Art school in Kragerø, Norway
In the heart of southern Norway with 495 islets and islands, right down at the water’s edge, in the town of Kragerø, with a view directly towards horizon and the famous sunrise painted by Edvard Munch, there is an Art School, named Kragerø Kunstskole. This is the place where artists of the future attends one or two years of visual art studies, where each seeds their own unique art style and practice.
Kragerø Kunstskole introduces all the workshops you’ll need for your ideas to shape into finished products. The great variety in techniques and materials open doors for you into the creative professions. With the variety of guest teachers – artists working the field, to the great student community, and the inspiring views, we invite you to leap to follow your dream.
Edvard Munchs vei 3, 3770 Kragerø
Everyday life
Everyday life at the school changes from course to course: you mold clay on a Friday, and the following Monday you design 3D models in the computer lab. As the only art school in Norway offering glass blowing, our courses also include ceramics, plaster, textiles, graphics, 3D printing, woodcuts, painting, drawing, croquis, sculpture, land art, theory, graphic design, photography and conceptuality within a room.
Our summers are magical, having a swim for lunch or coffee on our rooftop terrace, but nothing compares to the coziness of the colder days in a small harbor town. In autumn and winter, when the marina is empty; birds, seals, and killer whales venture into the fjord. Students spend their afternoons in the school’s kayaks, walking mountains, climbing, sipping hot cocoa at the local café, visiting art galleries, attending croquis lessons, taking a boat trip to the many Islands, feeling the warmth at the local brewery, attending yoga classes, work out, walking the paths of Munch through town, or working late evenings at their atelier spaces; this town inhabits a place for all.
Information of the courses
The first year consists of intense modules of over one to three weeks. Our goal is for you to gather as many experiences with different materials, techniques and artistry as possible for you to become an independent artist! You will actually get to try everything from charcoal drawing to glassblowing and 3D modeling. Because each teacher inhabits their own unique working method, you get several windows into the process of those who work with visual subjects every day.
Early in the fall, we invite all students to the pearl of the archipelago outside Kragerø: Jomfruland. In the small forest groves, the students learn to think of their surroundings as artistic possibilities – Land Art! Returning from pebbles to shore, the technical courses begin, and just before Christmas, the first semester review is held: Students prepare a presentation of their projects through the autumn, along with a conversation of your plans for the new year’s projects.
The fall of second year consists of some mandatory courses, but mostly focused on your ideas and the content of your work: What is the core of your practice? You will have long independent project periods, preparing applications to art collages, attending writing courses and learning how to speak of your practice.
Towards spring you will plan and work with your own exam project, well assisted by external tutors: artists with extensive experience in project management will teach you how to prioritize and inspire you to seek other perspectives. The last weeks of this semester will introduce you to the pace of how an artist’s work suddenly accelerates towards a deadline: The projects must be done, the graduation exhibition must be mounted, texts about you and your practice must be written, and a professional photographer arrives for you to receive the best documentation to be used in your portfolio. External examiners arrive to talk to you, experience your work and access it. Lastly, at the beginning of summer vacation, you receive your diploma at a celebratory gathering on the rooftop terrace.
