Who We Are

Discover your depth and breadth as an artist.

Welcome to the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art (PASCA), a non-profit, international program for advanced studio studies in the fine arts located in the historic artists’ community of Pont-Aven in Brittany, France. Founded in 1993, PASCA provides a supportive cultural, academic and aesthetic environment in which upper-division undergraduates and post-graduates from around the world share a living and learning experience that combines critical discourse and focused studio practice with cultural site seminars held in major European art capitals.

Unique to PASCA’s fully-accredited 15-week semester programs in the Fall and Spring and two advanced summer intensives is our emphasis on both the local and the global. Each semester, PASCA alternates focused studio/classroom time in Pont-Aven with two travel seminars to centers of contemporary art. Paris and Berlin are staples of the travel program, which also includes visits to other cultural hubs: London, Venice, Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona. Short regional excursions expose students to the rich culture of Brittany. From this varied curriculum, our students gain a broad understanding of contemporary international artistic currents, as well as insights into their own identities as emerging artists, as they move into the next phase of their lives.

Join artists from around the world as you enhance your conceptual and cultural skills, and gain a solid foundation for your life as an artist in an atmosphere of lively discourse, guided studio instruction and cultural immersion.

"The Francis Bacon retrospective at the Tate totally focused me to continue exploring figurative work in my studio ; to experience the scale and emotion of his paintings was inspiring and humbling!"

— PASCA student