I am starting to prepare for my next face-to-face DP visual arts workshop deep in the French countryside in July (in the Ardèche region of southern France)

This workshop is offered in cooperation with the IB and is a category 2 and 3 workshop for experienced IB Diploma art teachers interested in expanding their professional development and engaging with a  community of like-minded professionals.

The dates are 17 – 20 July and the venue is Les Tapies, a beautifully restored 17th century hamlet with spectacular views overlooking the Rhone Valley and the French Alps in the distance.  (Les Tapies is the hamlet but on the IBO workshop site the workshop location is referred to as St Pierreville, which is the nearest town)

Les Tapies has excellent art making facilities (including art studios devoted to architecture,  drawing & painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture) which are at the full disposal of the participants. A special dimension of the program is the supportive community shared with both DP and non DP art teachers attending from broad spectrum of schools from around the world.

Part of the workshop involved joint sessions with participants from the Art Teacher Workshop, which reconnects art teachers with their artistic passion. The DP workshop teachers can also extend their stay at Les Tapies by an additional week to take part in the art teacher workshop, which is specifically designed by experienced art teachers and enables teachers to become students again as well as explore ways to strengthen their art departments.

A highlight of the art teacher workshop is the full day excursion to Aix-en-Provence, home of Cezanne.

If you interested in attending either the DP Visual Arts workshop, or the Art teacher workshop (or both!?), or just want to find out more, here are the relevant links:

The St Pierreville (Les Tapies) DP workshop on the IBO website

http://www.ibo.org/events/214tasi11/

IB Diploma Programme Visual Arts Workshop home page
http://summer.tasis.com/page.cfm?p=375

Art Teacher Workshop home page
http://summer.tasis.com/page.cfm?p=270

Student Workshops (including IBDP visual arts)

http://summer.tasis.com/page.cfm?p=366
http://summer.tasis.com/page.cfm?p=18

Architecture workshop

http://summer.tasis.com/page.cfm?p=16

I also wrote a blog posting about the workshop last July. It was my first encounter with the Ardeche and a workshop location unlike any other I have experienced.

I’m looking forward to being there again in a few months’ time!