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1000+

Venetian palaces as classrooms

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9.6/10.0

European Cultural Academy (ECA) is an award-winning organization focused on contemporary art and architecture. ECA offers professional development programs for artists, architecture studios with leading universities, teacher training, and interdisciplinary partnerships through ECAxLab. Operating in Venice, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and online, ECA reaches 1000+ creatives annually. Join professionals and art lovers and get support for your personal creative journey.

Professor Schroepfer holds doctoral and Masters degrees with Distinction from Harvard University. He began his academic career at Harvard&#39;s Graduate School of Design. His work investigates the increasingly complex relationship between design and technology in architecture. His research and design projects relate to advances in environmental strategies, materials, structure and form, performance and energy, computer simulation and modelling, digital fabrication and building processes.

Cristina is the Venice Cultural Heritage Expert. She specialises in offering a multifaceted experience of Venice, given at a slower pace; one that incorporates the history and the stories of this singular city in a way that brings the past alive. She has worked for UNESCO, and written a book on Venice Master Artisans, along with a number of articles for other books and magazines.

Exhibiting Architecture Program Coordinator. Scott Woods is an Academic Fellow in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. Scott teaches architecture history and theory, coordinates the first year design studio in the undergraduate school and leads a graduate design studio with a focus on the museum, its curatorial conditions and representations. At ECA Scott coordinates the Exhibiting Architecture summer studios.

Since 2009, he is Senior Curator of MAXXI Architettura in Rome. Architect, critic and professor, member of the editorial board of &quot;Casabella&quot; from 1996 to 2012, he collaborates with journals, reviews and national press and is author of many essays and publications.

Curator of the Pakistan Pavilion, 2018. He is currently serving as Chair of the Department of Architecture at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, where he has also co-founded a lab for architecture design research. This lab specialises in meeting the various challenges facing local and regional built environments.

Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture

Danielle is an artist, curator and writer behind the contemporary art website the Jealous Curator, author of numerous books on contemporary art, including &quot;Creative block&quot;, &quot;Your Inner Critic Is A Big Jerk&quot;, &quot;A Big Important Art Book (Now With Women)&quot;.

Architect and Designer, visiting PhD researcher at Architectural Association in London. She is a tutor at Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV). She leads AA visiting schools worldwide.

Curator at ArkDes, Swedens national centre for architecture and design. He is a writer, curator and architectural designer. He is the European editor at large at ArchDaily, the architecture platform, and LOBBY Magazine. Co-curated the Nordic Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale.

Art director and curator of the Urbanautica, mainly working in the field of urbanism and visual anthropology. He has collaborated worldwide with artists, companies, museums, foundations and galleries. He contributed to over forty exhibitions and festivals as an effort to support young talents, create debate and increase awareness on human conditions across the world. He founded both Urbanautica and Filmessay, and currently teaches at University Iuav in Venice.

Rikke Jørgensen is an Independent Curator, Director of the communications agency UrbanArt Communications and Founder of the Arts &amp; Globalization Platform. In 2017 Rikke curated the first Arts &amp; Globalization Pavilion in Venice with the program Remembering the Future. In 2018 she curated a Collateral Event for Manifesta 12 in Palermo, Italy together with the Italian curator Valentina G. Levy. The program Art &amp; Connectography: Remapping the Global World through Art had a focus on hyperconnectivity, geopolitics and migration. This year Arts &amp; Globalization Platform will launch Guidecca Art District with the talk and performance program Politics of Space on the 11th of May.

Design Museum Director at La Triennale di Milano. He also curated several projects for public museums and private galleries in Italy and abroad, dedicated to Bruno Munari, James Irvine, Ettore Sottsass, Gabriele De Vecchi, and Mario Bellini among the others. He teaches at the Design School of Politecnico di Milano University, is an essayist and journalist.

Head of Salottobuono, an architectural practice based in Milano, Italy.

Anthony Gardner is Professor of Contemporary Art History and a Fellow of The Queen’s College. He was previously Director of Graduate Studies and, from 2017 to 2020, Head of the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.

