Open your art! Join NAS for Open Day 2021 to see behind the scenes

Open your art! Join NAS for Open Day 2021 to see behind the scenes

2021-08-25

The National Art School’s annual Open Day is a highlight of the year, giving visitors the chance to explore Australia’s leading independent fine art school.

NAS Open Day 2021 is scheduled for Saturday 13 November from 10am – 4pm.

Usually Open Day takes place in September on the heritage-listed Darlinghurst campus, however this year it has been rescheduled to due to lockdown.

While we hope to welcome visitors in person in November, in September NAS will launch Open Day Online with all the information on hand for prospective students or anyone interested in finding out what NAS offers, from the Bachelor of Fine Art, Master of Fine Art and Doctor of Fine Art tertiary degrees to the extensive year-round program of short courses to major public exhibitions and more.

Open Day Online allows visitors to chat with staff, see what current students are working on, watch information sessions about the BFA, MFA and DFA degrees, learn how to apply to study at NAS, and get a taste of life on campus with Art Forum talks, our weekly lecture program for students featuring invited guests speaking about their curatorial, artistic and research projects. In 2021 speakers have included Justine Youssef, Richard Bell, Wendy Sharpe, Shireen Taweel and Guy Warren.

“Open Day Online means wherever you are in the world, you can get an understanding of NAS’s unique, studio-based practice model of learning, taught by successful, practicing artists, and appreciate why, year after year, student satisfaction is so high for our courses,” said NAS Director and CEO Steven Alderton.

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, NAS quickly adapted to the challenges of education during the pandemic and was one of the first tertiary institutions in Sydney to bring students back on campus after lockdown, enabling them to continue their courses with a minimum of disruption. Practical classes continued with social distancing and students regained access to their studios with safety and hygiene protocols in place, in addition to online support from a custom-designed academic portal and NAS teachers. Face-to-face teaching time was maintained at pre-COVID levels.

In 2020 the school also launched NAS Studio Sessions on Instagram during lockdown, building an online community for students, staff and alumni to support each other and share their practice while working at home. Students have continued to post here since returning to campus last year, and during the current Sydney lockdown, see #NASStudioSessions.

If visitors are permitted back on the NAS campus by 30 October, Open Day will go ahead with public health and safety protocols in place, as it did in 2020. All visitors will register on entry, masks will be compulsory for all spaces, indoors and outdoors, and appropriate social distancing and hygiene measures will be maintained.

In 2022 the School will celebrate 100 years of teaching students in the beautiful sandstone buildings of the former Darlinghurst Gaol, as well as 200 years since construction of the Gaol began in 1822. We look forward to welcoming everyone to NAS Open Day and Open Day Online.

Looking for exhibitions to view this weekend? Here are some current exhibitions with National Art School staff and alumni:

1) NAS Alum Mitch Cairns has a solo exhibition ‘Restless Legs` at @artgalleryofnsw until 9 June 2025. Books, chimneys and a lyre are among the motifs featured in this electric show.

2) Former NAS Head of Postgraduate Studies Ian Greig opens his solo exhibition ‘Within the Light of Thing’ at @arthousegallery this Saturday 3 May. Join Ian for his Artist Talk at 2pm to learn more about his new stylistic development.

3) NAS Head of Painting Stephen Little has a solo exhibition ‘The Harbinger Suite: Reliquaries‘ at @maiswright.gallery. The exhibition continues until 3 May 2025.

4) NAS Painting Lecturer Gemma Smith is displaying ‘Compression dissolve’ in The Intelligence of Painting exhibition at @mca_australia until 20 July 2025. ‘The Intelligence of Painting’ presents paintings from 14 Australian women artists of multiple generations.

Image credit 1: Mitch Cairns ‘9–5’ 2024, oil on linen, 124.5 x 104.5 cm, collection of the artist © Mitch Cairns, courtesy The Commercial, Sydney, photo: The Commercial

Image credit 2: Ian Greig ‘Bundjalung Country’ 2025, oil on linen, 168 x 168 cm. Courtesy the artist and the Arthouse Gallery © the artist

Image credit 3: Stephen Little, installation view of ‘The Harbinger Suite: Reliquaries’, 2025. Courtesy the artist and MAIS WRIGHT © the artist, photograph: Robin Hearfield

Image credit 4: Gemma Smith, Compression dissolve, 2024, installation view The Intelligence of Painting, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2025, acrylic on canvas, courtesy the artist and Sullivan + Strumpf © the artist, photograph: Hamish McIntosh

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May 1

Open

We are pleased to announce two international residency opportunities for our alumni and staff community for 2026: The Onslow Storrier NAS Residency La Cité Internationale Des Arts, Paris and The British School at Rome.

