Various dates
The Atelier Programme
Do you want a private atelier course in a specific discipline? We can arrange one-on-one courses for individuals and tailor group workshops to suit your interests and preferred dates. All 2D and 3D techniques may be taught: drawing in charcoal, pencil or other media; watercolour or gouache; oil or acrylic painting; tempera; fresco; sculpting in stone; clay modelling and many other disciplines.
Mentored Projects and Custom Workshops
In addition to the Atelier Programme, we can also offer custom-tailored individual or group tutorials for those who wish to work on a mentored project or with a tutor in art, writing, or photography. See Tutors page for information on some of the tutors we have worked with in the past; below are some examples of classes we have previously offered. Please contact us with your project or idea for a class, and we will discuss possibilities.
Below are some workshops and masterclasses we have offered in previous years.
WRITING & MULTIMEDIA MASTERCLASSES
Going Solo: A Crash Course in Global Multimedia Reporting
Jason Motlagh
Are you a young journalist eager to make the jump to international reporting — and make a living at it? Too restless to invest the time and money in a traditional journalism education, but unsure of the next steps to take? Or are you a mid-career reporter who wants to diversify your skills to become a more effective multimedia storyteller? Then this course is for you. In this intensive five-day workshop, we will cover the basics of international news reporting, multimedia and video journalism. Working closely with Jason, students will report, shoot and edit a project in the immediate environment that involves a range of digital storytelling skills. The exercise will be a primer for independent and staff journalists seeking maximum versatility in the field. Group and one-on-one sessions will explore how to develop and promote in-depth personal projects, build relationships with news media outlets and deploy an arsenal of digital tools to maintain a steady workflow. Students will leave the course better equipped for the fluid demands of global reporting, with near-term support.
Capturing the Story
Jon Lee Anderson
Was the late Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez a buffoon, a good man, or a catastrophe for his country? What was the secret to Fidel Castro’s extreme longevity in power? What made Muammar Qaddafi tick? What does a dictator keep on his nightstand, and why? Does a terrorist feel guilt? How does one tell the story of a war? Every good story begins by asking the right questions. In bearing witness, do you offer a forensic examination of what fills your senses or do you just recount the plain truth of what you see, hear and smell? These are some of the issues we will address in this intensive masterclass. Whether you write on war, travel, or in some other genre, long-form journalism relies on knowing how to perceive a moment and convey its truth in an honest and deliberate way, just as a photographer does in a snapshot. We’ll look at how to locate the telling detail and how to construct a story structure, dissecting some of my own pieces to see how they are built, discerning the details selected and the structural decisions taken to reach the final form. During the workshop you will be asked to go out, locate a single moment, and report it, situating it in space and time and conveying its significance. In addition to the group work, over the course of the four days each participant will have an extensive private session with me. At the end of the week, you should come away from the week with new tools at your command, a strengthened sense of your aims and abilities, increased confidence in your ability to tell a story, and, hopefully too, a sense of shared purpose and enduring friendship with your fellow participants.
Flash Fiction: A Few Well-Chosen Words
Ann Tashi Slater
Are you wondering how to write stories and get them published? This five-day workshop focuses on the short story, with special attention paid to flash fiction (about 300-1000 words). How to tell a complete, compelling story in so few words? In addition to reading short shorts by well-known authors, we will experiment with techniques and approaches through a range of writing exercises. We’ll also make use of prompts inspired by the village of Noyers sur Serein, with the aim of producing a finished flash by the end of the workshop. The group will meet in the mornings, with the afternoons free for writing, and each participant will have a private session with me. You’ll come away with freshly honed writing skills and renewed inspiration!
Crossing the threshold: writing one’s way into forbidden landscapes of feeling
Carla Drysdale
In this three-day masterclass designed to generate new writing, we will take as our touchstone and guide Rumi’s words The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you./Don’t go back to sleep. How do we cross Rumi’s doorsill where the two worlds touch to access these secrets, often hidden in a landscape of stark feelings like shame, fear, and self-doubt? Through readings, craft talks, writing exercises, and critiquing sessions, you will come away from the weekend with powerful tools to help sustain your writing life. You will venture into new writing territory and produce original and exciting work as you discover how to write the things you were meant to write. This workshop is for those with some writing experience and/or a sense of writing as vocation. You do not need to have been published to participate.To apply, please complete the short application, and submit either three to five poems or 1000 words of fiction or creative non-fiction.
