Teaching
October Gallery
The New School is run from October Gallery’s unique premises in the heart of Bloomsbury, an epicentre for art, museums and higher education in London’s West End. The Gallery was converted from an elegant but semi-derelict Victorian school in 1979 and now includes an exhibition space, theatre, library, sculpture and plant courtyard and café.
The Gallery has been instrumental in bringing to worldwide attention many of the world’s leading international artists, including El Anatsui, Rachid Koraïchi, Romuald Hazoumè, Nnenna Okore, Laila Shawa and Kenji Yoshida. The Gallery promotes the Transvangarde, the most innovative in contemporary art from around the planet, as well as maintaining a cultural hub in London for poets, writers, musicians, intellectuals and artists, and hosting talks, performances and seminars. The New School complements the Gallery’s Education Department, which is inclusive of all ages from under 5’s to PGCE student and delivers an extraordinarily innovative and wide-ranging programme.
October Gallery is our teaching and administrative base, but the New School also flexes between locations and learning approaches (including digital) as individual projects demand. For instance, students should be prepared to travel to Sitopia Urban Farm in Greenwich for the gardening seminar, and to the Ely studio where print-making will be taught.
The New School is then less a physical site, than a situation: a making (poein) by people engaged with each other and with ideas.
