Ar.Co - Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual

Founded in 1973 as an independent art school, Ar.Co is dedicated to the experimentation, training and divulging of arts, crafts and visual communication. From early on in the school’s history, the alternative nature of the pedagogic project has consisted mainly of bringing together a strong emphasis on practice, a daily multi-disciplinary atmosphere and a view of artistic training as a service that should “make a difference” for a public with the most diverse objectives. The main training areas – Drawing, Painting, Photography, Jewellery, Ceramics, Illustration/Comics, Cinema/Movement Image, Art History and Theory, Individual and multi-disciplinary projects – offer complete professional programs, as well as topical opportunities for an introduction to a particular technical/aesthetic area, or for professional recycling. The therapeutic dimension of the training in the arts is, likewise, not forgotten. As part of the overall training program, Ar.Co frequently promotes conferences and informal meetings with specialists in a number of different areas and organizes public exhibitions of the students’ production and, eventually, of national or international production in one or more areas connected to its departments’ activities. Ar.Co collaborates regularly with other schools and institutional or private entities, both national and international, promoting initiatives relevant to the school’s objectives and voccation. Ar.Co is a non-profit cultural association of public utility.