The International School of Illustration is the Štěpán Zavřel Foundation’s educational centre. Set up in 1988 as the dream of the great Czech artist, the school was the first in Italy to offer specialised courses in children’s illustration. Today it still embodies the educational and formative ideal that constitutes the very identity of the Foundation and the spirit of the “town of fairy-tales”.
Since the beginning, the main aim of Zavřel ’s project was to convey the artistic and educational value of the illustrated book, and this is the ideal that the school has carried with it through the years. In this small corner of the world, it has developed a complete range of courses on many different topics, ranging from album illustration, artistic books and publishing projects to creative writing for children, animated reading, pedagogy and the didactics of images. The teaching staff, is international and includes the best illustrators, writers, publishers and professionals in the field.
The courses are open to illustrators (beginners or professionals), teachers, cultural operators, experts or simply enthusiasts. Their duration ranges from a weekend to an entire week, and they take place all year long, with more than 500 students coming from all over the world.
Since 2016 the school has also promoted illustration symposiums: these are conventions that include various lectio magistralis, round tables and specific workshops with the aim of promoting research and studies on the mechanisms of creativity, in order to create a grammar of illustration.
The International School of Illustration is a MIUR accredited institution (Directive 170/2016). Access the digital platform S.O.F.I.A. (http://sofia.istruzione.it/) to discover the educational offer of the School.