The Berlin Summer Studio is an extraordinary opportunity for students to cultivate their artistic skills working in individual studio spaces under the guidance of professional artists while experiencing the vibrant Berlin art world.
What is the “Summer Studio” program?
The Berlin Summer Studio is a 4 week studio art intensive course in which students earn 4 credits working in Berlin. This course will be co-taught by professors Jonathan VanDyke (Bard Annandale) and John Kleckner (Bard College Berlin).
What is the “Summer Studio” program?
In 2026 the thematic focus will be legacies of Surrealism. Through hands-on experimentation and critical reflection, students will test what remains vital in Surrealist practices and ideas, and consider how they might be reimagined today. We will make frequent class trips to Berlin’s extraordinary range of museums and contemporary galleries. Students will encounter exemplary works from the Surrealist and Dada canons, while also discovering lesser known makers from outside of Europe and North America.
This intensive course is designed for studio arts students to develop their artistic practice in designated studios at Bard College Berlin’s Direktorenhaus arts building at Monopol Berlin. Material and technical workshops, group and individual critiques, readings and discussions, and ample studio time are the foundations of this program, which culminates in final creative projects shared publicly in an Open Studios exhibition.
Coursework
Wildly influential yet frequently misunderstood, “Surrealism” emerged a century ago to hold a warped mirror up to aesthetic, social, and political norms. Emphasizing unconscious states, primal ritual, and dream-like imagery, the surreal continues to maintain a hold on contemporary culture. With the rising dominance of AI-generated media, unpacking surrealist aesthetics has become essential to navigating everyday life.
In this studio arts course, students will engage with iconic and historic Surrealist techniques—such as automatic drawing, chance operations, cadavre exquis, the cut-up method, klecksography, multi-media collage, painting from dreams, and the making of fantastical video sketches—to access deeper layers of the imagination and encounter the unexpected and marvelous.
Through hands-on experimentation and critical reflection, students will test what remains vital in Surrealist practices and ideas, and consider how they might be reimagined today. Through studio work and independent projects that emphasize serendipity and explore the creative unconscious, this intensive course invites students to use Surrealist methods to unlock new ways of seeing, and expressing—toward personal insight, artistic innovation, and perhaps radical change.
Frequent class trips to Berlin’s extraordinary range of museums and contemporary galleries will offer firsthand encounters with exemplary works from the Surrealist and Dada canons, while also centering lesser known makers from outside of Europe and North America. Students will each have dedicated studio space in the college’s dynamic new Monopol campus. The course is co-taught by John Kleckner (Bard Berlin) and Jonathan VanDyke (Bard Annandale).
Living and Learning in Berlin
Students will each have dedicated studio space in the college’s dynamic newly renovated Monopol arts buildings. Students will live on campus, in the Pankow district of Berlin, in the modern "Neubau" apartment-style housing of BCB's Henry Koerner Hall.
Classroom and studio activities will be complemented by weekly visits to Berlin’s world-class museums, galleries, and artist’s studios. Weekends are free for students to independently explore the city (sight-seeing tips and recommendations will, of course, be offered.)