Testimonials

The brilliance of the CAA Masterclass programme is its personalisation and the supportive, insightful mentoring offered by first class practising artists, curators, and critics. As a result, I’ve significantly refined specific facets of my practice. Huge thanks to all who have mentored me.

I have gained valuable critical feedback, fresh perspectives, and encouragement which is helping me direct my energies toward new work and opportunities, and I recommend it to anyone considering advanced professional development.

I am finding the mentoring sessions supportive, challenging, and useful. I am very pleased I signed up.

My experience during the Masterclass at Contemporary Art Academy was truly eye-opening. The clarity and direction I gained helped boost my confidence and enabled me to approach my practice with greater structure and productivity. The mentors were incredibly generous in sharing their knowledge and experiences, giving me a much deeper understanding of the British art scene. The crit sessions were especially valuable, offering thoughtful feedback that has positively influenced my work, while the talks programme was consistently inspiring and thought-provoking. I’m very grateful to the whole team, especially Zavier and Mathew, for creating such a supportive and enriching environment for artists. It was a fantastic experience, and one I would highly recommend to anyone looking to develop their practice and connect with a vibrant artistic community.

Just wanted to say how utterly brilliant your mentoring programme is. I have now had sessions with two mentors – so helpful, so positive, so informative, so encouraging, a vital experience for me.

I am now on my second Masterclass course, and both have brought me huge benefits. The tutoring is from a wide variety of artistic disciplines, including input from curators and other professionals. My work changed for the better as soon as I started the programme, and I found myself highly motivated and inspired. This has led to some success in acceptance for open shows.

Keep up the good work – your mentoring programmes play such an important role. Just wanted to let you know how brilliant the experience has been.

I really enjoyed the course. I got to meet and connect with so many amazing people! I have now been able to collaborate with a few of them and have even started an MA at Goldsmiths after being introduced to the course by Kirsty Ogg. Thank you so much to all on the team, I feel my journey is well under way.

Thank you for putting together the PG1 program and the entire journey that followed. Having now completed PG1 – PG4, and graduated, I can genuinely say it has been an invaluable experience. The insights, structure, and community have all played a crucial role in my growth, and I truly appreciate the effort and dedication you’ve put into making this program what it is.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Personal Practice course and was extremely impressed with the quality of the tutors. Meeting other artists with such diverse practices was a highlight as was the one-to-one session with the Lead Artist.

This course was fun and fuelled my intentions in both my work and communication to other artists. It was good to meet artists from all over the globe, see what they are doing, listen to their thoughts and to hear about my own work. It was both interesting and exciting.

This course is brilliant! Don’t hesitate.

Really enjoyed this well-structured and enlightening course, which gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from staff and students. I’m looking forward to PG2.

A wonderful, well organised course for professional artists at all stages. Incredibly stimulating, informative and supportive.

The course was warm, friendly, enjoyable and incredibly valuable. I feel more confident and focused with fresh and exciting insight into my work. Excellent.

PG1 was an excellent course that met my expectations and beyond.

PG1 is a well-considered course with fantastic tutors. It gave me confidence speaking about my work and valuable insights into my painting practice. I now have a greater understanding of the art industry and can consider context and direction with more depth. Highly recommend!

I really can’t recommend this course enough; the tutors are excellent, and the sessions are carefully designed to encourage you and inspire you in all elements of your practice. I’m really looking forward to PG2!

Thoroughly enjoyed the course, tutors were excellent just need time to process and apply learning before PG2.

The course helped me to clarify how to move forward in my practice. The discussion with other artists and highly qualified tutors was helpful and encouraging and I felt less isolated in my artistic practice. CAA has an ethos of support and encouragement that I really appreciate.

The course motivated me to reconsider connections between my work and to surge forward with new ideas. Having timetabled sessions gave me structure and forced me to think about articulating my ideas and questions.

Stimulating and enjoyable short “booster” course.

I really enjoyed my time on the course, getting to know my own practice more through contextualising conversations with my cohort and tutors. It has been very useful for increasing my confidence in speaking about my work, and also to gain critical feedback and develop more experimental approaches that I had recently started working on.

I started the PG1 course to reconnect with my practice. In a very short 8 sessions, we covered a huge amount of ground. My thinking in terms of the content and context of my work is now much clearer, I have a new vitally important peer group, a renewed drive, direction, and practical next steps. Pretty miraculous.

The PG1 course gave me the opportunity to think about my practice clearly and discuss it with a group of peers who had no previous knowledge of me or my work. This is in itself a fantastically valuable learning tool but was considerably enhanced by the enthusiastic support of the tutors. I would thoroughly recommend this opportunity to any artist looking for the opportunity to reset their practice or focus their approach to it.

