FFA SUMMER SCHOOLS 2026: Summer School of Speculative Crafts, app. deadline 3 Aug 2026

FFA Summer Schools offer an opportunity to spend part of your summer creatively. Through these summer schools, you will learn about artistic techniques, develop your creative skills, and meet interesting people. FFA Summer Schools are open to the general public, beginners with an interest in and passion for art, as well as those interested in future study at art schools, who can familiarize themselves with the FFA environment and use the summer schools as part of their preparation for entrance exams.

The Summer School of Speculative Craft opens a space for both practical and imaginative exploration of textile materials in their ecological, social, and symbolic contexts. It draws on approaches from speculative design and contemporary materialist theories, which understand materials not as passive media, but as active forces and co-creators of meaning. The course emphasizes deepening sensitivity to material consciousness through ecosomatic exercises, imaginative work, and experimental methods that question and critically examine established ways of working with materials. Materials are understood as carriers of memory, relationships, and power structures, which are inscribed into the very act of making. At the heart of the course is working with natural fibers and direct experience in gathering, sorting, processing (spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting, and felting), and combining them. Through this hands-on engagement, participants develop an attunement to the properties of materials, their origins, and their relationship to the environment. The creative process is understood as co-creation (sympoiesis), in which knowledge emerges through dynamic relationships between the body, material, and surrounding world.

The aim of the summer school is to develop basic textile skills, such as spinning, weaving, knitting, felting, and basketry, and to apply them in simple creative experiments. The programme offers space for hands-on exploration of textile materials and techniques within broader contexts. Throughout the course, participants will learn to identify different types of fibres and understand their material properties – not only in terms of processing, but also in relation to their origins and environmental contexts. Working with gathered natural materials enables participants to explore their sorting, processing, and combining, resulting in the creation of their own collections of textile samples. The summer school is an invitation to engage in a process of co-creation (sympoiesis), where knowledge does not emerge in isolation, but through dynamic relationships between the body, material, and environment. Emphasis is placed on cultivating sensitivity to one’s own creative practice as part of broader relational networks.

Basic Information:

  • Instructors: MgA. Veronika Vlková and Ian Danner, M.S.
  • Summer School Dates: August 10–14, 2026
  • Duration: 30 class hours, daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  • Location: FaVU VUT, Kraví hora Campus, Building No. 9 – Painting Studio 3, Rybkova 23
  • Fee: 4,000 CZK, payable to account 111043273/0300, variable symbol 2602016 (please write “FaVU/crafts” and your name in the note field. The fee includes all materials and art supplies.
  • The Summer School will be conducted in Czech and English.

Please register for the Summer School of Speculative Crafts via the online application form by August 3, 2026, at the latest. Please note that your registration is not binding until the course fee has been paid. Uploading proof of payment of the course fee is a mandatory part of the registration process.

The online application form is currently available only in Czech. If you have any questions about filling it out, we’d be happy to help—please contact: Barbora.Sediva@vut.cz

Instructor profiles:

Ian Danner is an artist, researcher, and educator focused on craft pedagogy and its intersections with speculative queer practices. He is pursuing an MFA in Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he researches the combination of craft materials and techniques to explore(non)binary systems, assemblages, and performances. His work investigates how craft materials, such asibers, clay, and wood, can be used to support identity-building and community engagement. Danner’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at The Venice Biennale of Architecture(2023) and the Contemporary Craft Museum in Los Angeles (2024). He holds a BFA in Textiles from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MS in Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Penn State University.

Veronika Vlková is a visual artist, illustrator, and educator at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology, where she co-leads Painting Studio 3 with Patricie Fexová. Her practice spans static and moving images, objects, installations, and performance, characterized by a layered visual language and associative play, in which the dissolution of structures opens space for transformation and renewal. In her research, she combines principles of deep ecology, anthroposophy, and Karen Barad’s agential realism with therapeutic, meditative, and artistic methods, developing new forms of bodily and linguistic sensibilities. In addition to her solo work, she collaborates with Jan Šrámek (Illustrators of the Year 2020 – Czech Grand Design; illustrations for To je metro, čeče! selected for an exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2020), musician Kateřina Koutná, filmmaker Magdaléna Bažantová, and puppeteer and scenographer Robert Smolík.

Prerequisites for participation:
Prospective participants do not need any specific prior knowledge or experience. The summer school will be conducted in Czech and English.

Cancellation Policy:
If you are unable to attend the summer school, you may find a substitute to take your place. If you cancel your registration at least 14 days before the start of the summer school (according to the individual start dates of the summer schools), the organizer will charge a cancellation fee of 20% of the total amount paid. In the event of a later cancellation, fees paid will not be refunded. The organizer reserves the right to cancel certain summer schools in the event of an insufficient number of participants registered for a specific session. In the event of cancellation of the summer school by the organizer, the amount paid will be refunded in full.

Contacts:
Contact for questions regarding the course content and schedule: qvvlkova@vutbr.cz
Contact for financial inquiries: eo@favu.vut.cz

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