Venetian born Andrea Pagnes is a performance artist, organizer of the Venice International Performance Art Week. Andrea and German artist Verena Stenke have been working together since 2006 as VestAndPage. Andres gives creative workshops at ECA.

Osei Bonsu is a British-Ghanaian curator and writer based in London and Paris. He is currently a curator of International Art at Tate Modern, where he is responsible for organising exhibitions, developing the museum’s collection and broadening the representation of artists from Africa and the African diaspora.

Stefano Tornieri is an architect and Research Fellow at IRIDE Department of Excellence IUAV di Venezia. His experiences include study and research at ETSAB Barcelona and FAUP Porto, and founding Babau Bureau, an architecture/landscape company in Venice. He was nominated for the EU Mies Van Der Rohe Award (2019) and the Lerici Foundation Grant (2022). Specialist Tours1.    Borders of the Venice lagoon. Between tourism and issues of climate change.2.    Fishing as a way to understand the landscape: related to sustainability, food production.3.    The islands of modernity:how modern architects have interpreted traditional Venetian typologies

Director at Bel Air Fine Art gallery

David Howard is Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. He is Director of the Sustainable Urban Development Programme at the University of Oxford, which promotes lifelong learning for those with interests in urban development and Co-Director of the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation at Kellogg College.

Matthew works at the intersection of urbanism, urban morphology, architectural history, and climate change. He teaches at Oxford on the Sustainable Urban Development programme. As Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at the Prince&#39;s Foundation for Building Community, Matthew is responsible for the Foundation&#39;s academic programmes, working with several university partners.

Dr Ahmed Agiel is currently Assistant Professor of Architectural Engineering at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Before joining UAEU he worked as a faculty member at the University of Tripoli, Libya. He obtained his PhD from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, one of Australia’s leading research universities. Before joining the UNSW, he completed his Masters degree, in Strategic Design, from the Polytechnic of Milan, Milan, Italy. Dr Agiel received his B.Sc. degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Tripoli.His research focuses on architectural theory and practice with a special interest in understanding the nature of meaning in architecture and environmental psychology. He is working on a book entitled: Dubai: Excellent Architectural Heritage for Future Generation’s Health and Wellbeing.

Psarra is Professor of Architecture and Spatial Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture. She was Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and Lecture at Cardiff University. She is editorial board member of Thésis (Brazil 2016-). Her design work was recognised through journal articles and 13 international exhibitions (Venice Biennale, George Pompidou Centre, The RIBA).

Industrial Designer who is specialised in the use of colour. She studied Industrial Design at the European Institute of Design (IED) in Milan. She is a founding member of Gruppo del Colore, an Italian organisation which promotes the culture of colour.

Senior curator and organiser at ECC-Italy. Lucia has years of experience in creating, managing and curating large-scale international exhibitions. Previously, she worked as an international press officer for several national pavilions at the Venice Biennale and held various positions in the Peggy Guggenheim museum in Venice.

Carole A. Feuerman is an American sculptor and artist working in Hyperrealism. Known for her sensuous themes of swimmers and bathers, complete with translucent water drops, her work takes the concept of art imitating life to a new level.

Curator, former vice-president of the Union of Spanish Associations of Art Galleries. Llucia is the founder of Talking Galleries, a platform for gallerists and art professionals to discuss new trends and issues in the art gallery sector.

Sarah is an artist, author and independent curator who curated exhibitions all over the world including CALDIC Collectie in Rotterdam, Ludwig Museum in Germany, City Gallery White-Cube, Osaka, Japan and khfgallery in Miami. She is an established artist that explores the themes of sex, power and relationship.

Omri is a designer based in Venice. He is a winner of the Wallpaper Design Awards 2019. His works have been exhibited in major design platforms such as Biennale di Venezia, Salone del mobile, Maison&amp;Objet Paris, and were published in numerous design magazines such as Abitare, Living and New York Times. Omri Revesz currently teaches Industrial Design at IUAV University of Venice.

