● Program Overview

Making Your Own Art World with Nato Thompson

You've been told you need to enter the art world. What if you built one instead?

In this course, curator, author, and TAAS founder Nato Thompson works closely with a small group of artists to reimagine how their practice moves through the world — who it's for, where it belongs, and what kind of relationships, audiences, and meaning it can create.

This isn't a conventional professional development course. It's not about branding or climbing the existing ladder. It's about building the conditions for your work to matter through friendship, conversation, local scenes, gatherings, and the informal structures that make art part of life.

Together, you'll explore:

  • How to grow a meaningful network without becoming instrumental

  • How to distribute your work beyond galleries, grants, and social media

  • How to find the people who actually understand what you're doing

  • How to make art matter in your daily life and relationships

  • How to build projects that work on multiple levels: personal, political, poetic, unconventional

  • How to give yourself permission to make work that doesn't need to make immediate sense

Open to artists in any discipline: visual art, writing, performance, film, research, sound, social practice, or anything in between.

Enroll Now 
● Program Overview

What You’ll Gain

  • Direct mentorship from Nato Thompson in a small, sustained seminar

  • Real feedback on your practice, projects, and language

  • A map of your existing network and how to cultivate it with care

  • New models for distributing your work beyond the usual channels

  • Sharper language for your work that stays true to its complexity

  • A toolkit of experiments, gatherings, and projects to help your work circulate

  • A practical, personal plan for building the world around your work

  • A consistent peer group offering ongoing feedback and support

Program Structure

1st Semester: September 3 – December 17, 2026

Thursdays, 12–1 PM ET

Weekly live sessions include conversations with Nato, guided readings, creative prompts, peer critique, and hands-on workshops on language, correspondence, and project design. Recordings available for members who can't attend live — but regular participation is strongly encouraged.

Weekly live sessions include:

  • Conversations with Nato about artistic practice, circulation, publics, institutions, and world-building

  • Readings and discussions on art, networks, friendship, distribution, and meaning

  • Creative and practical prompts

  • Peer feedback and group critique

  • Network and distribution mapping exercises

  • Workshops on language, correspondence, invitations, and project design

  • Ongoing development of each participant’s “art world” plan

Recordings will be available for members unable to attend live. Regular participation is strongly encouraged.

● Program Overview

Frequently Asked Questions

  • TAAS is for artists, curators, makers, and doers at every stage of their artistic life. Many of our members already have undergraduate or graduate art degrees. We believe strongly that this mixed-level experience is an incredible opportunity.

  • The uniqueness of TAAS is that our instructors are often working artists and curators with complex schedules, therefore you’ll see amazing artists come, go and return from quarter to quarter.

  • TAAS is not accredited — intentionally. We believe the most valuable art education happens in dialogue with working artists and curators, not through institutional checkboxes.

  • TAAS operates on Zoom embedded in a networking software that operates as our digital campus. The platform includes a variety of messaging options, profile pages for artists to represent themselves and their work, and clubs in which they can host break-out sessions outside of classes.

  • The Alternative Art School uses Mighty Networks as our online campus and platform. This media-based learning environment allows artists to collaborate, upload their work, and share across vast distances.

  • TAAS is an online school and students need access to a dependable wifi network and a desktop or laptop computer with a working webcam and microphone. Some students find Direct Ethernet cables helpful to boost connectivity if their wifi networks are unstable.

  • While TAAS is not a non-profit, we have a fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, that accepts donations on our behalf and offers a tax-deduction for all donations. We certainly encourage those with means and a big heart to support this initiative (see “Support” tab to donate.)