and graduate art students from premier art schools, artists considering an MFA program, postgraduates, art professors, and working artists. The International School is an ideal environment in which developing artists can completely devote themselves to working and learning. The time spent working at the school has always been extremely productive and conducive for breakthroughs, for students and faculty alike.

Highlights

* Our Location in Umbria:

Overlooking the lush Tiber River valley, Montecastello di Vibio is a hill town in central Italy, in the province of Perugia. Halfway between Rome and Florence, our location provides students the chance to see first hand some of the world's greatest art. Montecastello is a safe and friendly town, very favorable to painting. The village is not a tourist town. It has hosted the International School for the last 20 years, and the people in the community are very supportive of of painters and students. The town is situated on top of a 400 meter high hill and is surrounded by a breathtaking landscape. The light is unique, and the weather is mild.

* The School:

Students can work full time in well-lit studios, as well as participate in offered classes and work from the landscape if they wish. Experienced models are available as needed. Faculty teach in offered classes as well as meeting individually with students. Each student is assigned a private or semi-private studio to study, and develop their own personal work. Studios are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Art materials are available locally in close proximity to the school.

In the evenings, visiting artists and faculty give slide lectures on their work, lead open discussions and readings, as well as give preparatory talks for art study trips. Students participate in the slide talks, and group and final critiques.

The School emphasizes the importance of drawing as the foundation for the development of one's individual work. Students may draw or sculpt from the model or in the landscape in three-hour classes, four afternoons a week, and in the mornings paint in the landscape or from the model in four-hour classes. On non-teaching days, students are strongly encouraged to work independently. Students have 24-hour access to their studios for independent studio practice, in a safe and work-conducive environment at the school. Or they may paint outdoors in the beautiful Italian light. Instructors teach at least twice a week and are accessible for individual consultations and critiques.

Fridays are trip days to Italy's cities of art, to study and draw from the great art of the past. Students may use the International School's extensive art library, and video collection, and have 24-hour access to a telephone, Wi-Fi, and computers with broadband DSL Internet.

Because of the close and communal nature of the school, students and faculty have constant interaction during meals, slide talks, trips, as well as in the open air piazzas in the town, where students, faculty and townspeople congregate. There are frequent slide talks and lectures in the evenings, as well as group critiques with faculty members. A final group critique with faculty and the students, and a final exhibition in the school's gallery, which will be attended by local artists and people from the surrounding area, formally concludes the program.

* Artist's Residency: For artists who wish to work independently in a community of artists.

The Residency program provides the ideal combination of seclusion and community in a setting of breathtaking beauty. Artists can work intensively and independently for three or more weeks in a supportive, inspiring environment. A distinguished visiting artist or member of the School faculty joins us as Senior Artist in Residence and studio critic, and a model poses for open drawing sessions. Visiting artists critique and lecturers provide preparatory talks for the weekly trips to Italy's cities of art, which inspire and inform the work in the studio. The Residency Program also enables students to continue to work and progress independently.

CE (Continuing Education): It is designed for adults with some background in art who want to create more time in their lives to paint and draw, or to deepen their engagement. This program offers shorter term instructional sessions, and is appropriate for people whose involvement with art was interrupted or limited by career or family demands, but who are eager to begin to study and practice again with our outstanding faculty. Advanced students and professional artists are also welcome in the CE Program.

CE students explore and enrich their interest in art, working and living in the heart of Italy, surrounded by a landscape of unparalleled beauty, in close proximity to great masterpieces of art and architecture. The emphasis is on work in the landscape and the studio, with classes in drawing and painting, and weekly trips to Italy's cities of art. After-dinner talks by our eminent lecturers and visiting artists enhance the program. The CE fee includes a single room.

Degree Level

Bachelors Degree (Undergraduate)

Subject Areas

• Art/fine Arts
• Arts
• Drawing
• Painting
• Sculpture

Cost in US$:

6 weeks: Euro 4800; 3 weeks: Euro 2500

Program Fees Include:

- tuition
- studio space
- room
- three meals a day
- group trips
- ground transportation from and to Rome on the first and last day of each session

The additional charge for a single room, when available, is 100 Euro per week.

Experience Required

yes

Candidates should submit the completed application form, a non-refundable application fee of USD 40 (or 40 Euro), letters of recommendation from two people who know your character and your work (preferably current or former teachers for School applicants), 12 slides, photos, or a CD of your recent work. School applicants should include at least four slides of drawings.

This Program is open to

Worldwide Participants.

Typical Living Arrangements

• Apartment/Flat
• Group living

Participants Travel

Independently or in Groups

Typically Participants Work

Independently or in Groups of 15

Scholarships are Available

There are some work-study opportunities to FORMER students. If you are a former student and are interested, please contact the school.

Application Process Involves

• Written Application
• Other
• Essay

Typically The Application Process Time is

2 weeks

Post Services Include

• Alumni Network

International School of Painting Drawing and Sculpture's Mission Statement

The International School is an ideal environment in which developing artists can completely devote themselves to working and learning. Montecastello, a beautifully preserved medieval hill town halfway between Rome and Florence, is a safe and friendly town, very favorable to painting. Centrally located in Italy, and only 2 hours drive from Rome and Florence, and less than an hour from Assisi, Montecastello provides students the chance to see first hand some of the western world's greatest art. Art in Italy is not just decoration, and it is certainly not a commodity. You have to experience it here to understand: it permeates the air, it infuses the light, and it even flavors the food. Imagine going to your local church each week and praying under a Caravaggio painting, a work that was painted four hundred years ago for the space you are standing in. In a nearby caffè, you can stand in the spot where Bernini contemplated, musing over the story of the buildings in the piazza, thinking about his next fountain, or sculpture. You walk down the same streets that so many artists throughout the centuries have walked: Giotto, Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Michelangelo; the giants of the Renaissance. They also came to admire and study the work of the ancients, the work of the Roman and Greek geniuses, unequaled in quality, from the 6th century BC to today. An artist today may feel compelled to create something new. But we own the past, it is not something that is separate from us. To embrace and absorb. That is Enlightenment, writes Milarepa, the eleventh-century Buddhist poet and saint. We have inherited the entire history and knowledge of art before us. You belong to a tradition. Italy is the fountain.

Year Founded

2001