American Artist. He is a time architect, influenced by the timeless connection between art and science studied by DaVinci. His lifelong fascination with aging and how change occurs over time led him to undergo a deep self-psychoanalysis through the abstraction of his first seven series spanning over a decade.

An artist and a key player at the Burning Man Project. For 2005 - 2018, Andrew was honoured with the title &quot;Design Steward of the Man&quot; and has led the design of the Man Base, the highly stylised base on which the man stands. The Independent called him &#39;the visionary who helps create the most iconic moment of each year&#39;s event&#39;. Andrew specialises in large scale art projects, murals, 3D computer designs, and geo maps.

Senior Curator and Organiser at ECC-Italy.  Co-Organiser of the Italian Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition and &quot;Personal Structures&quot; show  at Palazzo Bembo, a collateral event of the 55th Venice Art Biennale. Her previous projects included co-curating the Norwegian Pavilion and assisting at the South Africa Pavilion and the 54th La Biennale di Venezia.

Dutch artist mostly known for his own art form of the &quot;Boxes&quot;, stimulated by American minimal art and the so-called new abstraction. Rietmeyer is the initiator of the project &quot;Personal Structures&quot; which was first published in 2003 and has since grown to become a worldwide respected project with artists&#39; whose main subject is Time-Space-Existence.

Dr. Christian Haid is an urbanist, architect and researcher. He is founder of POLIGONAL- Office for Urban Communication. His thematic focus is on urban theory, critical urban research, informal urbanism, everyday urban practices, as well as pro-cess-oriented city planning. Christian is Senior Researcher at the Habitat Unit and lecturer at the Urban Management Masters Program of the Technical University Berlin.

Lukas is an architect, sociologist, and urban communicator. He is founder of POLIGONAL- Office for Urban Communication. He has taught at universities for several years. He is an expert in historical and contemporary housing, postwar urban planning, architectural heritage, and everyday urban life. Currently he is a lecturer at the Berlin International University of Applied Sciences.

Karmen studied Graphic Arts in Croatia and Conservation and Restoration of works of art on paper in Italy, Japan and Austria. She was invited to group and solo exhibitions in Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary and the USA, receiving international awards in Fine Art Photography in Paris, Malaga and Berlin. Her works are held in public collections in Italy and Japan. From 2001-2018 Corak was a head of paper conservation at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome and she collaborated also with MAXXI. She developed contemporary art exhibition projects for public and private institutions.

National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome

Formazione: Università di Bologna - Master of Arts, Visual and Performing Arts, 2009/12; Accademia Drosselmeier - Master of Arts, Letteratura per bambini e adolescenti, 2012/13.  Progetti:  Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia - Team educativo, 2015/17, De Appel - Programma di scambio finanziato dal Fondo Erasmus per giovani imprenditori, 2016/17; Fondazione Golinelli - Specialista in educazione artistica, 2015/16.

Hélène est titulaire d&#39;un Master d&#39;Arts Plastiques de l&#39;Université d&#39;Aix-Marseille et d&#39;un Certificat d&#39;enseignement de l&#39;Alliance Française de Vichy. Elle enseigne actuellement à l&#39;Université Ca&#39;Foscari de Venise et Alliance Française. Elle a travaillé auparavant pour la Fondazione Biennale di Venezia, le Ministère de l&#39;Éducation Nationale et le Centre Georges Pompidou.

Adam Evans has been an English-language instructor for almost 15 years. Originally from the United States, he has taught in twelve different countries across three continents. Comfortable teaching a wide range of classes and age groups, he has taught CEOs and members of the Executive board for Fortune 500 companies in Portugal as well as online classes for children in Algeria. When he is not teaching, one can find him in a library, at a museum, or wandering the streets of the city he currently finds himself in.