These residencies offer a unique chance to immerse yourself in the vibrant art scenes of two iconic European cities, Paris and Rome, and further develop your artistic practice in an enriching cultural environment.

Application Deadline: Sunday 29 June 2025

Learn more and apply at the link in bio.
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Sophia Lee Georgas BSR Open Studio, 2023, image courtesy and © The British School at Rome; Harry de Vries BSR Open Studio, 2024, image courtesy and © The British School at Rome

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Apr 28

Open

We are pleased to announce two international residency opportunities for our alumni and staff community for 2026: The Onslow Storrier NAS Residency La Cité Internationale Des Arts, Paris and The British School at Rome.

These residencies offer a unique chance to immerse yourself in the vibrant art scenes of two iconic European cities, Paris and Rome, and further develop your artistic practice in an enriching cultural environment.

Application Deadline: Sunday 29 June 2025

Learn more and apply at the link in bio.
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Sophia Lee Georgas BSR Open Studio, 2023, image courtesy and © The British School at Rome; Harry de Vries BSR Open Studio, 2024, image courtesy and © The British School at Rome

Thank you to everyone who has come through to see the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize for its first week. The exhibition is now open until Saturday 21 June 2025. Please note we are open this Saturday and closed for the observed Easter holidays.
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Good Friday CLOSED 18 April 2025
Easter Saturday OPEN Sat 19 April 2025, 11am – 5pm
Easter Sunday CLOSED Sun 20 April 2025
Easter Monday CLOSED Mon 21 April 2025
Anzac Day CLOSED Fri 25 April 2025
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Installation view, 24th Dobell Drawing Prize, National Art School Gallery, Sydney, 2025, image courtesy the artists and National Art School © the artists, photograph: Peter Morgan

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Apr 17

Open

Art Club is our high school student program for 15-17 year olds, designed to enhance and extend students’ technical, conceptual, and intellectual skills, through intensive practical study in the disciplines offered at NAS as well as engaging in an experience of our studios and campus, under the expert direction of experienced artists.

Set your child on a creative path with Art Club.

Learn more at the link in bio.

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Apr 15

Open

Art Club is our high school student program for 15-17 year olds, designed to enhance and extend students’ technical, conceptual, and intellectual skills, through intensive practical study in the disciplines offered at NAS as well as engaging in an experience of our studios and campus, under the expert direction of experienced artists.

Set your child on a creative path with Art Club.

Learn more at the link in bio.

Thank you to everyone who attended the opening night of the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize and congratulations again to the prize winner NAS alumna Rosemary Lee.

The 24th Dobell Drawing Prize is now open until Saturday 21 June 2025
11am – 5pm Monday to Saturday
NAS Gallery
Free admission, all welcome

Learn more about the exhibition at the link in bio.

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Apr 11

Open

We are delighted to announce NAS alumna Rosemary Lee as the winner of the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize, Australia’s leading prize for drawing, worth $30,000.

Selected from 56 nationwide finalists, and 965 entries, Rosemary’s work will become part of the National Art School’s significant collection, built over the past 120 years. Rosemary, in her winning work 24-1 (2024), observes tonal and compositional profundity in everyday life.

The judging panel comprising acclaimed First Nations artist Vernon Ah Kee, Paula Latos-Valier AM, Trustee and Art Director of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, and Dr Yolunda Hickman, Head of Postgraduate Studies, National Art School, commented of Rosemary’s work: “The decision to award the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize to Rosemary Lee for the work ‘24-1’ was unanimous. We were most impressed by the level of visual intensity the artist has achieved in this work both through its vibrant colour and in the extraordinary detail of the composition. The artwork’s exploration of the urban landscape and gentrification of the Sydney suburbs of Ashfield and Summer Hill, has produced an image capturing a broader sense of transience and the omnipresence of construction sites in our cities today. It questions the cultural and historical value of place, through the lens of the artist’s personal connection.”

See Lee’s work alongside the work of the other finalists in the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize, 11 April – 21 June 2025, NAS Gallery
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Left to right: NAS Director and CEO, Dr Kristen Sharp with artist Rosemary Lee, featuring winning artwork 24–1, 2024, pencil on paper, image courtesy the artist and National Art School Gallery © the artist, photograph: Peter Morgan

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Apr 10

Open

Open your art! Join NAS for Open Day 2021 to see behind the scenes