Highly recommended to artists seeking direction and professionalisation.

This course has been immensely beneficial and supportively challenging, which is what I wanted and helped me begin to shift my practice. Many thanks to the course team.

I appreciate the professionalism of the tutors, their level of preparation and ability to deliver tailor-suited feedback to everyone’s practice.

Good value, very helpful, insightful mentoring and great to link up with other artists.

Great to pitch yourself into a room of your peers, assembled from across the world.

Very professional. Good communication. Diversity of other students. Great course all together. Thank you.

I loved the first course so much!! It was so helpful and I got to meet so many amazing others. I am super excited for the next one which I have already signed up for. It gave me so much hope!

I have found the Personal Practice course potentially life-changing as it has made me really reflect on why I paint, what is important within my practice and where I want to go next. Living in a fairly remote place with few opportunities to get to exhibitions, it has been invaluable to talk with other practitioners about their work, influences, etc. and build supportive networks.

The course enabled me to meet a diverse and talented group of artists. Together we learned from some excellent tutors and it was made even more productive by seeing the learning curves of all the other students.

I am now focused, and I have grown in confidence since the beginning of PG1. From the first elevator pitch to the ending session, I felt held and heard by the tutors and my peer group. Over the weeks we became a team that supported and understood one another. I am signed up for PG2 and I cannot wait. Bravo CAA.

The experience of learning through the tutors’ guidance and interactivity with my peer group has been so positive in developing my practice and how I talk about it.

Really enjoyed the course, it has brought renewed focus and confidence to my practice.

This course helped me to clarify the themes and direction of my work, allowed me to put it into a critical context and become more confident in speaking about it to others. It was great to connect with an international group of artists and tutors and get their feedback. The sessions were engaging and the talks fascinating. If you are serious about your art and want to elevate it to the next level, this course is for you. Highly recommended.

A very useful bitesize course to remind us of where we are with our practice. The participants were of a very high level and the tutors excellent.

Overall an enriching and dynamic course to continue our formation and make contact with people from the artworld.

PG1 is an excellent opportunity to develop your practice, and how you speak and write about it, within a supportive environment. CAA offers a chance for you to connect with the international art community, and learn from successful art professionals. I received invaluable feedback about my practice, and suggestions that are helping me to take my work to a whole new level. I encourage anyone who’s considering it to take this course! CAA offers an exciting educational opportunity at a great value!

It was excellent overall. The one to one and group crits were super helpful, and the knowledge of the tutor was so helpful in guiding the group and offering sound reference and reflective points that has helped to move my work on!

An intelligent and well-designed course that puts the artist’s work, and its critical context, at the heart of the project. Designed by artists for artists. Highly recommend!

A well-structured and thought-provoking course. It pushed me out of my comfort zone at times and has made me question not just the how but the why I paint.

The course challenged me and my designer brain, but I loved the path it took me and listening to other artists talk about their work. I would happily endorse this course to other artists around the world.

I enjoyed the course very much. It improved how I communicate about my work and the tutors were excellent.

I recently completed the first module Personal Practice (PG1). Over eight sessions there were plenty of opportunities to discuss my own art practice and that of other group members, and two great talks from guest speakers Hettie Judah and Stuart Semple. CAA provided a generous space to develop my practice and I am looking forward to following up on further modules.

I found the course really helpful in building momentum and formulating ideas. It was great to discuss my work in a critical environment with tutors and fellow artists.

The course was just what I needed – being professionally led by PG level tutors and participants. It helped me focus on my work-practice, gave me some ideas about how to move forward professionally, allowed me to meet others in the same situation (which made me feel less isolated) and has left me feeling much more confident overall. Job done!

I have been introduced to a lot of new inspirational artists and have had some breakthrough moments in my work.

It has given me a more optimistic view of the art world, and a desire to focus on similarities between practises rather than differences. I am also beginning to feel more confident about my practice.

It brought new focus, answered some problems and entertained; it was fun!

I feel more connected to the art world in London and that’s renewed my belief in what I’m doing.

The course has greatly benefited me, as it has improved my capacity to discuss my own practice more clearly and I have met a wonderful group of people leading to a real sense of fellowship.

I suffer from social anxiety and poor mental health. It has helped with my confidence, I went to London on my own for the first time since the pandemic and have just driven my car again for the first time in 3 years, which is major. The course has also given context to my plans for new work and a greater understanding of what I need to do moving forward.

It’s always beneficial to practise speaking about what you’re doing, and the tutorial and crit gave me new things to think about in relation to my practice.

