Summer School
A dynamic programme of artistic workshops. Free course for young women (16-22) in and around the Nailsworth area.
Attention aspiring female artists! Our exciting Summer School in August offers a dynamic programme of artistic workshops. During Summer School, you’ll engage with renowned women photographers, delve into exciting modules, and gain invaluable studio experience in our Nailsworth atelier to create personal projects and tell your story. It’s also a great opportunity to meet like-minded people.
Want to explore creativity on your terms? Choose your adventure? Summer School is super-flexible.
- All the modules are standalone – sign up for one or as many as you like.
- If you can only come for 1/2 a module, that’s fine too.
- No experience required.
- All materials provided
- It’s all free
When and Where?
- Starts 1st August – finishes 24th August
- Thursdays to Saturdays, 10:30 to 16:00 with plenty of breaks
- Optional open access sessions (subject to demand)
- Summer School takes place in our museum at Nailsworth Mills (Unit 19, Nailsworth Mills, Avening Road, Nailsworth, Glos. GL6 0BS).
Week 2 – Sustainability
Thursday 8th Landscapes, Trees and Ecology.
Looking at the work of women photographers, including Tessa Traeger, Julia Peck and Mónica Alcázar Duarte, and then creating images – either using the nature around the museum or creating artificial alien landscapes in the atelier.
Friday 9th – Cyanotypes, Alternatives & Experiments
A variety of objects, a variety of techniques and a variety of papers. Experimenting with different non-lens based approaches to photography. There will also be the opportunity to make photographs in the SCOBY lab trying out microscopic photography.
Saturday 10th August – Saving Planet Earth
Looking at some of the women photographers working with environmental themes and then trying out some of the projects proposed by women in 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth (by Hans Ulrich Obrist & Kostas Stasinopoulos).
Week 3 – Photography & Protest
Thursday 15th – Fun with Fluxus
Responding to the prompts in Playground by Elina Brotherus to create work for the exhibition A State of Flux at the end of August.
Friday 16th – Zines
Looking at various art activist projects and some examples of queer zines. After that, it’s make your own zine time!
Saturday 17th August – Textiles for Protest
Creating a manifesto and using photo-montage on textiles to create protest banners.
Week 4 – Research. Collect. Curate.
Thursday 22nd – The Artist’s Sketchbook
Exploring the photo sketchbooks and research diaries of women photographers, followed by creating sketchbooks and collecting materials for inspiring future projects.
Friday 23rd – Delving into the Archive
What can collections tell us? How do you start a collection? Curating 101.
Saturday 24th – Anything Goes
Open access to all the materials and equipment to develop a project or work inspired by one of the workshops. And if this is your first workshop, we’ve got you covered with our Contemporary Arts Generator.
What to expect
Each module is standalone. Each week there’s a different theme and each session explores one aspect of that theme and examines the work of women artists working in those areas. The sessions start with a brief introduction to the topic and thereafter participants undertake a number of practical projects using Canon cameras with the option of combining photography with other techniques such as sublimation printing onto textiles.
Register your interest using the form below – all sessions are free!
Optional Open Access Sessions
Our open access sessions are designed to facilitate your ideas, building on the knowledge gained on the course. We can help you develop your own project, whether that’s for you personally or your portfolio. We encourage you to explore difficult topics and will point you in the direction of Heroines’ objects from our collection who have explored similar concepts! Thanks to Canon and donors of equipment, we have DSLR cameras, backdrops/lighting, art supplies galore and machinery to make art prints, scan 35mm film, stencil screen prints, sublimation printing onto fabrics, use of Adobe software and so on. There is also an opportunity to collaborate with other like minded people your own age.
All Summer School participants will have the chance to sign up to a free weekend workshop in the Autumn with internationally acclaimed visual artist Laura El-Tantawy (exact date TBC).
This project has been made possible through the generous support of the Canon Young People Programme
