OUR NEW CAMPUS

Welcome to our new Bankside home.

Following a successful start to fundraising campaign, the first phase of the building project is now complete, and after a summer trail period, Bankside will become the Academy’s primary site from September (2024). The building, part of Triptych Bankside, is in the heart of one of London’s foremost cultural quarters, adjacent to Tate Modern.

Bankside will be the primary site for our evening classes, short courses, pre-degree and degree programmes (with some activities continuing at our Mermaid Court site on Borough High St). The relocation provides our students with state of the art facilities that match our unrivalled, unique approach to art education, whilst providing new opportunities to consolidate our connections with our local Southwark community.

The building is also available for hire for corporate and other events.

As well as eight teaching studios, specialist workshop spaces and two gallery and exhibition spaces, Bankside will also have a publicly accessible cafe and art supply shop. An auditorium is due for completion in phase two of the project.

“Our unique vision is for an art school where everyone is welcome. The move will enable us to create many more free places for local children on our Young Artists courses, to scale our support for art teachers nationwide through free professional development courses and to extend our open-access tuition to local charities working with disabled artists. On top of all this, we will be able to provide subsidised exhibition spaces for artists in Zone one”

– Rob Pepper, Principal

“What Rob and the team have done with the Art Academy is to take the art school model, which has in many ways become tired and conventional, and create something with enormous potential for lifelong learning that is open and inclusive.”

– Dr. Frances Morris, former Director of the Tate Modern