It was formed in 2012 through the merger of three formerly independent schools/departments at the University of Gothenburg. Valand Academy can trace its roots back to the year 1865, and is older than the University of Gothenburg (founded 1891).
History
The art school Valand was for many years situated in the Valand house, as seen on this image, and which gave the school its name. Today The Valand School of Fine Art is situated across this building, on the other side of Vasagatan.
The Valand School of Fine Art was founded as the Gothenburg Drawing School (Swedish: Göteborgs Musei Ritskola) in 1865 and has been part of the University of Gothenburg since 1977. The school is situated in central Gothenburg, currently across Vasagatan from the original building. Valand was the name of the construction company formed in order to build the original building which is now occupied by a nightclub of the same name, as well as a fraternal order.
In 2012, the Valand School of Fine Art merged with three other formerly independent institutions at the University of Gothenburg: the School of Film Directing, the School of Photography and the Department of Literary Composition.
In 2020, Valand Academy merged with another school within the same faculty, the School of Design and Crafts / HDK (in Swedish, Högskolan för Design och Konsthandverk). The merged school is now called HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design.[1]
Students
Currently approximately 200 students study on Bachelor and Master programmes in photography, fine art, film and literary composition at the Valand Academy of Arts. There are also the equivalent of 100 full-time places taken by students who study part-time on "free-standing courses." Study places at the Academy are highly sought, and typically there are 400+ applicants for 12 places on the Bachelor programme in fine art each year and 200+ applicants for the 6 places in film.
The Academy also provides doctoral studies (PhD) for practitioners and typically has 10 doctoral researchers working at any one time on individual projects in all four subject areas.
Each spring the graduating master students exhibit together in Göteborgs Konsthall. The Academy currently has two in-house galleries, Monitor and Rotor 2, and is developing a third external exhibition venue.
