Cyprus College of Art in Lempa, Paphos. Hard to miss this one!
Passing through Lempa one day, we stumbled on the Cyprus College of Art. At the time, we’d no idea what it was – other than totally fascinating.
Some research turned up the Cyprus College of Art was founded in 1969 by the Cypriot painter Stass Paraskos, and is the oldest art college on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
The Cyprus College of Art was originally based in the town of Famagusta but, after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, it was forced to move to the town of Kato Paphos.
It in Famagusta until 1985, when the Cyprus Ministry of Education granted it the use of a former school building in the village of Lempa, four kilometres north of Paphos.
Anything can become art!
The first programme offered by the college was the Cyprus Summer School, now renamed the Cyprus Summer Studio, which gave mainly British and Irish art students an opportunity to spend a period of time making art in Cyprus.
In the early 1970s the college intended to launch a postgraduate fine art programme, but this was delayed by the Turkish invasion in 1974, and did not start until 1978.
Stunning shapes and colours...
The Postgraduate Diploma Course in Fine Art is now the Cyprus College of Art’s most popular programme, attracting a wide range of students from all over the world.
In 2002 the College gained additional premises in Limassol and it used this as an opportunity to launch several undergraduate fine art programmes. This included foundation, adult education and degree courses in painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking.
Almost all of the programmes taught at the College follow a British art education model, and several are validated in the United Kingdom by the British validation agency ASET.
In 2007 the College’s Limassol site was closed and teaching transferred to a new building in Larnaca.
And all this, just by the roadside!
The sites at Lempa and at Larnaca are now the only teaching locations for the Cyprus College of Art, with Lempa concentrating of postgraduate programmes and Larnaca on foundation and undergraduate.
Art’s a subjective thing – and love it or hate it – you can’t help but want to stop and look at the sculptures outside!
To see more pictures, go to my Gallery of Cyprus College of Art.
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