Full Time Course Bursaries
Each year the Heatherley School of Fine Art Charity makes available a number of bursaries for full-time diploma students with up to 50% remission of fees may be offered to successful applicants.
For further details and to apply for a bursary, please contact the Bursar.
Why study at Heatherleys
Proud of our history
Founded in 1845 The Heatherley School of Fine Art is one of the oldest independent art colleges in Britain and is among the few art schools in the UK that focus purely on portraiture, figurative painting, sculpture and printmaking. The college offers both vocational and part-time courses to students aged 18 years and over.
Proud of our students
We are proud of our students and their wonderful accomplishments. Our graduate sculptors are equipped to make a wide variety of career choices. Many establish professional practice, making sculpture in their own studios, exhibiting in galleries in London, throughout Britain and internationally, winning prizes and awards, undertaking private and publicly commissioned projects for sculpture. Such as, Aleix Barbat, a graduate of the Sculpture Diploma and winner of the Tiranti Prize for Young Sculptors. He was chosen to complete the Bronze Woman statue, London’s first statue of an African-Caribbean woman. The project was based on the famous poem of the same name, written by Cécile Nobrega.
Many of our students have gone on to post graduate study at institutions such as The Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London (Central St Martins) and City and Guilds. Other graduates have completed additional training in Art Therapy and gained teaching posts in Adult and Higher Education.
Our graduates have explored other associated occupations in the arts and have made successful careers creating special effects for theatre, film and television, exhibition design and curation, bronze casting in foundries, metal fabrication, retail design and making jewellery and ceramics.
Proud of our school
Heatherleys boasts a purpose built art college in an unrivalled location close to the Thames, in Chelsea. Completed as recently as June 2008, the school is furnished with spacious and well-lit studios, a 3D workshop, a seminar room with video and IT facilities, making it a modern and welcoming environment.
The Diploma in Portraiture
For anyone wanting to develop as a painter, portraiture offers challenges that equip any student to approach painting, in whatever way or direction they wish to take it. Painting from observation acknowledges perception as a creative, complex, emotional and dynamic set of processes, which includes memory, fantasy and abstraction. Rendering a fixed, two-dimensional image onto canvas in paint can be achieved in a myriad of ways. Exercising and honing each student’s ability to translate visual experience in their own unique way is an important aspect of this two-year course.
As a student, you will learn to deal with structure, anatomy, colour, composition and the use of materials within a friendly environment with live models. Attempting to capture not just a likeness but a sense of a person, a living presence, will prepare the ground for students to pursue and shape an exciting, fulfilling, independent career as a painter of any kind, not only in portraiture.
The two year Diploma Course (72 weeks) takes place on three days a week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) over six terms of 12 weeks each.
Find out more about the Diploma in Portraiture and apply here.
The Diploma in Sculpture
The Heatherleys Diploma in Sculpture offers a balance between traditional skills and techniques. Learn how to apply these skills to your personal creative practice. We believe that study based on observation and expression of aspects of the human form can offer a rich source of inspiration, discipline and understanding.
Develop your personal visual language through the exploration of different techniques in modelling, carving and construction. Generate a portfolio of work in ceramics, wood and stone carving, metal work and more. We encourage a conceptual approach to help you discover what your work is about.
The two year Diploma Course (72 weeks) takes place on three days a week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) over six terms of 12 weeks each.
Find out more about the Diploma in Sculpture and apply here.
Secure your place on a Heatherleys Diploma Course
Apply for a bursary today.
Student Testimonials
I decided to undertake the 2 year sculpture diploma as a way for me to develop my practical skills. For me, the course has been a professional development opportunity that is helping me to grow my artistic practice. I came to the sculpture diploma 10 years into my art career. In 2016 I received an MFA in Fine Art at Wimbledon, and following graduation, worked on several artist-in residence and research projects. Despite these promising accolades, I felt my art practice had begun to hit a number of roadblocks. In particular I was struggling to make work as I wanted to develop a sculptural practice, but didn’t have the confidence to do it because I lacked fundamental practical skills in fabrication. I attempted to teach myself using YouTube tutorials, but what I was missing was the ability to ask questions to experienced practitioners and technical advisors, and draw from their pool of knowledge. The diploma is unique in its teaching of foundational skills of classical modeling, fabrication and casting. In the first year the use of life models allows for intense observation of the human form. The second year is freer and allows students to develop a sculptural practice informed by personal areas of interest. By the end of my diploma, I will have experienced working in a huge variety of materials, and be very familiar with a number of processes. I will also be confident to use power tools by myself in a safe way. In short, I will only be limited by the bounds of my own imagination.
– M Goldby (First Year Sculpture Diploma Student 2022)
Meet your tutors
The staff and tutors at the school are highly qualified, established masters in their fields, passionate professional artists and educators with a genuine mission to communicate, inspire and teach.
Facilities
-
- A purpose built art college completed in June 2008
-
- A teaching staff made up of practising artists
-
- An unrivalled location close to the Thames, in Chelsea, London
-
- Access to London’s many art galleries and museums
-
- Individual tutorial scheme
-
- Well lit studios
-
- Well equipped sculpture workshop, with equipment for working in wood, stone and metal
-
- Ceramics facilities including a broad range of clays, moulds, glazes, oxides
-
- Print room
-
- Expert technical staff
-
- Experienced models
-
- Seminar room with video and IT facilities
-
- Special lectures in fine art theory and practice
-
- A well-stocked art library
-
- School shop selling artists’ materials
BAC accredited courses
Heatherleys is accredited by the BAC. For over 30 years the The British Accreditation Council have been responsible for setting standards within the independent further and higher education sector. The BAC provides the leading mark of educational quality for the sector, which is used by students, parents, agencies and beyond as a guarantee of standards.
Find us here
75 Lots Road, London SW10 0RN. The nearest overground station is Imperial Wharf (5 minutes’ walk) and underground Fulham Broadway (12 minutes’ walk).
Still have questions about bursaries?
We’re happy to answer any questions you have. Contact us here.