The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (AFAD) (Slovak: Vysoká škola výtvarných umení v Bratislave, abbr. VŠVU) is an academy in Bratislava, Slovakia. AFAD was founded in 1949 at the dawn of totalitarian regime in the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. For next forty years, the institution was under the pressure of political doctrine promoting so called socialist realism in arts, as well as suffering the political purges affecting badly the whole society. In spite of troubled historical development and atmosphere of repression, at AFAD there were few spheres of so-called “positive deviation”. The resistance to the orthodoxy of socialist realism was made possible thanks to the intellectual and artistic background of some of the professors and their personal approach to their students. After years of totalitarianism, in 1989 the AFAD was one of the few higher education institutions in the country where the whole teaching staff was re-selected in an open competition. Since then many changes in educational profile and academic life of students and faculty had been taking place. As a result, today the AFAD is a present—day oriented school offering study in three levels (bachelor, master and doctoral) and five specific fields: Fine Arts, Design, Architecture, Restoration, and Theory and History of Arts.
Departments
Architecture; Photography and New Media; Printmaking and Other Media; Intermedia and Multimedia; Painting and Other Media; Design; Restoration; Sculpture, Object, Installation; Theory and History of Art; Textiles; Applied Art; Visual Communication; Division of Drawing
Standard study, BA and MA and Art D./PhD. level
Standard study in BA level: (8 semesters); MA level (4 semesters); doctoral level (min. 6 semesters); Standard study at AFAD is offered only in Slovak language. Successful student is awarded the Diploma and the title “Bachelor of Arts” Bc. (equivalent to Bachelor of Fine Arts, BFA), “Master of Art” MFA (equivalent to Master of Fine Arts, MFA), “artis doctor” Art D., and “philosophiae doctor” PhD. To be accepted the student must pass a highly competitive admission exam based on art practice creative work carried out during the examination and the language / theory / art history knowledge tests. Application procedure for students wishing to study at AFAD varies according to the level of study.
Mobility—the exchange stay at AFAD
Mobility—the exchange stay is offered for the duration of one semester. For students incoming under the under the programs Erasmus LLP, CEEPUS and Bilateral Agreement Program cooperation with partner institutions the study is free of charge. However, students may be asked to cover particular expenses connected with extra costs for administration processes and materials.
Famous quotes containing the words academy, fine, arts and/or design:
“I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike—and I don’t think there really is a distinction between the two—are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats. And that being the case, any human being, male or female, of whatever status, who has a voice of her or his own, is not going to be liked.”
—Harold Bloom (b. 1930)
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 13:45,46.
“The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)