The Rural School of Arts
hand, land & heart
We are looking to create a unique arts school in a changing world
A place for artists, leaders, thinkers and the curious who seek authenticity, individuality and meaningful experiences.
A place nestled within 24 hectares of wildland currently a diverse habitat and home to rare wildlife. Here we will build elemental guest houses and dreaming houses, amongst the rocks and streams.
A place to explore the question
What if things were made for the purpose of beauty, connection and elevation?
In harmony with the world and the resources around us.
Through our teaching programme, we will build a Rural School of Arts to exist in deep relationship with the elemental wisdom, stories and crafts of the area. Our teachings will include living crafts—woodwork, metalwork, textiles and ceramics—image crafts—cinema, moving image and photography—and ecological poetics, intuitive architecture, intergenerational teaching and care. Through these teachings, all those who pass through the land will become part of its legacy. Our unique approach will root these teachings back to the land and local community embodying a circular model of being from soil to soul. All who visit the Rural School of Arts will be nourished by ingredients that are grown on the land and neighbouring small organic farm partnerships.
Story of the School
Teaching and cultural programme
Weaving together a deep ancestral knowing and belonging in the land.
Teaching community of local and international practitioners
Living Crafts and Intuitive architecture
Craig Bamford SASA Works
Nancy Fuller
Guy Valentine
Chris Gabe
Sara Kelly
Image craft
Alberto Balazs
Alejandro Tarraf
Cecile Embleton
Ines Lechleitner
Filipa Gambino
Song Music Word
Marta Ramos
Bruno Ramos
Ecological poetics | People | Landscapes of care
Fourthland
Isik Sayarer and Eva Vikstrom
Marta Ramos
Elaine McLaughlin
Emma Cowan
Alberto Duman
Soil to Soul Nutrition
Anthony Ussher
Emma Cowan
Land
Katarina Sidova
Franciso Amaral
Collections
Collaborating artists and teachers will produce biennial collections and Exhibition inspired by the connection with the land
Visions for elemental spaces
We will build a series of spaces, throughout the land, a learning house, resting house and dreaming houses for visitors to expand into creativity and healing. These spaces will be created inspired by the natural order and geometry of nature. Soulful spaces built from elemental local materials and utilising local skills, that in their simplicity and material essence, encourage stillness and healing. Spaces that work with the natural elements. Spaces for gathering and collaboration.
Healing Packages
Curated experiences for groups and individuals offering soil to soul wellness. Practices will be hosted within the healing buildings created on the land.
The surrounding villages are steeped in practices of land and sky rhythms that are at a threshold of disappearing. These voices will be woven into the heart of the teachings offering the wisdom of this landscape a platform to shine. The villagers have planted a landscape rich with cultural history, craft and agricultural heritage. They carry the wisdom of Transhumance an ancient practice and a type of nomadism where there is a seasonal movement of animals between higher pastures on the mountain in summer and lower valleys in winter. By offering these stories, reverence, celebration The Rural School of Arts will re-position these ways of being, to plant a new earth centered culture within the hands and hearts of the people.
Teachings from the villages
Weaving togetherness and reverence into a unique creative pathway for local and international audiences
