School may be out for summer, but a new art school, hosted by Berlin event space 90mil, is just beginning. Classes for the three-week programme take on an abundance of idiosyncratic forms: intricate multi-day lessons in ceramics, woodworking, dance, inflatable sculpture; a “How to Grow Mushrooms at Home” workshop; intro to modular synthesisers; an experimental tattoo club; and more.
“I teach improv dance lessons at the art school,” says Sabina Moe, one of the school’s many instructors. “Today we did a kind of charades lesson where we acted out and then tried to guess what was written down on little pieces of paper through dance.” One of the prompts was a person encased in glass. To demonstrate, Moe stiffens her whole body and hobbles around with surprising grace. “I wrote some of the prompts,” they admit, “so I was pretty good at it.”
People like to be in spaces that have meaning and that are trying to create a change
Emma Patmore, 90mil’s manager and the art school’s producer, tells us that the initial idea for the school came from her own frustration with a lack of options in Berlin. “Friends who study art have access to different courses and workshops; the general public should have access to this, too,” she says. After joining 90mil during its inception in April 2023, Patmore began the school earlier this year. This is the second “semester”; the first ran for three weeks in spring and offered a whopping 34 different courses. Through August, they are hosting 15, with the expectation to teach the full programme once again in October. The final summer celebration is a public showcase on August 11, where the students will present the fruits of their labour.
90mil has a “members only” policy – which might seem daunting, but for just €5 a year, anyone can hang. On average, art school classes cost an additional €5-€10/hour, though projects that involve complex materials or require smaller groups are pricier, “Accessibility is a big topic at 90mil,” says Patmore. “We have one [spot] for each class which is either free or at the cost of materials, which people can email us to ask for – they don’t need to give a reason.” With no formal funding, it’s a delicate balance for the non-profit between affordability and sufficient payment for the instructors. “Still, I wouldn’t say it’s accessible for all Berliners yet,” Patmore continues. “In an ideal world, we’d have funding to make the courses free to join and there would be workshops in different languages.”
Art Haus
For those who haven’t been, 90mil is the art school’s DIY clubhouse. Hidden away in a gated lot off Jannowitzbrücke, on the north side of Michaelbrücke, the 2,000-square-metre multidisciplinary space feels like an experiment. It’s an old-school bohemian Mecca, a true Berliner’s paradise, with various rooms for rehearsal spaces, studios, jazz, soul and punk jam sessions, film screenings, an alternative radio station and even a sauna. By day, the industrial building covered in greenery is host to various workshops happening simultaneously, both juxtaposing and complementing one another. The team shuffles around, working, drinking, sharing a smoke. By night, the building glows pink and purple, while in the basement – the main music venue – speakers boom.
There’s a lot of love put into the space by everyone involved
Taking cues from the godparents of interdisciplinary creative spaces like Joseph Beuy’s Free International University and Tania Bruguera’s Arté Util, the 90mil art school envisions a world in which creativity thrives without constraint. “We’re asking the questions: what if more people have access to creative possibilities? How can artists make a living from their skills? How does community build itself?” Patmore says.
The school also entangles the personal with the political by tying its work to social justice, an ethos immediately apparent upon first meeting its members. “People like to be in spaces that have meaning and that are trying to create a change,” Patmore notes. As a reflection of community values and solidarity with current societal movements, the school also offers lessons like “Poetry & Activism”, and “Conflict & Accountability”. Yusa Jacobo, the 90mil ceramics instructor, describes their class as “an experimental ceramic workshop based in the knowledge of original people from South America, in gratitude to them and all the ceramists in South America who keep this knowledge alive”.
Radical Optimism
What sets them apart from other collectives, Patmore believes, is not only artistic freedom but administrative; 90mil has complete autonomy from investors and is beholden to almost no one. “That freedom enabled me to launch the art school so quickly and it’s what underpins our experimental and diverse performance programme.” She and her team handle programming, communication with workshop leaders, promotion and general management.
“Once you’re in the door, a lot of people comment that it feels warm and welcoming,” Patmore tells us. It’s not at all hard to believe; a space with such palpable mutual support is an easy antidote to one’s cynicism. The team is mostly women, but the femme-led atmosphere values care, support and inclusivity over gender. “There’s a lot of love put into the space by everyone involved,” she adds.
The space hopes to create a cultural shift away from individualism and the exaltation of monetary gain in urban spaces. “We’re social beings, but a lot of the social and physical architecture of a city is geared towards the aims of capital, not of community,” Patmore says. 90mil’s art school students have found a rare sense of belonging here – rare because, under capitalism, many feel that the idea of creating value through community is still a radical one. “Seeing the community grow around 90mil over the past months – both the larger community and its niches … has given me a lot of hope for the future as well as confirmed the need for spaces like ours,” Patmore says. “There are a lot of forces in the world trying to divide us; we need to nurture those that bring people together.”
- 90mil Art School summer courses July 15 – Aug 7, details.
