Venice Art Workshops for School Trips and Groups
Venice was the European capital of the publishing industry during the Renaissance. Through our demonstrations and hands-on workshops dedicated to printing and bookbinding, Liberal Arts students will have the unique opportunity to experience history through creativity.
The courses for Studio Arts students aim to explore printmaking techniques that reflect tradition and innovation in a constantly developing field. Students will have the opportunity to work on intaglio printmaking techniques, such as drypoint and hardground etching; relief printing, such as linocut, and planographic printing with a monotype.
Scroll the page for information on the curriculum.
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups
Group visit to a traditional printmaking studio
- 90 minutes visit and demonstration
- Group Fee: €250,00
- Students admitted: max 22+ 2 accompanying professors
The students will be accompanied by an artist from the Scuola to discover the presses and tools of a traditional Venetian printmaking studio. To help students understand the historical and social function of printing, they will be shown a life-size copy of Jacopo de’ Barbari’s bird’s eye view map of Venice.
This will be followed by the presentation of a selection of artists’ books from the Scuola’s collection
The visit will end with a demonstration of printing a matrix with the ancient presses of the Scuola.
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups: beginners workshops
Bookbinding
- 3-hour immersive Workshop
- Group Fee: €600,00
- Students admitted: max 16+ 2 accompanying professors
- Materials are provided by the Scuola
You can choose for your students one of these two bookbinding techniques: Japanese binding and Coptic binding.
Our instructor will illustrate the characteristics of the different tools, the use of the needle and thread and the secrets of binding and the cover as a solution for recycling materials. Step by step, students will create their own travel notebook or memory book.
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups: beginners workshops
The Printed Image
- 3-hour immersive Workshop
- Group Fee: €600,00
- Students admitted: max 16+ 2 accompanying professors
- Materials are provided by the Scuola
This Workshop is open to students of all disciplines, and particularly recommended for Architecture and Art History students.
An original size reproduction of Jacopo de’ Barbari’s bird’s eye view map of Venice will be observed and described in its salient details.
With the guidance of our instructor, the students will produce a linocut, a relief technique similar to the process used by de Barbari to create this world-famous map, currently displayed at the Museo Correr→
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups: beginners workshops
The Printed Text
- 3-hour immersive Workshop
- Group Fee: €600,00
- Students admitted: max 16+ 2 accompanying professors
- Materials are provided by the Scuola
Accompanied by our instructor, students will learn about the typographic press and the printing tools used in Renaissance workshops.
Each participant will be given movable types to compose a short word that students will then apply to correct page dimensions and place in the printing press.
At the end of the lesson, all the participants will have produced two prints they can keep.
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups: studio-arts students
Monotype
- 4-hour immersive Workshop
- Group Fee: €750,00
- Students admitted: max 16+ 2 accompanying professors
- Materials are provided by the Scuola
The monotype technique, which combines the printing process with the spontaneity of painting, consists of the direct application of the ink on non-engraved plexiglass plates, which permits the realisation of a unique print.
During the workshop, students will be presented with examples of monotype prints and the materials and tools needed for the technique. Instructors will guide students in realising their own plates, and from those, they will create unique prints.
The inks utilised in this workshop are sustainable, not requiring solvents while allowing participants to work with an ample choice of bright colours. Participants will effectuate their prints on Fabriano printing paper.
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups: studio-arts students
Drypoint and Chine Colleé
- 4-hour immersive Workshop
- Group Fee: €750,00
- Students admitted: max 16+ 2 accompanying professors
- Materials are provided by the Scuola
In this workshop dedicated to the drypoint non-acid technique, we will engrave with the tools of the trade on a plexiglass plate to learn a versatile and contemporary process.
Students will use traditional tools such as the needle and more experimental materials such as sandpaper, among others. The different pressure exercised in the engraving will create the ‘beards’ that characterise the drypoint marks. We have revisited an ancient process in a modern and sustainable key thanks to the use of plexiglass plates and soy oil-based inks, which are washable with water and soap.
The Scuola’s certified instructors will accompany students step by step in their realisation of plates and small printing editions.
Chine-colleé, a process that will add a touch of colour and uniqueness to the prints through the application of coloured or decorative paper, will enrichen the work.
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups: studio-arts students
Sustainable Hardground Etching
- 6-hour immersive Workshop
- Group Fee: €1,000,00
- Students admitted: max 12 + 2 accompanying professors
- Materials are provided by the Scuola
We revisit the famous and traditional hardground etching technique with innovative and sustainable materials. Hardground etching is an indirect etching technique that creates prints through metal plates, varnish, and the acid that etches the surface of the metal.
The sustainable approach, based on continuous research on more eco-friendly and less toxic materials, enables us to complete hardground etching and prints without using solvents, acids, and other products that harm the environment.
Our instructors will guide students to process the zinc plates, from the polishing and bevelling to the application of the BIG paint, and finally, the completion of the hardground etch and print. Students will complete the etching with a blue stone, utilise a mordant classified as less toxic, and complete a small print on Fabriano printing paper with washable soy-based inks.
Venice Art workshops for school trips and groups
Staff, Health & Safety in the Laboratories
The Scuola uses sustainable inks that do not rely on chemical solvents. The studio adopts a green approach to all processes and practices.
Our staff provides qualified assistance in the laboratories.
The Scuola is wheelchair accessible and a health-safety certified school and laboratory.
All safety, hygiene and health facilities on our premises have been inspected and approved by local authorities.