The International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy offers intensive studio programs for developing painters and sculptors from around the world. Internationally distinguished artists teach and critique, and visiting artists and scholars lecture. Students work full-time in their studios and classes, and take weekly trips to study and draw from the great art of Italy. Students, residents and faculty live and work in Montecastello di Vibio, a hill town in Umbria, one of Italy’s most beautiful regions.
The School is one of a very few of its kind: a school of modern art with in-depth training in drawing, painting, and sculpture. Enrollment is limited to about twenty-five students per session, with a 5:1 student/teacher ratio. This positive and intimate environment offers students substantial contact, both formal and informal, with their faculty mentors.
Thanks to our dynamic faculty, students come from all over the world. International School artists are of diverse ages and backgrounds: they include undergraduate and graduate art students from premier art schools, artists considering an MFA program, postgraduates, art professors, and working artists. The International School is an ideal environment in which developing artists can completely devote themselves to working and learning, building to a high level of productivity, and for many, a breakthrough.
Overlooking the lush Tiber River valley, Montecastello di Vibio is a hill town in central Italy, in the province of Perugia, halfway between Rome and Florence. A beautifully preserved medieval borgo, Montecastello looks much like it did 500 years ago. A fortress wall surrounds the tiny heart-shaped town; vast panoramas can be seen in every direction, and a tranquil little park sits at one edge. This delightful village is our campus, and a complex of historic buildings houses the School’s facilities.
Preserving over 2,000 years of history, the cities and hill towns of Umbria and nearby Tuscany are landmarks of European culture. Many were built over four eras—Etruscan, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance. The surrounding landscape is patterned with vineyards, olive groves and sunflower fields, and etched with rows of cypresses and umbrella pines.
In this environment, you will paint and sculpt under the same light that spawned the Western world’s greatest art. Here is the architecture and countryside that inspired Renaissance artists and later masters like Poussin, Ingres and Corot. One can see why the region still attracts artists from all over the world.
The International School curriculum centers on intensive daily studio work, with instruction and critiques by internationally renowned artists, and weekly trips to Italy’s cities of art.
Our living and working situation in North Central Italy is ideal for an artist. It offers breathtaking surroundings, marvelous light, quiet, privacy, wonderful food, and of course, Italy’s rich cultural heritage.
In the School’s supportive yet rigorous studio environment, students can focus and concentrate on their work, uninterrupted by the demands of daily life back home. Students work full-time in the classroom and in their studios, and make dramatic progress. Those who stay for several consecutive sessions benefit tremendously. For many artists, the International School is more than a summer program—it is their continuing professional education.
Landscape class; works from fresco class; figure class
For undergraduate and graduate art students, and artists wishing to work independently in a stimulating school environment.
The School emphasizes the importance of drawing as the foundation for the development of one’s individual work.
In our curriculum, students draw from the model or in the landscape in three-hour classes, four afternoons a week; in the mornings, they paint in the landscape or from the model in four-hour classes; at the end of the day, before dinner, they work in the fresco or figure sculpture class, or paint outdoors in the beautiful late afternoon light. Instructors teach at least twice a week and are accessible for individual consultations and critiques. Artists working independently are also welcome in the School programs.
After class hours, students work from the spectacular landscape, or in their studios. Each student is assigned a private or semi-private studio to collect their thoughts, study, and develop their own personal work. Studios are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. On non-teaching days, students work with the class or independently under the guidance of their instructors. Art materials are available locally and on our weekly trips, and sculptors are provided with clay and plaster.
In the evenings after dinner, visiting artists, scholars and resident faculty give slide lectures on their work, and preparatory talks for our trips. Fridays are trip days to Italy’s cities of art, to study and draw from the great art of the past.
On weekends, International School artists and the local community look forward to our elegant afternoon gallery openings with exhibitions of works by the faculty. On the last Sunday of each session, we dedicate our gallery to a final student or residents show.
We are in a unique position to be able to study and observe some of the greatest fresco paintings in the world. We will visit the treasures of Assisi, with frescoes by Giotto, Simone Martini and Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the masterpieces of Piero della Francesca in Arezzo and Sansepolcro, and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel in Rome. This studio course will introduce students to the technique of true fresco painting as practiced during the Italian Renaissance.
Each student will make an individual, portable fresco painting, using historically accurate materials and techniques. The aim of the course is to raise awareness of material issues and their role in aesthetic intent, and to explore the relationship between the materials, tools, and techniques of traditional fresco painting.
For artists who wish to work independently in a community of artists.
The Residency program provides the ideal combination of seclusion and community in a setting of breathtaking beauty. Artists can work intensively and independently for three or more weeks in a supportive, inspiring environment. A distinguished visiting artist or member of the School faculty joins us as Senior Artist in Residence and studio critic, and a model poses for open drawing sessions. Visiting artists critique and lecturers provide preparatory talks for the weekly trips to Italy’s cities of art, which inspire and inform the work in the studio. The Residency Program also enables students to continue to work and progress independently.
During non-working hours, residents have access to the school’s art library, telephone, computer with Internet access, and video collection. Residents enjoy meals together in the dining room and develop a close sense of community. Residents’ rooms are single-occupancy and their studios are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Artists working independently are also welcome in the School programs.
CE (Continuing Education) is designed for adults with some background in art who want to create more time in their lives to paint and draw, or to deepen their engagement. This program offers shorter term instructional sessions, and is appropriate for people whose involvement with art was interrupted or limited by career or family demands, but who are eager to begin to study and practice again with our outstanding faculty. Advanced students and professional artists are also welcome in the CE Program.
CE students explore and enrich their interest in art, working and living in the heart of Italy, surrounded by a landscape of unparalleled beauty, in close proximity to great masterpieces of art and architecture. The emphasis is on work in the landscape and the studio, with classes in drawing and painting, and weekly trips to Italy’s cities of art. After-dinner talks by our eminent lecturers and visiting artists enhance the program. The CE fee includes a single room.
International School Seminars are intense periods of study with a specific focus, based on the model of a master class. This Seminar includes painting trips to some of the most awe-inspiring landscape sites in Umbria. This year's seminar will be taught by Michael Workman.
Participants work outdoors in class for five mornings or afternoons each week and on independent studio assignments under the supervision of their instructors, who are acknowledged masters in their fields. All students are given studios for their work outside of class. The Seminar fee includes studio space and a single room.
Application for admission
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Student Sourcebook
Artist's Residency Program
Galleria Giotto - Selected works of students and
faculty
| W | hile I’m seeking conscientious imitation, I do not for one minute lose the emotion that overtook me. Reality is part of art; emotion completes it. If we were really touched, the sincerity of emotion will pass unto others. |