Project-based teaching

In addition to regular classes, the Department of Sculpture conducts project and field classes in cooperation with external associates, artists, institutions, galleries, associations, foundries and other production spaces. 

Students participate in projects that take place in workshops, public spaces, galleries, sculpture parks and other contexts outside the Academy. Such work allows them to get to know the professional conditions of production, different materials and technologies, and to think about the relationship between sculpture, space, audience and social context. 

Among the important projects are the Montraker International Student Sculpture School in Vrsar, Bright Stripes in Bjelovar, City at Second Sight, Cima Residence in Hvar and projects of new technologies in sculpture. Through them, students develop their own works in stone, wood, public space, site-specific interventions, digital technologies and contemporary forms of spatial research.

Bright stripes

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The Bright Stripes field course is designed for students of higher years of study, where larger-format wooden sculptures are made according to their own authorial ideas. The workshop is held during May in Veliko Trojstvo near Bjelovar, where the resulting works are permanently placed in public space. Through outdoor work, students develop a relationship with space, get acquainted with wood machining, the use of mechanization and the production conditions of performing sculpture in a public context.

International Student Sculpture School Montraker, Vrsar

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The Montraker International Student Sculpture School is a traditional two-week field class that has been held since 1991 in the abandoned Montraker quarry in Vrsar. The project brings together selected sculpture students from domestic and international academies who, under professional mentorship, perform original solutions in a monolithic stone block. The resulting works are permanently placed in public locations in Vrsar, which gives students experience working in stone, public space and direct communication with the audience.

The City at a Second Glance

The City at Second Sight is a traveling artistic-research, educational and exhibition project within which classes in the field of art in public space are held. Through a hybrid of field and regular classes, students develop site-specific works, from exploring space and local context to performance and public presentation. The project encourages reflection on the relationship between art, the city, the audience and the community, and provides students with the experience of working in real conditions of contemporary art production.

Cima Residence, Hvar

The Cima Residency is a research-residency program in the town of Hvar that connects sculpture students with the local island community. The program includes field research of the spatial, social and cultural context, the development of participatory and site-specific interventions and their presentation in public space. Through work in the off-season, students develop the ability to read space, communicate with the community and shape artistic responses to the specific conditions of the place.

Project of new technologies in sculpture

The project of new technologies in sculpture is focused on expanding sculptural expression through contemporary digital and interdisciplinary tools. It includes workshops, presentations and lectures dedicated to audiovisual media, 3D printing, vector shaping, kinetic sculpture, Arduino systems and sustainable biomaterials. The aim of the project is to improve teaching processes, encourage experimentation and enable students to connect traditional sculptural procedures with new technologies.