Education Vision
We develop and review programs that teach on-location sketching skills to the maximum number of people all over the world. The Manifesto embodies our philosophy and guides all the education activities we organize.
The annual Symposium is a comprehensive educational program, which fosters the art of on-location drawing. It allows us to promote diverse educational activities related to drawing on location and knowledge sharing between professionals (authors, teachers, instructors), and people seeking to improve their drawing skills. The symposiums are organized by volunteers from around the world, and workshops are led by a top-notch team of local and international artists.
The Symposiums we have organized so far:
- 2010, Portland, USA :: 72 participants
- 2011, Lisbon, Portugal :: 150 participants
- 2012, Santo Domingo, Dominican Rep. :: 195 participants
- 2013, Barcelona, Spain :: 360 participants
- 2014, Paraty, Brazil :: 240 participants
- 2015, Singapore :: 420 participants
- 2016, Manchester, UK :: 423 participants
- 2017, Chicago, USA :: 477 participants
- 2018, Porto, Portugal :: 765 participants
In 2011, Urban Sketchers created the USk Workshops Program to create and foster educational opportunities for sketching enthusiasts and to support artists interested in teaching urban sketching under the USk umbrella. The goal is to bring the educational experience of the Symposiums to any city where a qualified instructor can lead a workshop. While the instructors’ styles may vary, they retain common areas of focus: issues of artistic creation, such as drawing, composition, techniques and materials; and creative approaches, such as vision, expression, storytelling and reportage.
With education as our main goal for the nonprofit, we are working to implement:
- The next international USk Symposium;
- International partnerships with Brands and Institutions promoting workshops and events;
- The new 10x10 Program, a global ongoing educational program during the year.
The USk Education Committee