SCHOOL OF DISOBEDIENCE
MANIFESTO
At the School of Disobedience, we offer an alternative to traditional academic art education because it has too often reproduced the very systems and mechanisms that art should be able to question.
We believe other values are possible.
We believe other ways of teaching art are possible.
These are the foundations of what we believe in, and the counter-world we are building:
1. NO CV, THANK YOU
For our application process, we do not begin with a CV. Life is not equally generous. Some artists arrive with diplomas, portfolios, networks, and institutional confidence. Others arrive with urgency, desire, experience. When we select, we also look at where the practice wants to go, not only where they come from.
2. ALL AGES ARE WELCOME
We refuse ageism in art education.
Artistic education does not belong only to the young.
Quite the opposite: experience is material. Detours are material. Restarting is material. A life already lived can become a deep source of artistic intelligence, and a whole group can learn from it.
3. SMALL GROUPS
Most of our groups are limited to four participants. This is rare in art education. It means your work is actually seen, followed, questioned, supported, and challenged.
You do not disappear inside a class. We choose depth, precision, and personal accompaniment over size, scale, and metrics.
4. NO ACADEMIC SUPREMACY
Theory is a companion, not a pedestal. We do not measure depth through citation. Knowledge can also be lived, embodied, emotional, relational, intuitive, practical, and situated.
Thinking does not only happen in the head. It also happens through the body, the room, the material, the encounter.
5. STOP WAITING, START MAKING
We don't condition you to depend on open calls, institutions, trends, juries, or permission. Artists who study with us also learn how to begin. To initiate. To propose. To organize. To build. To make things happen.
They leave with a different mindset: they do not wait for others to open the door. They start creating their own conditions.
6. CHALLENGE THE CANON
We do not treat the Western canon as the center of artistic knowledge. When we quote, study, reference, or situate work, we do it to open the field, not to repeat the same inherited map. No single lineage. No central narrative. No universal model of what art should look like, sound like, or be. We make space for multiple histories, geographies, aesthetics, bodies, languages, and ways of knowing.
7. CREATING ART IS ALSO CREATING CONDITIONS
We don't empower you. We give you tools so you can empower yourself. We unlearn and relearn how we relate to money, structure, communication, leadership, production. Because we believe your practice needs more than vision. It needs conditions. We teach you how to create, organize, and sustain your work on your own terms.
8. FIND YOUR ARTISTIC IDENTITY
You create projects while building a practice. We help artists see their own methods, patterns, questions, desires, aesthetics, and recurring materials. Everybody has an artistic identity. Sometimes it is hidden, sometimes it is misread, sometimes there is too much noise to recognize. We teach you how to see it, name it, work with it, develop it, and strengthen it.
9. TAKE YOUR JOY BACK
Artistic practice can give back. It can refill the body, charge the battery, open appetite, restore movement, bring lightness, and make life feel larger.
Joy is energy. Joy is the engine.
Providing a positive, generous, and joyful environment is part of the work.
10. START FROM YOURSELF
We begin from you, with you. The subjective is not an obstacle. It is the ground. Your story, your rhythm, your imagination, your questions, your contradictions, your desire: this is where the work begins. This is not a place to become someone else. This is a place to return to yourself, create from there, and build a practice that can stand, move, and continue.
We believe other values are possible.
We believe other ways of teaching art are possible.
These are the foundations of what we believe in, and the counter-world we are building:
1. NO CV, THANK YOU
For our application process, we do not begin with a CV. Life is not equally generous. Some artists arrive with diplomas, portfolios, networks, and institutional confidence. Others arrive with urgency, desire, experience. When we select, we also look at where the practice wants to go, not only where they come from.
2. ALL AGES ARE WELCOME
We refuse ageism in art education.
Artistic education does not belong only to the young.
Quite the opposite: experience is material. Detours are material. Restarting is material. A life already lived can become a deep source of artistic intelligence, and a whole group can learn from it.
3. SMALL GROUPS
Most of our groups are limited to four participants. This is rare in art education. It means your work is actually seen, followed, questioned, supported, and challenged.
You do not disappear inside a class. We choose depth, precision, and personal accompaniment over size, scale, and metrics.
4. NO ACADEMIC SUPREMACY
Theory is a companion, not a pedestal. We do not measure depth through citation. Knowledge can also be lived, embodied, emotional, relational, intuitive, practical, and situated.
Thinking does not only happen in the head. It also happens through the body, the room, the material, the encounter.
5. STOP WAITING, START MAKING
We don't condition you to depend on open calls, institutions, trends, juries, or permission. Artists who study with us also learn how to begin. To initiate. To propose. To organize. To build. To make things happen.
They leave with a different mindset: they do not wait for others to open the door. They start creating their own conditions.
6. CHALLENGE THE CANON
We do not treat the Western canon as the center of artistic knowledge. When we quote, study, reference, or situate work, we do it to open the field, not to repeat the same inherited map. No single lineage. No central narrative. No universal model of what art should look like, sound like, or be. We make space for multiple histories, geographies, aesthetics, bodies, languages, and ways of knowing.
7. CREATING ART IS ALSO CREATING CONDITIONS
We don't empower you. We give you tools so you can empower yourself. We unlearn and relearn how we relate to money, structure, communication, leadership, production. Because we believe your practice needs more than vision. It needs conditions. We teach you how to create, organize, and sustain your work on your own terms.
8. FIND YOUR ARTISTIC IDENTITY
You create projects while building a practice. We help artists see their own methods, patterns, questions, desires, aesthetics, and recurring materials. Everybody has an artistic identity. Sometimes it is hidden, sometimes it is misread, sometimes there is too much noise to recognize. We teach you how to see it, name it, work with it, develop it, and strengthen it.
9. TAKE YOUR JOY BACK
Artistic practice can give back. It can refill the body, charge the battery, open appetite, restore movement, bring lightness, and make life feel larger.
Joy is energy. Joy is the engine.
Providing a positive, generous, and joyful environment is part of the work.
10. START FROM YOURSELF
We begin from you, with you. The subjective is not an obstacle. It is the ground. Your story, your rhythm, your imagination, your questions, your contradictions, your desire: this is where the work begins. This is not a place to become someone else. This is a place to return to yourself, create from there, and build a practice that can stand, move, and continue.
study in Budapest
In Budapest, you can choose between:
- Creative Writing Studies
- Performance Studies
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study online
Our online programs are designed for artists who want structure, flexibility, and focused guidance from wherever they are.
You can choose between:
You can choose between:
- Creating a Solo
- Creative Writing
- Marketing for Artists
- Individual Mentoring
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short formats
In Budapest, you can choose between:
- 5-day Urban Retreats
- 10-day Individual Mentorship Residency
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longer formats
Study programs in Budapest for artists who want to deepen their practice over time.
Each module lasts one month. You can join one module, combine several, or stay for the full program.
Each module lasts one month. You can join one module, combine several, or stay for the full program.
- Performance Studies: 1-9 months
- Creative Writing Studies: 1-3 months
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