Cyprus College of Art

Coordinates: 34°48′36.88″N 32°24′35.61″E / 34.8102444°N 32.4098917°E / 34.8102444; 32.4098917
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Cyprus College of Art
AbbreviationCyCA
Formation1969
Type
Arts Centre
Headquarters6 Stass Paraskos Street, Lempa, 8260 Paphos, Cyprus
Location
Coordinates34°48′36.88″N 32°24′35.61″E / 34.8102444°N 32.4098917°E / 34.8102444; 32.4098917
Director
Margaret Paraskos
Founder
Stass Paraskos
Websitewww.cypruscollegeofart.com

The Cyprus College of Art (CyCA) is an artists' studio group, located in the village of Lempa on the west coast of Cyprus. It was founded in 1969 by the artist Stass Paraskos; the current director is the Cyprus-based artist Margaret Paraskos.

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

Kato Paphos in 1973.[1] With the arrival of the mass-tourism industry to Kato Paphos in the early 1980s, the local authorities there 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. With the establishment of this programme, the Cyprus College of Art became the first true art school offering in higher education programmes, on the island of Cyprus.[2]

In 1985 Stass Paraskos was joined by his daughter,

Caterina Cornaro. From this time the site at Lempa concentrated on postgraduate programmes, and that at Larnaca on foundation and undergraduate programmes. Both sites were also used to house visiting artists from around the world.[3]

Following the death of 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.[4]

Foundation and ethos

The foundation of the College in 1969 was highly unusual. Although Stass Paraskos had visited Cyprus in 1968 with the British poet Martin Bell, and met with the first President of Cyprus,

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.[6] 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.[7]

Sculpture wall and garden

The Cyprus College of Art's campus in Lempa is surrounded by a large sculpture wall and garden, open to the public. This was created over a period of over twenty-five years from 1989 by 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.[8]

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.[9]

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.[10]

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 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.[11]
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. Following the death of Stass Paraskos, his daughter Margaret became director of the Cyprus College of Art.

Published histories

Tutors, visiting artists and alumni

References

  1. ^ See Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)External Link
  2. ^ David Haste, et al, Stass Paraskos (London: Orage Press, 2010)
  3. ^ The Cornaro Institute, The Cornaro Institute: An Introduction (Mitcham: Orage Press, 2011)
  4. ^ See Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)
  5. ^ Michael Paraskos, In Search of Sixpence (London: Friction Press, 2016) p. 105f
  6. ^ Michael Paraskos, 'Stass's College of Art', in David Haste, et al. in Stass Paraskos (London: Orage Press, 2010)
  7. ISBN 978-80-210-4722-8
  8. ^ Jos Simon, The Rough Guide to Cyprus (London: Penguin Books, 2013) p.126
  9. ^ Helene Black, Planning for the Future, or what our village needs now, in ArtCyprus, no. 1, Spring 2006, 2.
  10. ^ Michael Paraskos, 'In Darkest Cyprus' Cyprus Weekly, (newspaper) 20 January 2006 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-01-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ Michael Paraskos, 'A Voice in the Wilderness: Stass Paraskos and the Cyprus College of Art' in The Cyprus Dossier, no. 8 (2015)
  12. ^ Kate Singleton, Ceramics: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2016) p.26

External links

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