The European Exchange Academy is specialised in arranging highly intensive courses for young artists. Drawing from his experience as an artist and teacher at numerous art academies, EEA director Harry Heyink has over 20 years of experience organizing summer courses at various locations.
In 2003 he founded the European Exchange Academy – Germany, Beelitz, which has, every year since, organized a month-long summer course in the secluded woods of Beelitz-Heilstätten outside Berlin, Germany. Working with some of the most renowned art academies around the world, over the last decade EEA has seen more than 400 participants of 27 different nationalities and from over 33 academies benefit from its program.
Over the years popularity has steadily increased, and the high demand is well exceeding the current capacity of 45 students a year. Combined with the organiser’s firm believe that being open to new challenges and taking risks is of utmost importance, not only for a young artist, but also for the institutes responsible for higher art education, EEA has decided to establish a new intensive course:
EEA-Turkey.
EEA12–Turkey, Cunda is a three and a half week long course, which will take place from April 17 to May 8, 2012. The location is the small Cunda Island in the Aegean Sea, just off the Turkish coast. Like always, EEA will collaborate with various art academies, and approximately half of the participants will be students put forth by them. The other half of the participants will be selected through an open call. This means that students from all academies can apply, along with recent graduates and autodidacts who feel in need of an energy injection and guidance.
The participants will live together in a small, private hotel, and work side by side in one of the designated buildings. Among them are four old Greek Orthodox churches, a community building, and an old olive oil press factory. These spaces will be used for the purpose of studio space, other education, and as exhibition spaces for the final show. In this unique setting, the small town of Alibey on Cunda Island, participants are invited to step out of one daily routine and create a new one, built around, and centered on a creative mindset. This, we know from experience, has a huge impact, which reaches far beyond the limited timeframe of the course and its visible and direct outcomes.
