Art School Backed by Louise Giovanelli Names First 5 Pupils

Manchester's exclusive new Apollo Painting School was founded by Giovanelli, gallerist and curator Alice Amati, and artist and academic Dr. Ian Hartshorne.

The Apollo Painting School, whose founders include White Cube artist Louise Giovanelli, has announced the first cohort of emerging artists to participate in their intensive three-month summer painting programme, beginning June 2024.

They are Ally Fallon (b. 1998, London), Isaac Jordan (b. 1998, Manchester), Deborah Lerner (b. 1989, Kings Lynn), Hannah-Sophia Guerriero (b. 2002, Manchester), and Isobel Shore (b. 1999, Liverpool).

The five were selected from 200 applications by a judging panel comprising artists Aubrey Levinthal, Rachel Jones, and Giovanelli, among others.

'We were hoping to find a group of generous, professional, inquisitive and mature people who articulate the reasons for wanting to develop their general understanding and specific practice with good quality input, support and feedback,' explained Hartshorne. 'We're pleased to say we've found these people.'

The non-profit school stemmed from numerous discussions between the three founders on the lack of support and opportunity for aspiring U.K.-based artists due to rising costs, and an especial lack of visibility for those outside London.

The Manchester-based art school will offer a blend of online and in-person learning, with sessions held in Manchester, and a residency period in Latina, Italy.

Guest speakers will include painters Vivian Greven and Flora Yuknovich, as well as Kiera Blakey, curator and director at New Contemporaries, a London organisation that supports emerging artists.

The course costs £3,000 per student, which includes tuition, travel from the artist's home to Manchester, return flights to Italy, and accommodation, studio space, and materials while they're there. The fee is reduced by 50% for those earning less than £60,000 and is waived entirely for those on less than £40,000.

Thinking back to her own studies—Giovanelli earned a bachelor's degree at The Manchester School of Art in 2015, and completed postgraduate studies at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2020—she said, 'I felt supported when I had a real palpable sense that the people who were teaching me were thinking deeply and looking really hard at exactly what I was trying to paint.'

'When the conversations around the paintings were focussed and pertinent I felt that the work I'd been making was being addressed in a sensitive and intelligent way and I appreciated this,' she said.

Giovanelli hoped students of the Apollo Painting School leave with the understanding that 'making art is a process, it's not an event, and continues to develop through subtle meaningful change.' —[O]