LEARN SOMETHING NEW!

Badger Press at Bishops Waltham are now taking bookings for their new programme of workshops.  So if you are interested in printing, drypoint, wood engraving and more, see details below or visit their website:

CONTEMPORARY DRYPOINT 5 & 6 February

A weekend workshop offering an opportunity to experiment with modern materials and traditional drypoint techniques to create intaglio prints. Using purpose made acrylic plates, images can be easily transferred and then developed using line and tone.
Fee: £110 Tutor: Mary Stephens

PRINT AND POSSIBILITIES Saturday 12 March

Kirstie Larsen invites you to join her on a wild exploration of print techniques and illustration. Ever drawn a smell, painted a sound, printed puns and poems, created your own font and used it instead of comic sans?  A shot in the arm for your artistic practice and the perfect antidote to serious art. Bring sketchbooks, peculiar objects, cake and a sense of humour.
Fee: £35 Tutor: Kirstie Larsen

WOOD ENGRAVING 19 & 20 March

Enjoy a weekend relief printing using end-grain hardwood blocks in the company of the brilliant Kate Dicker. Exploring work in black line, white line and the creative handling of mid-tone areas. The variety of tools can create multi-textured marks, delicate tones and graphic contrasts and these are unique to this medium. Suitable for beginners and those wishing to expand on their previous experience.
Fee: £110 Tutor: Kate Dicker

Visit www.badgerpress.org for further information.

FOUR YEARS IN VIENNA!

How does four years in Vienna studying for a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts sound to you?  Well, if you meet the criteria and can put together a written project proposal by  18 March you could find yourself in this beautiful city by the end of the year!

More details follow:

The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is offering a doctoral program for research in and as artistic practice. The PhD in Practice is intended to give participants an opportunity to realize their individual art and research projects in a cooperative environment with a decidedly trans-disciplinary and international bent.

In societies increasingly based on economies of 'knowledge', it is crucial for contemporary visual artists to discuss and transform their own respective positions as producers, agents, designers, archivists, and conveyors of those economies, and the politics, aesthetics and affects related to them. The program critically focuses on the consequences of the shifting social role of art and artists by allowing artists in knowledge-based societies to engage in research into these issues. A deliberate emphasis on the epistemological and methodological foundations and prospects of the fine arts, its practitioners, and its audiences is a distinguishing feature of the PhD in Practice program, as is a particular interest in addressing the question of how art practices are and can be related to important issues of contemporary politics and culture.

The PhD in Practice program is designed for a four year duration (240 ECTS credits). Participants should be prepared to take part in seminars and communal meetings in Vienna for at least one week per month during the semester. Over the course of the four years the participants will develop and implement their projects analytically and experimentally in coordination with the academic and artistic team of co-participants and faculty. Trans-disciplinary modes of art production and research are fostered. An annual thematic research focus provides a common platform of discussion and organization. Importantly, the ability to write academic texts, and to conceive, organize, document, and carry out independent research will be developed by supporting participants in a networked, international and trans-disciplinary environment (The Center for Art/Knowledge/CAK).

The PhD in Practice participants have access to the facilities and resources of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and to the institutions and people that form the broader and expanding network of the Center for Art/Knowledge and the future Doctoral School of the Academy. Participants will be given the means to pursue and develop dissertation work resulting in an artistic project and a written component displaying a strong emphasis on methodological reflexivity and documentation. Moreover, participants are expected to take an active part in organizing the program (coordinating workshops, guest lectures, conferences, exhibitions, screenings, etc.).

Entry requirements

Requirements for admission to the PhD in Practice program are: a degree (Magister, MA or diploma) from a recognized University or Academy, and the submission of a portfolio and a written project proposal. Applicants who are already engaged in an artistic or academic career are encouraged to apply.

The application is online only. Applications (to be written in English) must be received by March 18, 2011, following the online application procedure explained on the website of the program (http://www.cak.akbild.ac.at), and should be sent to: phd-in-practice@akbild.ac.at

Further information can be found at http://www.cak.akbild.ac.at

The results of the application process will be published by mid-May 2011.

Admitted candidates will embark on the PhD in Practice program in October 2011.