art college in cyprus?? (1 Viewer)

[Rachel666]

http://www.artcyprus.org/

this looks amazing.

Did anyone here ever go or know anyone who did? I'd really like to get in touch with someone who did. I want to do their core year but they said that it was the Irish equivalent of a "level 5", yet would strangley get you into second year of a 4 year degree course here. (???) I think they might have got it wrong...


anyway, Roisin you better apply too

 

[MARYJANE]

http://www.artcyprus.org/

this looks amazing.

Did anyone here ever go or know anyone who did? I'd really like to get in touch with someone who did. I want to do their core year but they said that it was the Irish equivalent of a "level 5", yet would strangley get you into second year of a 4 year degree course here. (???) I think they might have got it wrong...


anyway, Roisin you better apply too

it'd be amazing to study art for a year in cyprus, for sure. but looking at the faculty staff part of the site, you'd have to be sure you really like that style of painting. but if you're only going for a 1 year foundation course you don't have much to lose, just stay in touch with friends from home who are doing similar courses and make sure you're not missing out on things that sound important.

a couple of people i know did a semester in an art college in Greece, i think it was university of athens, not sure though, they got to travel around the islands working in studios owned by the college, but they said it was kind of strict and old fashioned. thats probably not such a bad thing for first year of college though.

anyway, maybe what they mean by "level 5" is something to do with fetac ncva certificate courses or something? like a PLC course is usually an NCVA level 1 or 2... i'm only guessing though. might be a UK thing either..

 

[jane]

I'm sure it'd be a lovely place to spend some time, but studying abroad for your first year might not be the best idea. It's a gamble because you don't know much about the place, and because it's first year, you'd also end up going through transition-to-third-level twice (once in Cyprus, and once in Ireland, where the rest of your class will already have gone through it). It's better to study abroad after you've got used to college so you can take it for what it is -- you get a lot more out of it that way.

It could be an amazing place, a faculty/student ratio of 1:7 is great, and if there's even one good teacher in there, that's something you might never find again. But they will be really specialised, as MARYJANE already pointed out, so you might not get the same kind of foundation your classmates back in Ireland will get. I reckon if you went for your third year or something, once you got the foundation and as part of whatever degree course you're doing, you could have an amazing experience.

The place I used to work for had a programme here http://www.burrencollege.ie/ and the students seemed to like it lots because they were there for their own reasons, for a new experience, etc.

Might also notice that the Cyprus college has a geocities page that isn't particularly artsy looking. I dunno, maybe they're just a bunch of hippies who couldn't care less about the internet (and it does seem like a friendly place) and don't want to waste money on marketing, but it doesn't take much to build a website or to learn how to post photos of a decent resolution on the internet. Isn't it a bit strange that an art college has such a rubbish website?

ALL of that said, I worked on a field school project in Italy that was mainly run by University of Bradford and while it was a summer thing and people had their specialties and there are a million insane stories and as a research project it wasn't fantastic, it was a REALLY good place to learn the basic skills I needed. And their website is still a bit crap.

Best thing to do is find people who went there and ask them.

 

[krystal]

Isn't it a bit strange that an art college has such a rubbish website?

My thoughts exactly. Far better would be do do an Erasmus exchage from Ireland as part of a degree course. You're no more likely to get into the 2nd year of a degree programme from there than you are from any other institution, I'd imagine.

 

[MARYJANE]

My thoughts exactly. Far better would be do do an Erasmus exchage from Ireland as part of a degree course. You're no more likely to get into the 2nd year of a degree programme from there than you are from any other institution, I'd imagine.

yeah, erasmus exchange is a good idea to do anyways, but i think if you treated this foundation course as being like a portfolio course, rather than like your first year of college, then it might work out well. i wouldn't recommend considering it as an alternative to something like the NCAD foundation course, since thats so broad, but if you're in the position where you're planning to take a year out to put your portfolio together, it could be a nice way to do it.

even if you spent the whole time doing weird outsider art stuff i imagine some colleges would be impressed by the fact you did some research, found this place, and committed yourself to it, which is more than a lot of people who come straight from school into the nearest portfolio course.

although, a whole year is a long time to spend in a new country when you've only just finished school, and with fee's and travel expenses and the stress of getting settled abroad, it could turn out to be an expensive mistake if you decide you don't like it after a few weeks. which is totally possible, even if it sounds like an awesome holiday right now, the reality could be different - being away from your friends and family, on an island where the nightlife will be mostly for tourists, in a course that is likely to have a large percentage of mature students.

www.transartists.org has information about artists residencies and opportunities, and they have reviews of different residencies and courses by people who've done them. the site is down at the moment for some reason, but maybe search it when its back up and see if anyones mentioned this place.

 

[Rachel666]

woah thanks for the advise guys! I emailed the college today asking if they could put me in contact with NCAD-heads who'd gone there. They also run a short course in the summer which I'm considering going to...