Explore the summer school
The Summer School & Festival runs from 24 July – 21 August 2021, programmed by Artistic Director Sara Mohr-Pietsch. The full programme of courses has been released and a provisional programme of festival events will be announced in May.
Decide whether you’re attending courses, concerts or both, and then choose a pass that’s right for you. You can also choose from a range of accommodation options on our beautiful estate as required.
important covid-19 info
We are monitoring continuing developments and adapting our plans to ensure that we can deliver a safe summer school experience for all.
Click here to read our covid-19 statement and updated policies.
useful links
latest from @dartingtonarts
On this day, the great Igor Stravinsky was born! Here he is in 1957 at our Summer School.
The Great Lawn Sessions are back this week with not one but TWO wonderful live acts taking to the White Hart terrace stage across tonight and tomorrow evening. Bring a rug or folding chair and settle in for some lovely tunes filling the summer air... TONIGHT (Thursday June 10th) with the incredible Fionn Cox-Davies Music + Katie Whitehouse & Friends TOMORROW (Friday June 11th) by folk legend Geoff Lakeman & Rob Murch. More details on the artists at: www.dartington.org/event/the-great-lawn-sessions FREE ENTRY (+ voluntary artist donations). There'll be some food (hot dogs of all varieties including veggie/vegan) and cans of drink from the takeaway bar. The White Hart is also open for pre event supper bookings inside. Food/drinks from 6pm. Live Music 7.30pm to 9.30pm. These Great Lawn Sessions are a collaboration Dartington Arts, FromtheWhitehouse and The Black Bird Collective @visittotnes @dartingtontrust #thegreatlawnsessions #livemusic #dartingtontrust #bestpubgardenindevon? #totnes #dartington #southhams #devon
Vocal leader @momentsoundblur is bringing @nestfolk's popular Fire Choir to Dartington's Summer School & Festival. The Fire Choir is an initiative aimed at revitalising communal singing with political empowerment and protest at its heart. You’ll explore a varied repertoire of folk protest songs about war, resistance, struggle and the natural world, and perform a short selection of songs at the end of the week. Ideal for anyone who wants to discover their voice in a community setting, and sing for change. This can be booked as an individual course - 31st July-7th August - no experience is necessary.
After a year with so little music in the air, there is evidently a huge appetite for Summer School, and we’ve been delighted by the response since our programme launch in Feb. Rest assured, even as we continue to see national restrictions gradually lift, safety remains an absolutely core priority for us, which is why we have reduced course sizes to allow for social distancing. We are very lucky to be situated in a beautiful 1200 acre estate and are also able to take a lot of the Summer School outside. Currently around 80% of our accommodation has been allocated for the summer, so if you are still waiting to book, we encourage you to act sooner rather than later to secure desired rooms and courses. Our COVID-19 cancellation policy remains in place. This guarantees a full refund if you need to cancel your booking due to government restrictions, personal symptoms or any other prohibitive COVID-19 matters. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to Dartington this summer for what we hope will be a jubilant, yet cautious, celebration of music making, listening and learning. Photo credit: Kate Mount
Summer means one thing; an abundance of beautiful scented flowers. Join Grace Allardyce, from @studiokado_ for the second of our 2021 seasonal weekend floristry courses, open to all abilities. Learn the basic skills of floristry whilst celebrating your individual style, creativity, and seasonal flowers in all their natural beauty. You will spend time learning the foundations of floristry with some beginner’s floristry skills and techniques that can be used time and time again. Saturday 19 June & Sunday 20 June 2021, 10am-4pm Founder of the creative floral design studio Studio Kadō, Grace Allardyce is a floral designer based in the UK. Grace is passionate about creating beautiful, seasonal & individual designs for weddings and events. With a focus on British grown, nature inspired design, Grace sources the best nature has to offer and allows the seasons to constantly inspire and feed into her work. Link in bio under short courses.
Phonelines are now open for individual course bookings! Please call 01803 847080 to book your space. Phone lines are open from 10am-4pm on Wednesday 12th, Thursday 13th and Friday 14th May. Reservations cannot be made via voicemail. Spaces are limited and will be sold on a first come, first serve basis by telephone only. We've opened up as many as spaces as we can under the extensive safety measures that we have in place, but don't worry, we'll be running waiting lists in the event that we can open up capacity further down the line! If you've not been to the Summer School before, we have a huge range of courses on offer, from Renaissance Band to Jazz Band, Vocal Classes to Piano Classes and Folk Choir to Gospel Choir - there's something here for you! See link in bio for full course information. 📷 @aliceisalwaysinwonderland