The Arts School is a new faculty of Dartington Trust offering a distinctive portfolio of postgraduate degrees, short courses and events inspired by the experimentalism and innovation in art practice that has animated this place for almost 100 years.
This radical legacy is reimagined afresh on each of our courses, all of which are designed to help artists and creatives reshape their practice through the lens of contemporary issues.
ABOUT US: Read more about our history and ethos >
study with us
Find out what it’s like to study at Dartington, and explore our programmes
flexible learning models
We offer pathways to learning to suit all needs – including part time routes, ‘build-your-own’ modules, and blended learning
postgraduate programmes
Reimagining Performance Practice
Reimagining Performance Practice is an integrative, transdisciplinary programme for performers, and anyone working in the field of performance, who are determined to reimagine performance and performative public engagement for the coming decades.
Poetics of Imagination
Explore story and culture, examining how we have conjured stories from the earliest times to the present day. The course is centred around oral telling and opens to a broader spectrum of arts, examining the work of ancient to contemporary storytellers, writers and artists.
Cultural Production
What does it really mean to create, curate and manage cultural organisations and arts projects? This programme is designed to help you build and enhance your production, managerial, administrative, fundraising and creative curatorial skills, to survive in the contemporary arts sector.
Arts and Ecology
This is the most decisive decade in human history and unlike previous highly significant periods in history, we are fully aware of how pivotal these few years are to our species and the planet as human habitat. Arts and Ecology is a low residency master’s degree that asks how the whole of our humanity can be brought to this urgent conversation.
Arts and Place
Open to practitioners and curators working in any art form including performance, writing, soundart, moving image, photography, digital art and fine art, this course puts particular emphasis on collaborative practice in response to an expanded understanding of place, via a unique residency-based programme.
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why join us?
our venue
Dartington has a range of dance, theatre, music and art studios and a wealth of outdoor learning spaces including woods, farmland, the river Dart, the medieval deer park, food growing and landscaped gardens.
our faculty
Dartington Arts School has a rich interdisciplinary learning community of staff and students working with a passion to be change-agents for a sustainable future.
our programmes
Our low residency, innovative programmes offer you a learning experience rich in intellectual and creative exploration, with a flexibility that suits the complexities of modern life.
latest news & blogs
Student Stories: Navigating New Horizons with Emma Yorke
In the spirit of our MA Arts & Place, Emma Yorke reports on her trip to the international ‘Textures of Emotions: Storytelling and Textiles’ Conference in Athens.
Jason Singh’s sound installation launches in our Gallery
The ancient yew tree here takes centre stage in a new audio work by our artist-in-residence Jason Singh, open to the public until 15 September.
Student stories: Rosie May Jones is Landless in Oxford
Our current MA Arts and Place student Rosie May Jones reports on her creative residency at Ovada gallery in Oxford, through which she has developed her practice in response to issues of land ownership in the local area.
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Hi! It’s @rach3wphoto here again for day 3 of my Instagram takeover for the Arts School. Today me and fellow MA Arts & Ecology student Katie have been exploring the Ferment Festival art trail. There’s some fascinating installations tucked away all around the estate, it’s on until 2nd Oct and you can pick up a trail map at the gallery or @greentablecafe. Here are a few highlights…
1. A Thousand Handshakes by Katran
2. Sleeper by Alexandra Dementieva
3. Artist Union. Still life by Anna Frants
4. Reverse Drift. Unpacking and Absorption by Pavel Ignatev.
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#instatakeover #artsandecology #postgraduatestudy #postgrad #postgradlife #artexhibition #artinstallation #artsfestival #fermentfestival #dartington #dartingtonarts #devon #artistsofinstagram
Allenheads Contemporary Arts (ACA) welcomes MA Arts and Place students Gavin Blench and Stephe Gray for a 2-week artist residency responding to the theme: Out of the Darkness: subterrania and the cosmos. Working at ACA’s rural base situated within a designated Dark Skies Area, they have the opportunity to use the on-site astronomical observatory (North Pennines Observatory) to explore some of the country's best views of stars, meteor showers and the Milky Way. In contrast, they may also engage with the rich mining history of the area, where below ground is a labyrinth of lead mining tunnels and chambers, excavated by hand in the 18th Century, most of which no natural light ever reaches. The artists will have an Open Studio on Friday 30th September. All welcome.
@arts_and_place #residency #astronomical #masters #artresidency
Hi! It’s Rachel (@rach3wphoto) again here, from the MA Arts & Ecology course. Our group show ‘Navigating’ is currently on at the gallery at Dartington, I’ll be sharing a sneak preview of the show over the next couple of days.
The MA Arts & Ecology is the setting of a journey in which arts practitioners pursue ways to develop the ecological underpinning of our work. With the ‘Navigating’ exhibition we invite you to step into our present moment of flux within this endeavour and sample a collection of our works-in-progress that address themes such as migration, regeneration, interconnection, disruption, loss, equality, interdependency and negative space.
The exhibition is on until 2nd October, and is open 11am-4pm daily. Do pop in if you’re in the area, we’d love to see you and hear what you think!
#instatakeover #artsandecology #postgraduatestudy #postgrad #postgradlife #artexhibition #artsfestival #fermentfestival #dartington #dartingtonarts #devon #artistsofinstagram
Hello! It’s Rachel here (@rach3wphoto) - I’m an MA Arts & Ecology student at Dartington Arts School and I’m going to be posting here during the next week. I’ll be sharing images from our MA group show ‘Navigating’ which is currently on in the gallery, as well as exploring what’s going on at Ferment festival. I'm looking forward to sharing my week with you!
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#instatakeover #artsandecology #postgraduatestudy #postgrad #postgradlife #artexhibition #artsfestival #fermentfestival #dartington #dartingtonarts #devon #artistsofinstagram