● Program Overview

Workshops on Art & Life

Make better work. Think more clearly. Feel less alone in your practice.

Every working artist knows the feeling: the isolation, the doubt, the struggle to stay connected to why you make art at all. These bi-weekly workshops led by world-class artists and curators are a dedicated space to cut through the noise — part open dialogue on the ideas shaping contemporary art, part intimate group session focused on your work specifically. This is the conversation most art schools never make room for.

● Program Overview

What You’ll Learn

  • How to stay engaged with your work through uncertainty

  • How to work through creative blocks

  • How your practice connects to broader conversations in art

  • How to speak about your work without fixing its meaning

  • How to engage in group dialogue

  • How to situate your work in relation to others

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Program Structure

Meets every other Tuesday and unfolds as an ongoing series of workshops centered on dialogue and reflection.

Sessions move between small and full group discussions, considering how each participant’s work meets broader philosophical questions and conditions.

These sessions are not recorded.

● Program Overview

Meet the Instructor

Nato Thompson

Founder, CURATOR & educator

Nato Thompson is an author, curator, and what he describes as “cultural infrastructure builder”. He has worked as Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary, Philadelphia Contemporary, and Creative Time as Artistic Director and as Curator at MASS MoCA. His writing has appeared in major publications including ArtForum, Huffington Post, and Art Journal, and he is the author of Seeing Power and Culture as Weapon.

● Program Overview

  • 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.)

Frequently Asked Questions