Art & design

Art & Design Courses - Online & in London  

Explore new and exciting subjects within a range of art and design disciplines, develop your skill set, get the support required to change career or launch yourself as a freelance artist or designer. All this and more delivered through our practical and engaging art and design courses at City Lit.

Our range of part-time, weekend and evening art and design classes are taught by successful artists and practitioners to ensure you get the skills, knowledge and experience you want and deserve. From experimental painting and drawing to contemporary jewellery making, there is sure to be a course for you. Study from 1 day to 2 years, whether you are a complete beginner or a practising artist preparing for an MA. Our courses are designed with you in mind, so you get to spend more time doing what you love. 

Set a new goal, start your next creative adventure with City Lit and let us support you to realise your ambitions.

We host exhibitions throughout the year at City Lit Gallery where our students showcase their amazing work.

Any questions? Contact our visual arts team on visual.arts@citylit.ac.uk

Courses available both in-person and online

We offer a range of long and short courses allowing you to choose between in-person and online learning.

Learn in the centre of London with our in-person courses. Our purpose-built facilities in Covent Garden mean we are ideally located and easy to get to. 

See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.

All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, we've got the class for you.

 

Join us for the City Lit Visual Arts open day on Saturday 18 May. Throughout the day, at our campus in Covent Garden, you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the full range and variety of our art and design subjects on offer.  Find out more >

 

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  1. Explore printmaking
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Fri 20 Sep 2024 (and 7 other dates)

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Esther Heyhoe
    Come and get inky with this fun one day workshop exploring printmaking. This course will give you a basic understanding of monoprinting, relief printing and screen printing and is aimed at those who would like to explore different printmaking techniques before going on to other courses.
    Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00
  2. Cyanotype printmaking in a day
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Fri 5 Jul 2024 (and 10 other dates)

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Adam Hogarth
    Cyanotype is a photographic printing process which produces a beautiful deep blue print from a variety of artwork, including drawings, photographs, physical objects or combinations of all of these. All levels welcome.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £99.00
  3. Sketching at the museum: Tate Modern
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Fri 14 Mar 2025 (and 3 other dates)

    Location on this date:  Off Site

    Tutors:  Steve Wright
    Exploring the pleasure and challenge of sketchbooks; learn and improve your drawing skills and 'ways of seeing' and understanding, working from an exciting range of artworks in Tate modern.
    Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00
  4. Scanning photography negatives, transparencies and prints
    Course start date:  Fri 3 May 2024 (and 2 other dates)

    Location on this date:  Kean Street Photography Studio

    Tutors:  Dominic Harris
    Do you have boxes of old prints, negatives or transparencies gathering dust that you'd love to have digitised? Learn how to get your archive onto your computer using different methods from flatbed and film scanners to a digital camera.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £99.00
  5. What did narrative ever do for you?
    Course start date:  Fri 10 May 2024 (and 1 other date)

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Lily Markiewicz
    Learn about the structure and function of narrative, and find out how it relates to your creative practice. In this workshop we will consider film, animation, moving image or other time-based practices, primarily, in which there is a clear and accessible connection to the unfolding of meaning over a linear (or non-linear) sequence, but we may also discuss examples across potentially any creative discipline, and other forms of expression. We will look at principles of narrative and narrative structures in film, the ‘conventions’ of storytelling across a range of examples, and how these have been used or subverted within the form. Storytelling is fundamental to human civilisation: across all cultures, narrative plays a central role in our understanding of our place in the world, and addressing profound questions about our existence. Children learn through stories; cultures cohere through shared narratives. We will consider the role of narrative as a fundamentally important pillar in underpinning societies, belief systems, and values, and why an awareness of these relationships is increasingly important in these ‘unprecedented’ times.
    Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00
  6. Looking at photography: social media and identity
    Evening
    Course start date:  Fri 17 May 2024 (and 2 other dates)

    Location on this date:  Kean Street Photography Studio

    Tutors:  Lorenzo Berni
    This course explores how photography is used on social media to share work, build a following, and create and influence an identity.
    Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £119.00
  7. The archive: resource and practice
    Course start date:  Fri 7 Jun 2024 (and 1 other date)

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Rolina Elsje Blok
    The archive is an invaluable resource for artists and designers, without some version of which it is virtually impossible to engage in practice in any systematic way. Whether it takes the form of sketchbooks, photographs, found items and clippings, internet bookmarks, or any combination of these and other items, the archive is a tool for organising, examining and reflecting. In this professional practice module, we will look at how to create and access physical and online archives, and how to use them in both research and practice, creating and organising personal archives. Many artists use the archive as a form of art practice: we will examine this, and how it differs from other forms of archiving. We will look at multiple approaches to storing information, organising it for accessibility, and working with the tools and perspectives of the archivist or curator, as appropriate to one’s individual practice.
    Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00
    Rating:
    100% of 100
  8. Looking at photography: critical and analytic theories
    Course start date:  Fri 14 Jun 2024 (and 1 other date)

    Location on this date:  Kean Street Photography Studio

    Tutors:  Michael Harding
    An introduction to some of the main ways of thinking about photography, based on cultural theory, politics, philosophy and semiotics.
    Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £119.00
  9. Collaborative creative projects
    Course start date:  Fri 28 Jun 2024 (and 1 other date)

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Rolina Elsje Blok
    Recent advances in technology and communications provide creative practitioners and communities with opportunities that, in historical terms, are unique. We have never before had the capacity to react to events and engage with issues that, in some cases for the very same reasons, can no longer be confined, in terms of their impact, to the location in which they occur. Consider, for instance, climate change, Coronavirus, the BLM movement and the global reaction to inequality and injustice. Artists and designers have at their disposal, through these same resources, and the full range of traditional media, the capacity to respond to these developments, and to effect change. With this, inevitably, comes the imperative of social responsibility. This workshop looks at how creative individuals engage with notions of collaborative practice (both via online/distributed models and through physical media/interactions) in the production or propagation of ideas, movements, memes or artefacts, including with those one has possibly never met, and perhaps does not even know. Besides collaboration in making, we consider the potential of social/viral media as a disruptor or organisational tool, (for example in events, happenings, flash-mobs, and organised protests or movements such as Anonymous, Occupy, XR, BLM and others).
    Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00
  10. Sketching at the museum: Tate Britain
    Course start date:  Fri 25 Oct 2024 (and 3 other dates)

    Location on this date:  Off Site

    Tutors:  Mario Lautier Vella
    Explore the pleasure and challenge of sketchbooks: learn and improve your drawing skills and ‘ways of seeing’ and understanding by working from some of the iconic artworks at Tate Britain.
    Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00
  11. Printmaking: summer school taster
    Course start date:  Fri 9 Aug 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Esther Heyhoe
    This summer why not come and get inky with this fun one day workshop exploring printmaking. This course will give you a basic understanding of monoprinting, relief printing and screen printing and is aimed at those who would like to explore different printmaking techniques before going on to other courses.
    Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00
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