Visiting Associate Professor, Undergraduate Architecture. Lex Braes is an Artist and Educator born in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee University, Scotland, Brooklyn Museum Art School and the University of California San Diego. Since 2003 he has taught a free-hand drawing class for UG architecture students at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture. In 2019 Braes introduced a new course, ‘Performing Interiority’ a practice-based pedagogy; mapping body movements made in routine activities allowing for spatial discoveries and novel design resolutions. Braes has taught painting and drawing at The New York Studio School. He has been a guest lecturer at Cooper Union, Brooklyn College and Purdue Indiana. University and has had exhibitions at the Hammond Museum and Felix Ringel Gallery.

Based in Sydney since 2015, Grandeza-Bajeza is a collective of architects, educators and researchers. In 2019, the team was commissioned to conceptualise and design the Australian pavilion for the XXII Triennale di Milano. Their work, &quot;Teatro Della Terra Alienata&quot;, received the Golden Bee Award for the best international contribution and was acquired in 2020 by the National Gallery of Victoria.

Erica is a curator and researcher. In previous years, she has co-curated public programs and exhibitions for cultural institutions, including MoMA in New York, the XXII Triennale di Milano, and the Russian Pavilion of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition. Erica completed her studies at the University of Cambridge (UK), Università degli Studi di Milano, and Maastricht University.

Mattia is an architect and designer based in Milan. As part of the 2050+, he has overseen projects related to moving images, including the independent short film Riders Not Heroes and a series of short films for Bulgari. Previously, he worked at OMA/AMO in Rotterdam. He is among the founders of the architecture collective (ab)Normal, which has been published in Domus and Abitare.

Tobia is a filmmaker and creative director based in Milan. After graduating from the New York University Tisch School Of The Arts, Tobia joined Blowback Productions in New York. On his return to Italy, having joined 2050+, Tobia has contributed to various film projects both in production and creative direction. Tobia holds a Bachelor&#39;s degree in Film and TV from the University of the Arts in London.

Kamil is an architect and researcher based in Milan. Previously, he held architectural positions at Studio Fuksas in Rome and Balmond Studio in London. His PhD studies at the Royal College of Art are centred around migration studies, non-western epistemologies and the human body. Since 2017, Kamil has been teaching as part of the architecture design studio ADS8 at the Royal College of Art in London.

Marco Gambarè is an architect and designer based in Milan. He has collaborated with Office U67 between Oslo and Milan (2013-2015) and worked in Rotterdam at OMA/AMO (2016-2020) where he was involved in many international projects, at different scales and phases. Marco has been a teaching assistant at the Complex Construction Design Studio of Politecnico di Milano.

Emeritus Professor of the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. For two decades, François Penz directed a research group entitled DIGIS (Digital Studio for Research in Design, Visualisation and Communication) investigating the intersection of Architecture, Cinema, and Digitality. His latest book is entitled The Everyday in Visual Culture: Slices of Lives (Routledge 2022). Most recently he has run workshops in Venice in 2021 as part of the Architecture Biennale.

After graduating from Università IUAV di Venezia, Marta studied Art Therapy at d ArTea di Milano and Management of Educational services and life-long education at Università di Padova. She is an art educator and learning designer at Open Group Soc. Coop in Bologna and Ispira ETS in Rimini. Previously she worked for Macchine Celibi Fondazione Golinelli, Didatticando, La Biennale di Venezia and Francois Pinault Foundation as Museum Educator and guide.

Susan teaches English at Ca’ Foscari  University. She is involved in CLIL teacher training programmes with focus on the potential impact of teaching and learning in a foreign language. Her interests include Education Counseling and Professional Development within the framework of Life Long Learning. She has Master’s in Education Counseling.

The course is developed by Meg Scanlon from the educational department of the Carnegie Museum of Art in the USA. At the museum Meg is responsible for K-12 learning,  managing  and creating educational experiences within the museum. Meg has a Master’s degree Museum Education  The University of the Arts, USA.

Gita Joshi is an award-winning art dealer, author of bestseller, Show Your Art, and the editor at Art Seen magazine, a global quarterly publication highlighting emerging and mid-career visual artists around the world.She has an art history background and trained in curating at Central St. Martins, and now runs The Curator&#39;s Salon, a platform to support artists through education and exposure to paint their own profitable paths.

