Berlin Summer Studio

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 four-week studio art intensive course in which students earn 4 credits working in Berlin. This course is co-taught by professors Jonathan VanDyke (Bard Annandale) and John Kleckner (Bard College Berlin).

The Curriculum

This intensive course is designed for studio arts students to develop their artistic practice in designated studios at BCB'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.

The Coursework

"Surrealism" is the thematic core of Berlin Summer Studio 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, Surrealist aesthetics are increasingly becoming part of everyday life.

In this intensive studio arts course, students 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—facilitating access to ever-deeper layers of the imagination and encounters with the unexpected and marvelous.
Through critical reflection and hands-on experimentation, students 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 the creative unconscious, this 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 museums and contemporary galleries 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 also have dedicated studio space in the college’s dynamic new Monopol campus. The course is co-taught by John Kleckner (BCB) and Jonathan VanDyke (Bard Annandale).

Living and Learning in Berlin

Students receive dedicated studio space in the college’s dynamic, newly-renovated Monopol arts buildings. Students 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 are complemented by weekly visits to Berlin’s world-class museums, galleries, and artist studios. Weekends are free for students to independently explore the city (with sight-seeing tips and recommendations offered).