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Summer Courses

Summer Courses are first mentioned in the school’s information leaflet for the year of 1973/74.  The changes that occur in Portuguese society after April 1974, however, lead to an immediate rethinking of all of Ar.Co’s programs and objectives. Only in September 1979 does one hear again of a “summer” course (“Painting?” with Ângelo de Sousa and, in the following year, "Painting" and "Drawing/Painting" with Eduardo Batarda and Jorge Martins respectively). The first Summer Courses programmed in a more systematic way happen in 1990 and are extended throughout two weeks in July (Drawing with Maria João Salema and Cristina Basto; Graphic Design with Jorge Jacinto; Photography with José Soudo and Margarida Dias; History of Art with Maria da Graça Briz: Painting with António Sena; Ceramics with Maria José Oliveira). In 1991, the Summer information bulletin announces 18 hour modules (6 hours weekly) between the 8th and the 26th of July. The offer increases to include Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Drawing, Drawing, History of Art, Jewellery, Photography and Ceramics. On the 20th anniversary of the school, in 1993, a special bulletin announces September Courses at the Quinta de S. Miguel in Almada: Glass (oriented by Richard Meitner and Vincent Ginneke from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, and by Maria Felizol, with the support of Crisal-Cristais de Alcobaça, who sends technical consultants and artisans to Ar.Co); Sculpture in stone (with Graça Costa Cabral and António Campos Rosado); Azulejo (with Maria José Oliveira and Arnold Zimmerman plus the collaboration of João Castelo-Branco, Ana Maria Viegas and Eduardo Nery). The success of the summer programs leads to their systematic programing, clearly in terms different from those in the regular programs: summer courses consist of a brief introduction or “sensitization” to certain materials, techniques, procedures and methodologies. Most courses announced for July of 1995, for example, circumscribe the themes/objectives in practical terms, proposing learning exercises around a problem, a material or a specific outcome: “From the Paper”, “Drawing of the Figure”, “How to Make a Ring”, “Enamel Jewellery”, “The Colour in Photography” and “Institutional Collections of Modern and Contemporary Art in Lisbon”. A Summer Course is thus an occasional experience, motivated by curiosity, which precedes training in areas that (for many participants) will often be exterior to the arts, or more conventional or “official” training in the arts. But the Summer Courses are also, frequently, occasions of “discovery” of Ar.Co’s pedagogy, becoming the entryway for the school’s more substantial programs.


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    Leaflet for Summer Courses, Ar.Co, 1995.

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    Summer Courses 2004. Painting, Ar.Co, Lisbon.

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    Summer Courses 2004. Jewellery, Ar.Co, Lisbon.

  • Large verao 2007 st julians foto claudio melo

    Summer Courses Ar.Co at St. Julian's School, 2007.

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    Summer Courses 2007. Illustration, Ar.Co, Lisbon.

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    Summer Courses 2008. drawing, Ar.Co, Lisbon.

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    Summer Courses 2010. Drawing, Ar.Co, Lisbon.

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    Summer Courses 2011. Illustration, Ar.Co, Lisbon.

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    Summer workshops, "Analogue and Digital Photography I" and "Photography youth workshop" with Luis Murtinha and Arlinda Lopes. Ar.Co, Lisbon. 2014.

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    Summer Courses. Ar.Co, Lisbon, 2015.