After a two-year hiatus thanks to the pandemic, SVA Destinations, the College’s travel, art-making and cultural program, is back again in full force in 2023. SVA Destinations aims to reinvigorate your passion for art, fulfill the dream of renewing the creative spirit and breaking out of the daily grind.

While SVA’s travel program offers nine choice getaways this summer, one of the premier exotic destinations that checks all those boxes is Design West, an international summer design school located in the beautiful village of Letterfrack in Connemara, on the gorgeous and windswept west coast of Ireland.

Running this year from June 17 – 30, for these inspirational two weeks, participants will work with leading designers and artists from across Europe and the U.S., including BFA Design and BFA Advertising Chair Gail Anderson (BFA 1984 Media Arts), Conor Clarke, Ken Deegan, Brankica Harvey, Anni Seligmann, Job Vogel and Martin De Porres Wright. (In the image below, from left to right, are Wright, SVA Executive Vice President Anthony Rhodes and Clarke.)

We spoke to Clarke, a co-founder and director of Design Factory, a design studio based in Dublin, briefly about the program’s appeal, the rousing beauty of the location and more.

“Letterfrack is a unique and beautiful village at the entrance to Connemara National Park,” Clarke explained about the remote location and how it serves its students. “Unplugging from our hectic everyday working lives—commuting, cell phones, deadlines, media saturation—participants will immerse themselves in the wild and rugged Connemara landscape and use it both as a mode of research and as a source of inspiration.”

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Reinvigorate your passion for making art on the coast of Western Ireland this summer.