International Exchanges
The network of international contacts that Ar.Co is slowly building with similar entities sees a significant improvement, both in terms of quantity and of quality, with the birth of AIAS in 1990. From that moment on, contacts and exchanges of students and teachers grow at an accelerated pace. A decade later, however, Ar.Co’s philosophy is to privilege quality over quantity, resisting the temptation to see in the import of foreign student an opportunity for easy tuition income: adequate partners are identified bilateraly - not necessarily a school, but a specific department of that school, or more than one - and the exchanges follow the departments’ conveniences, interests, styles and capabilities. Some programs are financed by specific institutions: exchanges with the Royal College of Art (the Lisbon Studio/London Studio) are sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation between 1991 and 1995; visiting professors from UMASS-University of Massachussets-Dartmouth and from the Experimental Glass workshop are sponsored by the Luso-American Foundation in 1988, 1989 and 1990 (the program being ruled, between 1996 and 2000, by a protocol that also considers students and is extended to include the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the School of Visual Arts, N.Y.); The Fundação Oriente will finance traineeships at Ar.Co of students from Macao and China in 1990, 1991 and 1992 (a protocol agreement, signed in 1999, will also allow Ar.Co’s students to develop projects in Orient countries). Whether they be occasional or extended in time through agreements the great number of international exchanges with schools and centres play a crucial role in Ar.Co’s life and in the departments’ training options. In this context, other important entities deserve to be mentioned: the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax; the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam; the Escola Massana of Barcelona; the École Nationale d’Art Décoratif de Limoges; the Estonian Academy of Arts from Tallinn; the Haute École d’Art et de Design of Geneva; the École Des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg; the Dusseldorf Fachhoschüle; the Stockholm Konstfack University College of Arts, Craft and Design; the SHKS – Statens Handverks-og Kunstindustriskole in Oslo; the South Carelia University of Applied Sciences of Lappeenranta or the Tokyo Hiko Mizzuno College of Jewellery.
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Andrew Mansfoeld: internship at Ar.Co via Southern Arts Association, with the support of Gulbenkian Foundation. 1987.
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Julie Livsey working at Ar.Co. Exchange with Southern Arts Association, 1988.
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Terry Davidson from the Experimental Glass Workshop, N.Y., invited to the International Glass Seminar, Ar.Co, Almada, 1991.
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Signing the collaboration agreement with UMASS-University of Massachussets, Dartmouth, USA. 1994.
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Information sheet - Fundação Oriente Grants, 1999
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Ted Noten and students during workshop/project "The Chain of Lissabon", Ar.Co's Jewellery department, 2000.
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Christopher Gustin and Arnold Zimmerman at Ar.Co's Ceramics department, Almada, 1988.
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Work by Masayuki Inoue, Tama Art University, Tokyo, during his workshop at Ar.Co's Ceramics department in 1990.
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Participation of Ar.Co's Jewellery department in the "Flags" workshop. Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, 2007.