As artists spending most of our time working alone, it is important to find ways of connecting with those we’d never have met otherwise for meaningful discussion. CAA gave me focus and structure when I needed it, in a supportive and constructive atmosphere. The genuine interest and respect shown by peers and tutors alike has given me greater confidence in my practice and tools for taking it forward.

This course has given a boost to my practice through my 1:1 with the brilliant and generous Lead Artist as well as the amazing group crits with my peer group. I have had the opportunity to discuss my practice within a supportive critical context which has helped me to focus on what’s next in a more constructive way. This course came at the right time for me as I had hit a wall with my painting. With the support of everyone on this course I now have wings again. Thank you.

I really enjoyed the CAA course which covered a large range of useful topics, challenged me to re-think and present my practice and introduced me to a great group of artists who I’ll definitely keep in touch with. It was supportive, challenging, encouraging and motivating.

The Personal Practice course delivered by Contemporary Art Academy enabled me to gain a deeper understanding of my practice and allowed me to look at it from a different perspective. My peer group were very generous and supportive as were the incredible tutors. I gained far more from this than expected and can’t wait to start the Critical Context course with the view of then going on the final Professional Practice course. I would definitely recommend this course to any artist who would like to reconsider their work. Also, the price and length of the course is both affordable and doable. Thank you so much to all those involved.

Having recently completed this course, I can highly recommend it. It enabled great insights into my own practice and I gained valuable insights into the practice of the other artists too, something that is not always visible. I made strong connections and learned so much. I have already signed up for the next session!

A great group of artists, supported by excellent tutors. The course was very helpful, encouraging and inspiring. I very much recommend CAA and am looking forward to my next course.

Really improved my understanding and ability to write effective personal statements for different contexts. Excellent range of tutors with current art industry skills. Good group feel. Enjoyed working with participants I’d met in PG1.

Cannot recommend this course highly enough, it really helped to consolidate my thinking, connect with other artists and I learnt loads thank you.

I greatly enjoyed having a chance to look closely at my statement and what it REALLY says. I appreciated the feedback from tutors and peers. I would recommend this course to any artist looking to professionalize their work and explore more deeply the message it conveys.

I thoroughly enjoyed PG2 as I felt it was a natural progression after completing PG1. I found the tutors and fellow artists were all supportive and positive about each other’s disciplines. I can recommend the CAA courses to any artists looking to further their practice in a positive and supportive environment.

This course was beneficial in so many ways. Writing a 200-word statement makes you really focus on the essential. Researching and presenting historical and contemporary artists related to your practice plus the contact with tutors and students was very stimulating. Loved it!

I wholeheartedly recommend the course. Doing PG1 and PG2 has invigorated my practice and renewed my love of researching.

I have found PG2 challenging at times, but it has improved my confidence speaking about my work immensely. I now have a statement I am happy with combined with a clear direction and focus for my work.

It was a pleasure to listen to all the statements – so much beautiful and informative work. I hope to keep in touch with everyone in the future – a fantastic peer group!

Definitely a challenge to the psyche, but that was why I signed up. Listening to other artists has made me see other processes and that has helped exponentially. Thank you all at CAA.

Having now completed PG1 (Personal Practice) and PG2 (Critical Context) I can wholeheartedly recommend to other artists who are looking into options to help them improve. The tutors have authority as they are either practicing artists themselves or professionals working in the art world, e.g. curatorial, institutional or critical. Sessions are focused but fun and I’m looking forward to all that PG3 has to offer this autumn.

The course has been incredibly influential on my practice, allowing me to talk about my work with confidence.

Completing PG2 with CAA has given me a far greater appreciation of how my practice sits within contemporary art. It has given me a new sense of confidence about describing the approaches and influences on my work.

I was reluctant to continue with PG2 as I didn’t feel ready to contextualise my work in a historical and contemporary way. I am so glad I did! I finished the course with a much better insight into my art practice and a very strong, well-written artist statement to match.

PG2 is a really enjoyable and informative course, the tutors went above and beyond what we expected to provide an in-depth understanding of critical theory.

This course has deepened my engagement with the contextual aspects of my practice and opened up new avenues of research. Building a community at CAA has been a nourishing and helpful experience. I highly recommend it!

Contemporary Art Academy fosters a massively supportive atmosphere. The small groups and warmth and excellence of all involved encouraged me to break-through my shyness and be more authentic. It is a beautifully structured journey into professional practice for artists.

The course really made me rethink my practice and not be afraid to dive deeper into the subject matter that drives me.

