Dates: Saturday 24th to Saturday 31st October 2020
Venue: Fattoria Di Castiglionchio, Florence
The Italian Art Education Tour has been a highly successful sixth-form and teachers project since 1984, with coverage on Italian and English television and exhibitions of the work in London, Florence and Montreal. Many students have used this experience to gain places at Ruskin, Oxford and the Royal Academy, London. This year’s ‘Young Artists in Tuscany’ promises to build on these achievements.
We are able to offer students and teachers the unique opportunity to study and work in Tuscany, probably the most loved region of all Italy. With its glorious Renaissance capital, Florence is enclosed by soft hills of olive groves and cypress trees, dotted with splendid Medici Palaces and villas. Italy is the jewel of Europe; an idolised country, which still faithfully reflects the landscape, depicted as background to Piero Della Francesca and Lorenzetti masterpieces. This landscape has hardly changed. Castiglionchio, as the name itself suggests, is an ancient, fortified settlement halfway up the hillside in a small valley just outside Florence. It is a house with a tower in the middle of a wine estate with various studio spaces, restaurant and a swimming pool. The older-style apartments are all similarly structured, each with a sitting and dining area, bedroom(s) and bathroom. Students and course members will share each apartment.
It should be noted that this year’s course will be of 8 days’ duration, plus a Saturday preparation workshop at a Cheshire venue to be confirmed, prior to departure. The course is excellent value for money and takes in major galleries and churches, plus three days for practical work on location. This should enable each student the opportunity to accumulate a body of work for examination purposes to develop back at school or during the free practical weekend workshop at a venue to be confirmed.
The practical work will run alongside organised visits to see the works of the Italian Renaissance. Visits to Sansepolcro, Siena, Florence, San Gimignano, etc. will reveal the world’s finest masterpieces by Giotto, Piero, Raphael, Duccio, Benozzo Gozzoli and others, some housed in the art galleries, others in beautiful churches and cathedrals. Students will use notebooks and sketchbooks to record, from first hand experience, their personal responses to the Renaissance works of art, thus developing their critical appraisal skills and adding to their knowledge and understanding of the theory and practice of art.
Teachers and/or artists will direct the three days’ practical work; lectures and seminars will be held in the evening. Students will also be asked to complete preparatory tasks prior to departure.
The cost will include flights, bed, breakfast, lunch and evening meal (in the Fattoria), plus all coach transport in Italy along with basic materials and equipment. Entrance to galleries (approx. £40) is not included. On one of the three days out, students will be expected to purchase a snack lunch.
As in previous years, places on this course are limited and students will be interviewed.
Note: There will be an additional commitment to the following date for pre-Tuscany preparation on Saturday 19th September.
There will be an exhibition in the first or second week of December 2020.
COST: £1040 (plus travel insurance)
An initial non-refundable deposit of £200 will need to be made within 7 days of your place being confirmed. A second payment of £280 will be required by the 29th May and a third payment of £280 by the 31st July. The final payment of £280 should be made by the 18th September. This will mean the total cost of the course is £1040.
Additionally, students will be required to purchase their own travel insurance.
For information email: laura.burkhill@edsential.co.uk
Applications need to be submitted by 9:00am on Monday 9th March 2020.
Applicants will only be invited for interview on the receipt of a satisfactory reference from the Head of Art at their school.
Interviews will be on Saturday the 14th March, 2020 at Chester University, Faculty of Arts and Media, Kingsway, Chester, CH2 2LB.