Cyprus College of Art

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Cyprus College of Art
Motto A Creative Community with a Cause
Established 1969
Location
Paphos
,
Cyprus
Campus Rural
Website http://www.artcyprus.org/

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The Cyprus College of Art (CyCA) is an artists' studio group, founded in 1969 by the artist Stass Paraskos, on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. It is located in the village of Lempa, near the town of Paphos. It is known for its radical libertarian attitude to art, which has attracted numerous major figures from the international art world to the College, including Terry Frost, Clive Head, Euan Uglow and Rachel Whiteread,[1] but which has also caused it serious problems with art and governmental organisations in both Cyprus and abroad.[2]


History

The former Cyprus College of Art building in the centre of Larnaca.

The Cyprus College of Art was founded in 1969 by the Cypriot painter Stass Paraskos, and is one of the oldest art institutions on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. In the past it has been housed at different locations. It started life in the city of Famagusta on the east coast of Cyprus in 1969, but after a campaign by local hoteliers against the presence of impoverished artists and art students in a city increasingly focused on mass tourism, the College moved briefly to Larnaca in 1972, and then to Kato Paphos in 1973.[3] With the arrival of the mass-tourism industry to Kato Kaphos in the early 1980s, the local authorities here also asked the College to move and it was settled at its present site in the village of Lempa in 1985. In 2002 the College acquired premises in the city of Limassol, run alongside the studios in Lempa, and the Limassol operation moved to Larnaca in 2007, becoming the Cornaro Institute. This was separated from the Cyprus College of Art in 2014 and now operates as an independent organisation.

The original aim of the Cyprus College of Art was not to provide formal courses, but to offer artists and art students from different countries the opportunity to spend a period of time making art in Cyprus. However, in the early 1970s the college planned to launch the first postgraduate fine art programme in Cyprus, but this was delayed by the Turkish invasion in 1974, and did not start until 1978.[4]

With the acquisition of additional premises in Limassol in 2002 the College launched several undergraduate fine art programmes. This included foundation, adult education and degree courses in painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking. Almost all of the programmes taught at the College followed a British art education model, and several were validated in the United Kingdom, although these validations were not accepted by the Cypriot government authorities. In 2007 the College's Limassol site was closed and teaching transferred to a new building in Larnaca which became known as the Cornaro Institute, named after the last Venetian Queen of Cyprus Caterina Cornaro. From this time the site at Lempa concentrated on postgraduate programmes and Larnaca on foundation and undergraduate programmes. Both sites were also used to house visiting artists from around the world.[5]

Following the death of the founder of the College, Stass Paraskos, in 2014 the Cyprus College of Art ceased to offer formal educational courses and de-registered as a college of education with the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture. The Cornaro Institute in Larnaca was separated from the College and became an independent institution, and the College in Lempa became a studio and residency centre for artists and art students from around the world.[6]

Foundation and Ethos

The foundation of the College in 1969 was highly unusual. It began as a discussion in a pub in the English city of Leeds, where the artist Stass Paraskos was a tutor at the Leeds College of Art. In this discussion it was suggested Paraskos organise a summer trip for the art students and tutors to Cyprus. Agreeing to do this, Paraskos started an annual event, which attracted students from other British art schools, and eventually grew into the Cyprus College of Art.[7] This informal start led by artists remains a central part of the ethos of CyCA today, with artists rather than administrators still playing a central role in the institution, and stressing the freedom of the artist to be a creative being rather than under the control of academic bureaucracies.[8]

The Great Wall of Lempa (Sculpture Garden)

The Cyprus College of Art's campus in Lempa is surrounded by a giant sculpture wall and garden, created over a period of over twenty-five years from 1989 by the Principal of the College, Stass Paraskos, together with many of the artists and art students who have visited the College. The wall is a major landmark and tourist attraction in the region, attracting visitors to the village to see sculptures of a King Kong-sized gorilla, a donkey known as 'the art critic' and numerous other animals and human figures, as well as abstract elements. These are all constructed from found materials and cement.[9]

Controversy with Manifesta

In 2005, the International Manifesta Organisation, based in the Netherlands announced that the art festival Manifesta 6 would be held in Cyprus in 2006. The Cyprus College of Art was initially enthusiastic about the prospect of an international art fair in Cyprus, publishing a supporting article in the College newsletter, ArtCyprus about Manifesta.[10]

However a perceived unwillingness by the Manifesta organisers to engage with the College and the Cypriot art world resulted in the College becoming one of Manifesta 6's fiercest critics. This was compounded by the Manifesta team claiming there was no functioning art school in Cyprus, a charge that resulted in CyCA dedicating an entire issue of ArtCyprus to attacking Manifesta, accusing the Dutch organisation of cultural insensitivity bordering on racism.[11]

Failed Development Plans

In 2007, the College was included by the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture in a plan to transform the village of Lempa (Paphos) into a regional cultural centre. Although there has been no progress in this to date, the plan is still official government policy in Cyprus. The failure of the government to deliver on the planned development was seen at the time by the College as a major example of the Ministry of Education and Culture's hostility towards the Cyprus College of Art and its libertarian attitude towards art education.[12] This resulted in a major rethink by the College of its purpose and future. As a result of this the College became the only educational institution in Cyprus to date to sever its connection to the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus and become, in 2014, fully independent.

Rebirth and Development

The economic crisis that hit Cyprus in 2013 had a major detrimental effect on the finances of the College, resulting in falling student recruitment. Coupled with a belief within the College of increased hostility towards the College from the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, and most significantly of all, the death of the founder of the College, Stass Paraskos, in 2014, it was decided in 2014 to cease offering educational courses and return the College to being a centre for visiting artists.[13] This resulted in the separation of the Cyprus College of Art in Lempa from the Cornaro Institute in Larnaca, and with the focus of the College now firmly on Lempa work has begun with Lempa Parish Council on upgrading the facilities in Lempa to operate the site solely as an artists' studio complex.

Published histories

  • Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)
  • David Haste et al. Stass Paraskos (London: Orage Press, 2010) ISBN 978-0-9544523-5-3
  • John Cornall 'Earth Wisdom – Cypriot Connections in British Art' in London Magazine 1996

Tutors, Visiting Artists and Alumni

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External links

References

  1. ↑ See 'Cyprus College of Art' in Circa Magazine, no. 83 (1998), p.65
  2. ↑ Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)
  3. ↑ See Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)
  4. ↑ David Haste, et al, Stass Paraskos (London: Orage Press, 2010)
  5. ↑ The Cornaro Institute, The Cornaro Institute: An Introduction (Mitcham: Orage Press, 2011)
  6. ↑ See Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)
  7. ↑ Michael Paraskos, 'Stass's College of Art', in David Haste, et al. in Stass Paraskos (London: Orage Press, 2010)
  8. ↑ See Ludmila Fidlerová, Lucie Bartoňková, Barbora Svátková, 'Teaching is organic' in Veřejnost a kouzlo vizuality / Sympozium České sekce INSEA. 1. (Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2008). ISBN 978-80-210-4722-8
  9. ↑ Jos Simon, The Rough Guide to Cyprus (London: Penguin Books, 2013) p.126
  10. ↑ Helene Black, Planning for the Future, or what our village needs now, in ArtCyprus, no. 1, Spring 2006, 2.
  11. ↑ Michael Paraskos, 'In Darkest Cyprus' Cyprus Weekly, (newspaper) 20 January 2006 [1]
  12. ↑ Bejay Browne, 'Historic art college turns to crowd funding site to survive', in The Cyprus Mail (Cyprus newspaper), 12 January 2014
  13. ↑ Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)
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