Alexis Fedor is the founder and CEO of Artists in Business (AIB), a full-time consulting company with a focus on raising the Financial IQ of artists who want to run thriving businesses with and for their art. Being a performance artist herself, she holds an MA in Cross-Cultural Dance and Theater from NYU.Alexis’ mission through AIB is to empower artists to overcome their obstacles to build a life that’s creatively fulfilling and financially secure.

An art educator and curator, Sheila Zago holds a Master&#39;s Degree in Arts - Museum and Galleries Practice - from University College London (UCL). Her online signature is @thenomadcurator: a main channel of research and dissemination of the production of different contemporary artists, with special emphasis on authors from the Global South. Living and working on four continents, she developed artistic and educational projects for biennials, art collectives, social projects, and refugee camps around the world.

Our lecturers come from the leading world institutions and are passionate about creativity, innovation and personal connections. Meet some of our current and previous lecturers.

We practice constructionist student-centred approach to education. Each student chooses how and at what pace to study with us.

Focused on adult learning

Each course is a combination of lectures, group and individual work. We include reflection and group discussions in each of our courses.

Combination of learning tools and techniques

We want you to be yourself. We accept that your creative self can be weird or vulnerable and we respect it.

Individual attention towards each student

Our students are smarter and more experienced than us. We use a variety of social learning tools - peer education, problem-based learning and project work are among our favourites. That creates space for you to learn from each other while we are learning from you.

Peer to peer learning

You can join us to work on one project or take multiple courses to keep pushing your career, we support you and provide tools and inspiration for your next step.

You choose how to study

Our students are our community. We believe that it is never too late to start.

Everybody is welcome

how we teach

Academic approach

About

Alexandra is a seasoned education professional with experience in academic publishing (Elsevier) and partnership development. She studied at the Free University in Brussels and Columbia University in New York. She speaks Dutch, English and Italian.

Maria has 10+ years of experience in education management. Before joining ECA Maria organized the Venice Design exhibition and spent 3 years as an Associate Director at prestigious IE Business School in Spain. She has Masters in Sociology from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She speaks Italian, Russian, English and Spanish.

Born in Italy, Sara grew up in the US, then in France, where she graduated in Art History (PhD-Sorbonne). She lives for visual arts and music, and for the past ten years she worked as art history teacher, translator and also as a jazz singer all over Europe. She now spends most of her time in Venice where she runs courses for educators. She speaks French, Italian and English.

Alan is a visual artist, arts educator and cultural events director with a lifelong interest in architecture. His background includes participation and management of international artist&#39;s residencies and teaching at several universities on arts education. Now resident in Venice, he is in charge of university partnerships at ECA, building from his work in multi-agency collaborations as Executive Director of the b-side festival and Arts Development Officer for the Maritime Mix Cultural Olympiad at the London 2012 Sailing Events. He speaks English and Italian.

Giulia graduated in Music and Film studies in Turin. She then lived 3 years in France, studying Jazz music at Paris Conservatoire, then moved to Venice to obtain a Master in Creative Development and Management of cultural events at Ca’ Foscari Challenge School University. Since 2015, she has been working in Italy as a communication and production assistant in arts, music and cinema festivals. At ECA she is responsible for organizing courses. She speaks French, Italian and English.

Lara Quint is an experienced content producer and social media manager with a background in art and design. She is attentive to aesthetics and details, and strives to create outstanding visual content for the European Cultural Academy.

Francesca studied Translation and Intercultural Management and is enthusiastic about education, arts and movement. She grew up in Italy and lived in Switzerland, Ireland, France and Taiwan. Now she spends most of her time in Barcelona where she coordinates courses for ECA and translates. She speaks Italian, English, German and Spanish.

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Short courses in Art, Architecture & Design during the Venice Biennale in Italy. Receive insider knowledge, advance your career and learn about the cultural cluster of Venice.

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