ART WORKSHOPS & MASTERCLASSES
Painting Portraits from the Model
Stacy Kamin
We are delighted to offer a painting workshop led by the accomplished painter Stacy Kamin. Not only is she blessed with an extraordinary talent, but she is a natural teacher who excels at imparting technical knowledge and inspiring students. Her patience, generosity and sense of joie de vivre encourage a relaxed atmosphere, making learning a pleasure. In this workshop, a maximum of ten students will learn a direct approach for painting a portrait from life, with a model to paint from daily . The fundamentals of painting to be taught will include:
• composition
• organising the palette; choosing colours
• colour mixing
• value studies
• the application of paint
• the indication of shapes — the key to simplification
• when to use hard or soft edges
• exploring colour: how to see accurate colour relationships; colour theory basics; how to see colour temperature (learn how to paint the colour of the light)
• how to make beautiful, lively brush strokes
• portrait construction via planes and values
Stacy will give demonstrations and offer individual instruction with one-on-one critiques, teaching a variety of techniques for producing a convincing head or figure study. Students will undertake thorough investigation of the forms of the head and learn how to make them come together as an integrated whole. Instruction will focus on drawing, values, edges, planes of the head and composition. Finally, students will learn about concept, or how to develop a visual idea. www.stacykamin.com
Painting a Story: The Materials & Methods of Art
Mia Funk
What stories, myths and archetypes capture your imagination? Drawing upon personal narrative or collective stories to provide meaningful content and layers for our visual work, in this workshop we will focus on the use of traditional painting techniques to produce resonant contemporary work that draws upon a classical foundation of materials and methods. My own working practice centres strongly on oil painting with an accompanying use of watercolour, pastel, gouache, acrylic, succhi d’herba, charcoal, and ink painting. Under my guidance, students of varying levels of expertise will concentrate on the particular techniques each wishes to learn or develop. Where relevant, we will work also with digital imaging technologies. A strong believer in the hand-made, I also believe that improving one’s acquaintance with contemporary technologies can be an enormous aid to creating surprising and innovative works. Valuable not only for speeding up parts of the process of creation, these technologies can offer a fast track to picturing different possibilties for your compositions. Students may work from imagination, from life or from photos.There will be ample opportunity for one-on-one tutoring. Participants should come away from the workshop with a renewed excitement and sense of vision for inspired creative work along with a heightened understanding of how to achieve it through the canny use of traditional and contemporary materials and methods. All levels of artistic experience are welcome.
Learn to Make a Bojagi (Korean Wrapping Cloth)
Kum Joo Ahn
In Korean, bojagi means wrapping cloth. Bojagi have been in use for many centuries to wrap, cover, store, and carry objects small and large, ordinary and precious. Used for practical and aesthetic reasons, these humble items also have a symbolic presence, linked to good fortune. Bojagi vary in size and materials according to their intended use, but they are generally square or rectangular in shape. In May 2015 in Seoul, Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel Cruise collection integrated the techniques and vivid colours of bojagi and other Korean textile traditions. In this workshop I will display hand-sewn and hand-embroidered traditional and modern works, some hand-dyed with plants and flowers. You will learn to sew a Chogak bojagi (a patchwork wrapping cloth with lining). A bojagi is meditative to make and offers an ecological alternative to disposable bags. The workshop will be taught in English, with informal French translation.
FOOD WORKSHOPS & MASTERCLASSES
The Art of Making Bonbons
A Chocolate Workshop with Alexandra Whisnant
Learn to make artisanal ganache bonbons in this intensive three-day workshop led by a master chocolatière. Express your creativity using locally-sourced ingredients to produce your own delectable hand-dipped ganaches. You will learn a variety of techniques, including how to balance flavours, how to make ganache by feel (without a recipe), how to temper chocolate without a thermometer, and how to hand-dip chocolates. Along the way we will wander through the fascinating history of chocolate, looking at different regional styles and techniques. Through carefully curated tastings, we will explore the flavour profiles found in chocolate today.
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