BA application deadline: February 15, 2016
MFA application deadline: March 15, 2016
Institut Kunst
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst
Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Freilager-Platz 1
4023 Basel
Switzerland
www.institut-kunst.ch
www.fhnw.ch
Where to study? A crucial question
Where should I study? This question is crucial. What are the questions, the values, the skills that I will become familiar with? But also, what is the nature of the human and social environment I will be in?
To study at the Art Institute in Basel means to be part of a very caring learning situation. The character of study here is determined by the large number of mentoring hours that students can have both with our team and with external guests, by the very well equipped technical facilities, and by the way we try to frame practical and speculative questions around the debates that shape art praxis today. What defines us? The development of different working formats—in which artists can grasp the questions that are relevant both to personal development and to a better understanding of experience, the media, and the social—is important, and it allows us to question what determines what art will become. To do art is to understand how materials were and will be, as well as the broad and fascinating field in which experience is changing. Art is at the core of this transformation, but it is not alone. Technology, science, gender, nature, religion, and economy all are there, too. From the continuous dialogical exercise of presenting your work during the bachelor and master years to the different seminars and symposiums we organize, all is oriented towards understanding the complex way that knowledge interacts with intuition and feelings.
Apart from the specific programs at the bachelor and master levels, which you can download in detail from our website, it is important to stress the large number of projects, exhibitions both inside and outside the Institute, talks, workshops, and seminars that are open for all to take part in. Der Tank is a very beautiful glass space connected to our sculpture workshop. It is where we realize different types of production and exhibition exercises all through the year, and it is open to students’ ideas and proposals. On Wednesdays during the semester we host an artist “talk,” an encounter with how others refer to or address or present their practice. External exhibitions intended for students are also planned internationally. These events are meant to facilitate the production of work, and as encounters with other young artists and curators in order to gain an understanding of what others do or do not do.
The Art Institute is located in a new area in the city of Basel. The new, compact campus is also home to several other institutes whose programs are open to us. There are plenty of opportunities to gain an overview of other disciplines, grasp what the different modalities of design or fashion are thinking about, and take advantage of the many different technical skills being taught and practiced here. Neighboring institutions—like the HEK, Schaulager, and artist-run spaces like Oslo 10—as well as the many different and relevant art institutions across the city add to student life. Basel is not a large city, but it is extremely committed to art and contemporary art. Its scale and geographical position provide a very interesting point of view on culture and how we need to position art, now more than ever as the organ that might help us to sense the social differently, and that might show us ways into the future.
Bachelor of Arts
Three-year full-time program, 180 ECTS credits, CHF 700 tuition per semester.
Application deadline is on February 15.
Master of Fine Arts
Two-year full-time program, 120 ECTS credits, CHF 700 tuition per semester.
Application deadline is on March 15.
CHF 5000 tuition per semester for students from outside the EU region. Reductions can be granted in certain cases.
The semester starts on September 19.
