Open Courses
The school information brochures of the 1970’s call Open Courses those training units, usually brief and intensive, that do not integrate a sequential, long and continuous studies plan. The format befits an eclectic programming, open to the opportunity of the moment and obviously adequate to a recently formed school (testing its own orientation in the context of unpredictable budgets). Conceived as complementary and occasional by nature (even when systematically programmed), Open Courses are less of a pressure and less of a responsability for the participants. This said, the school insists on the benefits derived from the cumulative effect obtained by the sucessive enrollment in difrerent units: “(...) these supporting courses - open to everyone - deal, in theory and in practice, with complementary themes that ground a coherent learning in the realm of the arts and of visual communication. In this sense, enrollment – in accordance with each participant’s options – is indispensable to finalize a Full Studies Program” (information brochure of 1979/80). Together with the “workshops” format (greatly developed after 2000) Open Courses are part of Continuing Education, which “constitutes the training mode adequate for those who wish to complement the skills and knowledge acquired in Full Programs or in other non-artistic studies. It likewise benefits those who wish to explore their capacities and talents, (...) shaping their training plan according to their interests, availability and personal pace” (in Ar.Co’s website, 2013). In this sense, the deignation Open Course marks the school’s identity – for whom all courses are, taken as a whole, “open” - until today. Whatever it is they deal with, they do so in a context that “opens up” to what they’re not dealing with (that being another choice).
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Open Course in "Creative Communication", with Sue Jennings. 1973.
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Open Course in "History of the Photographic Image", with António Sena da Silva. 1981.
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Yoga Open Course with Geraldine Zwanikken. 1982.
