Experience the Printing Revolution Scuola Internazionale di Grafica

study abroad in venice

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 the printing press, Liberal Arts students will have the unique opportunity to experience history through creativity.

The workshops for Studio Arts students aim to explore printmaking techniques that reflect tradition and innovation in a constantly developing field. The workshops include intaglio printmaking techniques, such as drypoint and hardground etching; relief printing, such as linocut, and planographic printing with 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: €400,00
  • 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.

Scuola Internazionale di Grafica
Venice Art Workshops Scuola Internazionale di Grafica

for beginners

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.

for beginners

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→

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for beginners

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.

for art 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 fuses the spontaneity of painting with printing. It involves applying ink directly to unengraved plexiglass plates to create 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 unique prints.

At the Scuola, we use sustainable inks, offering a wide range of bright colors without the need for solvents.

Venice Art Workshops Study Abroad at Scuola Internazionale di Grafica

for art 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 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 ‘burrs’ 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.

Chine-collé, a technique involving the application of colored or decorative paper, will enhance the prints with added color and uniqueness, enriching the work.

for art 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

 

The sustainable approach to Hardground Etching, based on continuous research on more eco-friendly and less toxic materials, enables us to create 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 use a blue stone, utilise a mordant classified as less toxic, and complete a small print on Fabriano printing paper with washable soy-based inks.

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Venice Art workshops for school trips & groups

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.