Apollo Painting School is an intensive 3-month summer programme designed for UK-based emerging artists with a painting practice. The programme will be accessible by open call and the applications will be reviewed by a judging panel comprised of internationally acclaimed artists and educators.

What does it offer?

The programme is designed to offer a progressive alternative to the traditional schooling system by combining a unique educational experience focussed on building technical skills, introducing knowledge of professional practice and career pathways, with a cultural exchange between the UK and Italy in a post-Brexit era.

The course is delivered by experienced educators, artists, curators and writers with extensive experience both in arts education and the contemporary art market, who will encourage and support a diversity of approaches within painting and its related discourse. 

Based around the development of an individual practice, the core ethos of this programme is to enable students to harness their personal growth and creative ambitions, by acquiring and embedding a deeper understanding of contemporary paintings scope, in relation to the broader cultural realm. 

The programme will provide a series of connected learning experiences that critically develop student’s knowledge of painting by encouraging and supporting a variety of approaches. The main teaching strategies for this practice-based course are delivered through structured lectures, seminars and tutorials, workshops, group critiques and invited Artists talks.

Through these mixed teaching strategies and a period of residency in Italy, experiences will accumulate, enabling students to develop the kind of skills, critical understanding and specialist knowledge required to pursue a rewarding career as an independent artist.

The programme is open for applications from any self-identifying emerging artist with a painting practice based in the UK.

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Who is it for?

Students will gather every Wednesday online and Thursday in person in Manchester for an eight-week programme starting in June 2024, followed by a one month residency in Italy.  All applicants must be prepared to attend the entirety of the programme if selected.

Applicants are welcome from different backgrounds and experience levels. Although there are no educational prerequisites to participate in the programme, applicants must demonstrate in the application that they have been developing a painting practice for at least 3 years. 

All participants must be 21 years of age by the start of the programme and have a valid passport.

Participants will meet for group and individual sessions between June-July in Manchester and August in Italy 2024.

We ask that all participants be prepared to be engaged in conversation (the nature and content of those conversations will be self-determined).

Because the programme focuses on process, experimentation, and an opening up of one’s practice, participants are encouraged to be prepared to work without a preconceived agenda or schedule. We advise against using the time to prepare for an upcoming exhibition and instead come prepared to be open to discovery and develop new conversations.

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Where is it?

MANCHESTER (UK) Based on the principle that making should and does exist across the UK rather than just in the capital, the programme will bring artists to the city of Manchester, which is experiencing a Zeitgeist in painting and where demand for a particular and radical approach is demonstrable there.

Each week students will come together in Manchester. Teaching will take place in different locations there, allowing students to familiarise themselves with the city and embedding themself within its cultural landscape.

ONLINE Each week students will take part in online lectures and Artists talks. Distant learning methods allow students to fit the programme around their life commitments and provide opportunities to invite international academics, art professionals and artists to teach.

LATINA (IT) Italy was selected as a second physical location for the programme as a place of artistic and cultural enrichment. It will also be a site for cultural exchange and for the students to learn about other artistic eco-systems. Students will be in residence at Liceo Artistico (Latina, IT) for one month and will be hosted by local families. 

Latina, a young and rationalist city, situated between Rome and Naples along the coast of the Tyrrhenian sea is well suited with its large spaces to welcome young artists ready for a new experience. Latina, born from a mixture of diverse cultures that over time have discovered balances and synergies, presents itself as an ideal place for new experiments and comparisons. There will be regular open studios where locals will be able to interact with students. Two young artists from the city of Latina will have the opportunity to participate in a two-week residency in Manchester as an important moment of artistic/cultural exchange. 

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Fees

Cost of programme: £3,000 per student

This fee includes the following:

• All travel from the student’s own residence to Manchester weekly during June/July 2024.
• All lectures, seminars, artist talks and site visits (both in Italy and UK).
• Return Flights to Italy.
• Accommodation and Studios for each artist in Italy.
• Materials for production during the residency in Italy.

Apollo Painting School invites applicants from any background and is committed to covering the cost of the programme for those applicants who require financial support. After the Jury has selected the candidates, a request to prove financial status in order to adjust the fee will follow, based on the tier system below. Each candidate will be required to submit evidence such as pay slips and/or tax returns.

3-tiered support system:

• Free - Income below £40,000
• 50% reduction - Income between £41,000 - £60,000
• Full price - Income above £61,000

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2024 Jury

Louise Giovanelli

Dr. Ian Hartshorne

Rachel Jones

Aubrey Levinthal

Henry Ward