I cannot recommend these bite size courses enough. Affordable, challenging and progressive. A truly supportive and embracing experience, for times when you’re losing a little faith or are lost.

Critical context has given me a completely new way to look at my work and the themes I am exploring. I am excited to make new work going forwards based on my newly found research and presentation skills.

Contemporary Art Academy managed to provide a valuable boost to my practice and a supportive network of peers. All via a virtual platform and at affordable prices.

The course was exactly what I needed to re-focus and reconsider my own work, and critically, listen to the voices of my peers and take advice and inspiration from other professionals.

This course has been greatly beneficial, it has opened the doors to a wider and deeper understanding of my practice and new work. I have been inspired by the connections I have made with both my peers and the tutors. I would thoroughly recommend.

I am so glad I did this course. I am enchanted with my work again and I’ve met some wonderful artists along the way.

If you’re serious about developing a professional artist practice then I can recommend Contemporary Art Academy without hesitation. Invaluable contributions from top artist professionals in the industry to hone your practice.

PG3 is an excellent course. The sessions were informative and thought provoking. It was exciting to work towards an exhibition and all the exhibiting artists came together at the end to work collaboratively on the show. Highly recommended.

Completing all three modules of the Development Programme has proved very rewarding. My peer network has grown and there were valuable discussions with the tutors and guest speakers, who are all art world professionals. CAA offers a generous framework for professional development and I recommend their courses to anyone intent on improving.

Contemporary Art Academy’s PG 1, 2 & 3 courses have been invaluable to me. They help you see your practice in a different light and develop it in new directions. The tutors are wonderful and give valuable insight into the art world. CAA provides a unique forum for artists to meet and connect all over the world.

I have completed PG1, PG2 and PG3 with the Contemporary Art Academy. I not only understand my own practice better but I can communicate about it. I now have a network consisting of other artists, gallerists and members of the art community. This is so valuable and enjoyable to feel part of a worldwide community!

This course has been incredibly influential to my practice and my work, and I’m forever grateful for the artists I’ve met on the course. They have been a true source of inspiration.

The amount of knowledge I have gained by experienced tutors and the network of my peers has been invaluable. The final show gave me the confidence to speak honestly about my work.

Participating in PG3 really consolidated the experience and confidence I got from PG1 and PG2. I understand my work in a richer way now and I am far more confident about articulating my practice. Thanks CAA.

PG1, PG2 and PG3 provided a refreshing and inspiring learning experience from industry professionals that I had not previously experienced in art education. The added bonus was the great group of artists I met and who continue to provide a strong support network. Thank you Mathew and Zavier.

Doing three courses with Contemporary Art Academy has pushed my practice forward in ways that I could not have done prior to starting over a year ago. You come out of it with a stronger sense of the artist you actually are and why you paint what you paint as well as the ability to talk concisely about it. My heartfelt thanks to Zavier and Mathew for creating it.

My motivation and sense of purpose has been renewed by taking part in all 3 PG courses at CAA. The content, tutors and peer groups have been hugely valuable.

The course contributed a lot to surpass another layer of the lack mindset that is common among artists. Zavier was also a great surprise as a tutor showing a lot of knowledge and direction on the curation process besides his empathy and great conduction of the Final Show. I can also thank you a lot for the great and crystal-clear organization of the course.

If you think you know it all, think again and press refresh.

I benefitted from the knowledge and confidence on this course. It was an honour to work with the excellent tutors and alongside my fellow artists towards a final online exhibition. With Contemporary Art Academy it feels fun and serious – there is no art school hierarchy.

Professional Practice boosted my confidence and connected me to some brilliant artists.

I enjoyed doing the PG-1, 2, 3, and 4 courses immensely and I recommend doing them. I’m more confident when I speak about my work and I think my paintings are stronger and more conceptually tight than before.

An excellent introduction to gallerists and curators and to see my work in the context of a gallery setting. I can highly recommend this course, I grew exponentially as a person, an artist and a professional creator.

PG4 Gallery Sector called upon skills learnt on the earlier modules and applied them to real life conversations and presentations to gallerists, curators and collectors. Their feedback and advice proved very valuable and has helped me make clear plans where I take my practice next.

I got further insights into my practice; what works and what doesn’t, and how to talk about it even more concisely and tie loose ends up with my artist statement.

I feel so much more confident about my work and talking about my process now. Having the connection with other artists was so valuable and the course was way beyond my preconceived ideas!

Such an inspiring programme. It was great to have a group of peers and mentors to support me in defining a direction for a new body of work and the seminars provided useful information and new perspectives. I’d definitely recommend the course and will be keeping an eye out for the work of my fellow students and how it develops moving forward!

