When it comes to art, the question is not how do we make better art, but how do we make a better society? We at The Alternative Art School believe in a form of art that grapples with the lived experience of being an artist from rent to work. Rather than throwing a student out into the world hoping that the global landscape of business and art galleries takes them on, we want to equip them with the tools to consider and produce alternatives.
Membership is an online global art community for the 21st century working artists interested in enriching and expanding their practice. TAAS has compiled what we've seen lead to artists finding and meeting their goals over the last four years and designed a program to foster peer-peer exchanges under an umbrella of profound and cutting edge creative thinkers. See more about our new program on our Membership Page.
As a member, you will be connected to a global network of artists and curators. You’ll have the opportunity to participate in live sessions, receive feedback on your work, and engage in a variety of artistic discussions. The community is a safe space to learn, grow, and exchange ideas with peers from around the world. See a list of our events, resources, and opportunities on our Global Residency Membership Page
Simply sign up through our global residency membership page. Choose the plan that works best for you and start exploring the resources available through our web portal or our app on apple & android.
If you think of Global Residency like the train station, events happen throughout the week and are often recorded in case the live session doesn't match your scheduled availability. Our courses and workshops are like trains, arriving and departing with cohorts of globally diverse learners. Check back regularly to see what course offerings we have, join Membership for early access and special discounts, or join our newsletter to never miss an announcement. Specific class times are always posted with the course announcements and can be seen on our courses page.
Don’t worry! All live lectures are recorded and available for later viewing. You’ll never miss out on the content, even if your schedule doesn’t align with a particular event. This excludes peer-peer discussions and workshops due to the fact they necessitate your involvement in real time.
At this time, our Global Residency Program is open to all artists, regardless of experience level. Whether you're a seasoned professional or returning to your practice after time away, TAAS provides a supportive and engaging environment for all. TAAS retains a high caliber of member artists and the right to remove or restrict members who don't follow our community guidelines.
Membership is just 25 USD per month or 250 USD annually for 2025! Members get exclusive discounts to courses and early access to sign up.
We encourage you to follow our newsletter and social media accounts for additional opportunities for funding support. TAAS partners with institutions around the globe to provide scholarships for artists to our courses and membership program. You can see these institutional partners listed at the bottom of our website and meet their fellows in our program. If you're a leader of an institution interested in expanding access for your artists to global programming, contact us about our fellowship and scholarship packages. We'd love to speak with you!
Yes, you can cancel your membership anytime. However, refunds are not available once payment has been made for a given period (monthly or yearly). If you cancel mid-month, our program will remain accessible until your next billing date.
Our fee structure at TAAS is based on careful consideration of two basic economic factors: affordable art education and paying faculty well. A percentage of your tuition goes directly to support our partial-scholarships and full fellowships. We often say, "we take money from the global north and apply it to the global south to create globally diverse classrooms." Each course specifies its price on its individual course page. All prices are in USD.
No, once you are part of TAAS, you are always part of the community. Your global residency membership grants you continuous access to content, workshops, and events throughout the year. It will auto-renew unless you cancel it.
TAAS is for artists, makers, and doers at every stage of their artistic life. We believe strongly that this mixed-level experience is an incredible opportunity for any artist who wants to participate in a global community and learn from the best artists in the world. We believe in a community structure that is scaled so every artist is known by name. You are not a number, you are an artist that these world-class artists and curators know. Attending students must be eighteen years of age or older but TAAS students tend to be more mature with an average age of 45. Some of our artist have led robust careers in the arts, while others are getting back in-touch with their practice after raising children, or taking a career detour. TAAS is for creative who are never done learning and dream to connect with peers from all over the globe.
TAAS Membership gives you access to a wide range of live and recorded sessions, including visiting artist and curator talks, art prompts, global art tours, and professional practice workshops. You’ll also have access to a global community of artists and evergreen resources, all accessible via our mobile app.
We are a new school and it is our goal to make TAAS as affordable as possible and every student who pays tuition helps support our fellowship and scholarship program! Our financial model is simple, we pay our instructors a livable wage, keep a small admin team and apply the remaining portion of tuition dollars to support our TAAS Fellowships and Partial-scholarships. Every session we take your tuition dollars to support our partial-scholarships, which you can submit to with your application on our Apply page. During our Spring and Fall sessions, we partner with organizations and individuals to host full fellowships open calls. These calls expand our own support capabilities and we are always looking for institutions and individuals interested in partnering. You can find our full fellowships open calls on our website and sign up for our newsletter for keeping up to date. Our Full-fellowship open calls are always location based, and the locations are decided through conversations with our partnered organizations and individuals. Contact us via our contact page if you would like to know more about scholarship and fellowship opportunities!
There are no refunds once you have been accepted, signed your contract, and paid. Courses need to be paid in advance before your first class begins. Our instructors are giving their time no matter how many students are signed up, so our costs are fixed and as a new school, our flexibility on this front is limited.
TAAS is unique in that our instructors are often working artists with complex schedules, therefore you’ll see amazing artists come, go, and return from semester to semester. Sign up for our newsletter below so you never miss when we open enrollment and announce our course line-up.
TAAS is not accredited. We do not believe an education at TAAS should replace a basic holistic liberal arts education. We instead offer this as an opportunity for artists of any age to gain a solid foundation in an art practice that engages the world. We stand by the education we offer and are doing it to make the world a better place.
While TAAS is not a non-profit, we certainly encourage those with means and a big heart to support this initiative, its students, and instructors. We offer sponsorship opportunities at all levels.
