About TAAS

Our classes are intimate. Our instructors know your name and your work. You are a voice in conversation with other artists.

Our community of international artists ranges in a variety of ways: gender, age, race, geography, class, and experience. We are constantly working to make this a dynamic, engaging community where artists can inspire one another to make great art.

In Addition, every course includes weekly student life events

Weekly visiting artist talks
Weekly small group feedback session with your fellow TAAS artists
Weekly social hour with your fellow global artists
Mid-Session Mixer
An Orientation and End-of-Session Event with Instructors

All these opportunities are optional and designed to nurture lasting community between attending artists.

Want to learn more? Reach out at: admin@thealternativeartschool.net

“After I got my MFA it became harder to find opportunities to study in community with people, which is ANOTHER thing I found at TAAS”

Sandrine Schaefer

“The Alternative Art School for me is a place where I expanded my knowledge and network in an international environment”

Ozan Atalan

“I’m Rebecca McGee Tuck, I’m a student at TAAS…and I’m here to say… How much I love it and what a great experience it is for me to be apart of this global art community”

Rebecca McGee Tuck

“This is utopia, where everybody learns from each other and can share their work with artists around the world.”

Quynh Lam

“I would definitely recommend TAAS to anyone looking for a boost of inspiration or a way to connect with other artists around the world…”

Clark Stoeckley

“[Few Online events let you] interact and engage over several weeks with some of the most exciting artists and curators.”

Heidi Voet

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Small class sizes

Your instructors are live with you to teach & facilitate discussions. Our small intimate classes, provide opportunities for personal feedback.

Visionary Instructors

Our Instructors are established, visionary and widely respected working artists.

Student life offerings

Share Sessions: Critiques but with an emphasis on supportive listening wherein you can share proposals, ideas, finished or work in progress, or even practice giving an artist talk.

Tea Time: Unstructured social get-togethers after Visiting Artist Talks wherein we can digest the talk together.

Visiting Artist Talks: Weekly Artist Talks with visiting artists and hosted by various instructors.

Real-time education

Our 7-week courses have weekly Office Hours for students. Here you can meet one-to-one with your visionary instructor. These classes meet once a week for 2.5 hours. Our 2-Week Intensives meet three times a week for 2.5 hours. Both class options include a social and technical Orientation, an End-of-Semester Event, and student life offerings during the whole semester period.

Student intiated opportunities

Create or Join a Crew: Crews are like Clubs, Students have a group messaging board and the ability to schedule group video meetings with each other, share opportunities, and carry on conversations around specific topics.

Host an Event: We encourage all our attending artists to build community through hosting student-initiated events.

Frequently Asked Questions —

When is the next Session?

Spring Session is March 10th - May 26th 2023 Summer Courses will be announced in April 2023 Summer Session is June 16th - August 4th 2023 Fall Courses will be announced in June 2023 Fall Session is September 1st - November 10th 2023 Join our newsletter for enrollment email notifications and access to early enrollment.

Who is TAAS for?

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.

How much does it cost?

Our fee structure is based on careful consideration of two basic economic factors: affordable art education and paying faculty well. Each course specifies its price on its individual course page. Prices range from 1250 - 1750 depending on the instructor. All prices are in USD.
We have discounts for multiple classes. Sign up for 2 classes and get $250 off, sign up for 3 classes and get $750 off

Is there financial assistance available?

We are a new school and it is our goal to make TAAS as affordable as possible. In our inaugural semester, we secured eight scholarships with forty-five total artists attending. In our second semester, we secured thirteen fellowships with fifty-six artists attending. We are actively fundraising to make scholarships available. Visit the contact page if you would like to know more about scholarship and fellowship opportunities.

Are refunds available?

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.

Who will be teaching in the next quarter and beyond?

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.

Is TAAS accredited?

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.

How can I support TAAS?

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.

Will acceptance this semester mean acceptance next semester?

Returning students are given early enrollment.

Nato Thompson

Nato Thompson is an author, curator, and what he describes as “cultural infrastructure builder”. He has worked as Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary, Philadelphia Contemporary, and Creative Time as Artistic Director and as Curator at MASS MoCA.

Thompson organized major Creative Time projects including The Creative Time Summit (2009–2015), Pedro Reyes’ Doomocracy (2016), Kara Walker’s A Subtlety (2014), Living as Form (2011), Trevor Paglen’s The Last Pictures (2012), Paul Ramírez Jonas’s Key to the City (2010), Jeremy Deller’s It is What it is (2009, with New Museum curators Laura Hoptman and Amy Mackie), Democracy in America: The National Campaign (2008), and Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot in New Orleans (2007), among others.

He has written two books of cultural criticism, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century (2015) and Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life (2017).

Amber Imrie

Amber Imrie is a queer artist and educator with a passion for cultivating communities with creative, holistic learning environments built on compassion and equity. Imrie’s art practice draws from her personal experience as a queer person interacting with the culture of the rural American South.

Born and raised off-the-grid in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas, and educated outside the formal school system, Imrie entered community college at sixteen. She then received her BA from UC Berkeley and MFA from Stanford University. She’s been the recipient of many awards, fellowships, and residencies including the Murphy Cadogan Award and Anita Squires Fowler Award in Photography. Imrie ran an art magazine called Venison Magazine from 2014-2017, a pop-up residency called Camp Venison, and has facilitated artistic dialogue in and outside of formal education. Imrie has taught at a variety of institutions, including UC Berkeley and Stanford University. Imrie is currently a founding team member of The Alternative Art School. She lives in Åland Islands, Finland with her partner.

The Alternative Art School

What is the
Alternative Art School?

About TAAS

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