(Formerly The Advanced Training Scheme)
We are now inviting applications for the 2024 CDC intake, which should be submitted by 1st March 2024
The Course provides a structure of tuition, support and guidance for those calligraphers who want to develop their work in a more personal direction. It’s not a teaching course. It’s a programme which encourages students to find their own way ahead, and the tutors are very skilled in helping you do just that.
The framework gives students time and the necessary help and diversity of guidance to develop their own ideas, skills, imaginations and ways of working, with the great advantage of working with a group of people at a similar level of skill and with similar objectives.
The course comprises two residential weekends of study each year for three years with two different teaching Fellows working as a team for each year. Each year new entrants form a group which stays together through the three years. Following the end of the third year, students show work in progress at Capital Letters Day.
The weekends are held in the Autumn and Spring
Applicants will be invited to attend an Introductory Day on 27 April 2024 at the Art Workers’ Guild, London, so that they can meet the other applicants. Applicants are asked to bring a selection of work in progress and completed pieces. Writing is not taught on the scheme (although there is some practical work) so when you join the Course you will already have reasonably good writing skills. The important requirements are potential, commitment and enthusiasm. The more work you can do over the three years the more you will get out of the experience, and almost as a by-product, the better your writing will be.
The tutors are Year 1, Sylvie Gokulsing and Juliet Bankes; Year 2, Vivien Lunniss and Mary Noble; Year 3, Cherrell Avery and Tim Noad. Sylvie Gokulsing is the Course Convenor.
Any potential student who is accepted onto the Creative Development Course, but who is put off for financial reasons, may apply for an SSI Bursary. This discretionary award covers a percentage of the tuition and accommodation fees for all three years.
If you would like to know more about the CDC and the bursary, please contact either Sylvie Gokulsing (Course Convenor) or Frank Zobel (Course Administrator). They will be able to provide you with further details and answer most of your questions. The CDC is open to all members of the Society.
If you would like to join the Course, applications should be submitted by 1st March 2024.
The dates and locations for the Scheme in 2023/4 are:
15 – 17 September 2023
Residential weekend at The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire DE55 1AU
15 – 17 March 2024
Residential weekend at High Leigh, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire EN11 8SG
27 April, 2024
Introductory Day at The Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT
11 – 13 October 2024
Residential weekend at The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire DE55 1AU