I found the content and interaction great.

As I live in a remote area, the summer school course was a really valuable extension of the PG courses, to engage with other artists and maintain a sense of direction. The feedback was incredibly helpful and positive, and it was great to meet another lovely group of creative people.

This course helped me work through ideas and processes with like-minded artists and with the experience of professional art tutors. It challenged me by pushing me to talk about my work but this became easier and clearer as the course developed. It was great to connect with other artists and to gain useful information about how to navigate the art world.

The Crit Programme offers a concise 4-week course that I would recommend to anyone wanting input on a specific query or avenue in their practice.

Liane Lang offered new insight and constructive feedback on my work, her perspective was valuable and insightful and has given me a jump start to a particular series of work that I was wanting to progress.

Profoundly helpful course.

My tutor was inspirational, simply inspirational. Their enthusiasm and love of painting shone through, it was infectious. I now find myself applying for an MA – never thought I was good enough! Jo Whittle was excellent on PG1 too.

The course was a great way to inject a degree of urgency and challenge into my practice and helped me to push forward with my work.

I can thoroughly recommend the course for artists who are at a stage where they would like to move their professional practice on in an open and challenging environment. Great value.

Another great course from CAA: thought provoking, inspiring, encouraging and interesting. Provided me with options I’d not previously considered. Sensitive group leadership generated lots of positive discussion and feedback. Excellent intro session and one to one with the tutor: insightful, focused, helped me explore and evaluate next steps. Thanks!

The CAA Crit course was a perfect way to gain feedback on new work. It helped me question my practice but also gave me confidence and encouragement.

This was a short critical theory course to kick start my motivation and create some clarity around my painting practice. It was good to link up with other artists and listen to similar concerns.

Great tutors, and an opportunity to make connections with like-minded artists.

This short course was incredibly valuable as it really made me focus on trying to understand the direction my practice was moving towards. The conversation with Jo gave me really strong flashes of insight that seemed to draw my disparate and often unfocused strands of thought together. The group sessions were extremely helpful too as the other artists were a really talented group who were very insightful and passionate about their practice.

Andrew Carter is a fabulous teacher. This was the most engaging Zoom class I have ever taken.

Andrew Carter was a tremendous teacher (and Artist) no hyperbole.

I looked forward to each session with Andrew and I learned so much! Andrew encouraged everyone with useful tips and ideas. His teaching method is engaging and personal and I was happy to be part of this class.

As a complete beginner, Andrew gave simple and straightforward advice and inspiration to produce work that I am really pleased with, much to my own surprise. The online course was great as there were participants from all over the world. The international nature of the group was great fun.

As a beginner in watercolor, and art, I found Andrew’s class easy to follow, stretching, confidence building, and inspirational. The interaction with the instructor and the other students was so useful. Padlet was a great platform to share our thoughts and projects. Overall, a great course!

I am thrilled that I got a place on the course. I loved and treasured every session – and I definitely was not alone in this sentiment. The participants were from all over the world, and twenty of us were treated to a masterclass in developing our individual styles. Plenty of guidance, gently given. Encouraging suggestions and advice. I could do it all over again and hope very much to join another of Andrew’s classes very soon… and I am certain that I will be seeing most of my fellow students there.

I am at the beginning of my art hobby and am like a sponge, soaking up knowledge and skills from as many sources as possible. This course has been an important part of my learning process.

Really lovely course, learnt at my own pace and didn’t feel I had to keep up with others. The recorded sessions are great to revisit. The artist/tutor was so knowledgeable and shared lots of tips and tricks. Thoroughly enjoyable six weeks thank you.

I very much enjoyed this class! I appreciated the thought that Liane put into creating an acrylic landscape class that provided a context of a particular place – Ireland – while learning acrylic painting techniques. The context made the class much more interesting and enjoyable than it would have been had it only been about landscape / techniques generally. Very much appreciated her stories, videos and photographs. Also enjoyed learning about Irish landscape painters.

I chose the class because I needed to learn how to paint with acrylics and because the theme really inspired me. Mist & Magic and the Landscape of Ireland. I feel like I travelled in spirit the whole course and got new skills along the trip. I feel more confident and knowledgeable. Liane is amazing and she inspires everyone in the class with her awesome sense of humour and her talent. Totally recommended!

Enjoyed participating in the course and found Liane a very helpful and talented artist.

Liane Lang is a wonderful teacher, for both beginning and more experienced artist/students. She is knowledgeable, warm, generous, and forgiving. She brings her enthusiasm and her wisdom to every class.

Pleasant way to explore acrylics with a talented British Artist.