WELCOME TO AAL
Art Academy London is a young and innovative art school, offering courses that are designed and delivered by expert, practising artists.
We offer something distinct and increasingly rare: the best of an old-school atelier combined with the vibrancy and diversity of a contemporary art school.
Founded in 2000 by artist Tanya Russell, AAL blends skills based art education with contemporary processes and theory to help students produce a rich, sustainable practice. We believe a portrait should be as conceptually considered as an installation and an installation as carefully crafted as a portrait.
AAL’s unique hands-on teaching approach offers the highest number of contact hours of any higher education art school in the UK across their academic courses.
We offer art courses for all levels – from a BA or Fine Art Foundation, to evening and weekend short courses in Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Printmaking and much more. We also provide support with bursaries and special education needs, and our community outreach programmes help make art education accessible in Southwark and the surrounding area.
As an art education charity, we’re passionate about championing art for all. We offer student bursaries that we designate from our own funds – we put any surplus back into supporting students and undertaking outreach work.
Rob Pepper
Principal
Welcome to the Art Academy! We are a small, independent art school founded in 2000, offering a unique approach to fine art education in the very heart of Central London. We offer a range of art education programmes for all ages and for all skill levels.
Whether you are looking to become a working artist or you just want to develop your skills in your spare time, we can offer the finest quality art tuition to suit your needs and to support your artistic development.
If you choose to study on a long course with us, we’ll provide you with some of the highest contact hours with expert tutors on offer in the UK. We’ll help you learn technical skills, explore your creative expression and develop your critical insight so that you can find your own voice and visual language.
We’re a warm energetic community of artists, offering a supportive environment where we’ll nurture you while constantly challenging and stretching you to become the best artist you can be.
Rob Pepper
Principal
Our mission
To enable people to realise their creative potential by developing their artistic skills and insights.
Our principles
We’re an artist-led institution: we provide courses designed and delivered by expert, practising artists, for the artists of the future.
We believe in the value of art education: we believe art education has the power to be transformative, because we all benefit from the unlocking of individual creative potential: it impacts positively on personal wellbeing, to societal development and economic health.
We champion art for all: we believe everyone should have access to high-quality art education, so we provide a range of courses to suit all levels of skill and commitment.
We’re a vibrant, artistic community: our community goes beyond our students and tutors, to encompass local artists and the institutions we work with. We subsidise on-site studios and run outreach programmes for people of all ages and backgrounds, creating a richly diverse and stimulating backdrop for study and self-expression.
The Art Academy believes in:
- creating an environment where our students can experiment, research and learn from the best academic, artistic and philosophical practitioners so we can develop visionary artists who will be the creative thinkers of the future.
- developing creative skills , both traditional and contemporary, to support a student’s freedom of expression.
- encouraging students to understand and consider the conception and skills that have gone into the creation of all art work in any medium, both traditional and contemporary.
- training every student to develop a critical and spontaneous creative process which allows them to be true to their creative vision.
- helping students to understand the art market and the world of the professional artist to enable them to make informed choices within their creative practice.
- providing a supportive, vibrant and eclectic artistic community where creativity can be nurtured.