Summer University 2024: workshops and scholarships

Courses in Fine Arts, Music, Design, Performing Arts as well as transdisciplinary formats: the Berlin Summer University of the Arts unites all these elements. From June to October, over 30 workshops invite artists, advanced students, and graduates from all artistic disciplines to develop their artistic practice further, connect with international artists, and create new spaces for artistic exchange together.

This year’s theme Territories and Interfaces centres around the city of Berlin as the venue, territory, and object of artistic research. We will trace demarcation lines and boundaries in urban space, go in search of the spaces in between, and explore how we can create new spaces or (re)occupy those previously undescribed. Whether through tracing zones of transition in Berlin’s train stations, exploring the potential of the city’s many green areas, or performing in the city streets—the possibilities for artistic dialogue with the urban space are endless, and we invite you to take part.

We are happy to announce that this year, the President of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) grants five scholarships which will cover the full fee for one respective course. Applications can be submitted via e-mail to summer-courses [​at​] udk-berlin.de no later than April 30, 2024. Visit here for more information on scholarship application.

We also offer a discount of 100 Euros to all Summer University and UdK alumni, as well as a 50 Euro discount for multiple bookings.

You can find a small selection of our workshops below. Discover all courses here.

How the territories that constitute the city can become the basis for artistic inquiry is explored in The City Never Sleeps. The participants are guided through Berlin’s areas in transition—the former Berlin Wall, brownfields, bodies of water—and together develop their own artistic response to them on the basis of site-related questions. (Counter-)mapping through the Ear engages with mapping the urban territory through the method of the Soundwalk, using field recordings and sonic diagramming in order to apprehend the city. Exploring atopies (placeless): de-generated spaces in Berlin examines abandoned spaces as epistemological domains in Berlin’s urban territory.

Interfaces are approached from multiple angles in a collection of workshops: The City as Palimpsest: Mixed-Media Techniques of Urban Interface Design understands urban spaces as layered texts. Participants are encouraged to experience the city-as-palimpsest via field trips, discussions, and mixed-media practices, and in turn create interfaces, for instance through meme-making, critical mapping, AI art and game design. Visual Ethnography: An Exploration of Urban Interfaces investigates the relationships between communities and their environments through the creation of ethnographic short films. The interdisciplinary workshop Liminal Berlin: Exploring the Interface of Movement, Writing, and Cityscape will go in search of liminal spaces, both in the city as well as within our bodies. Drawing on the work of the Situationists, the course focuses on the transformational power of the city.

Dates: June–October 2024. Registration is open on our website. Application deadlines: four weeks before the start of each workshop. Visit here for detailed information on our programme and its workshops. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at summer-courses [​at​] udk-berlin.de.