Summer School at the Salzburg Academy of Fine Arts

I should have posted this back in April — but, don't count your chickens before they hatch!

At any moment, everything could have fallen through: funding might not have come through, the visa might not have been issued.

But today?

Today is my first day of classes. I’m here in Salzburg, Austria 🇦🇹

And now I can finally shout it from the rooftops — or at least here in my blog!

I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded a grant to study at the Salzburg Summer Academy of Fine Arts.

The Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts is a prestigious educational program for artists, sculptors, photographers, and other creative professionals.

Founded in 1953 by Austrian painter and writer Oskar Kokoschka — who personally taught the first courses — the Academy has welcomed thousands of students from around the world over the decades. It is housed in a historic mountaintop castle with breathtaking views of the Alps and the city below.

The program emphasizes hands‑on practice and experimentation under the guidance of leading contemporary artists such as:

· Irina Nakhova (a pioneer of Moscow Conceptualism),

· Nora Schultz (an acclaimed sculptor).

And as for me?

I will be studying under the renowned photographer Pascal Petignat.

I chose the course based on my affinity for the medium and settled on Pascal Petignat’s program.

I admire his visual language and the themes he engages with. His project using overexposed film in airports and the project “Temporäre Unordnung” struck me as both visually powerful and deeply metaphorical.

Fun fact: classes are held only in the summer because the historic buildings have no heating!