About Us

Community-based arts education and practice

Our Approach

Highgate Art School is a space where local people can explore and experiment with a variety of art skills and processes in a supportive, creative environment.

Founded in 2018, the art school grew from another joint venture, Halfadozen Studio, which aims to promote a relationship between the artist and the public.

Our emphasis as an arts school is to stimulate creative curiosity and the desire to learn in students, helping them to develop ideas and creative practice, with all participants able to explore their creative potential and develop their knowledge and understanding of the creative process.

Mission and Principles

To create a supportive environment where students can experiment, and learn from professional practicing artists.

Assisting students to develop creative skills, both traditional and contemporary, to enable freedom of expression.

To create and support a critical and reflective environment where artists can develop their practice.

To engage and encourage a diverse local community to participate in contemporary arts practice through arts classes, community projects, film screenings and exhibitions.

Our Teachers

Classes are taught by Basil Olton and Veronika Seifert.

Basil Olton

Basil Olton

Veronika Seifert

Veronika Seifert

About Basil and Veronika

Basil is a practicing artist and lecturer with an MA in Fine Art Ceramics and has exhibited at the V&A and internationally as part of the European Design Group.

Veronika is an international award-winning costume designer and artist specialising in oil and has worked with Tate Britain, the V&A, South London Gallery and Bow Arts Trust.

Artists’ Projects

Projects and exhibitions by our artists.

Dialogues: A Hybrid Art Project

20–31 July 2022
Conceived and curated by Elisavet Kalpaxi and Kostantinos Panapakidis, ‘Dialogues’ is art project that blends private and public spaces, and physical and virtual realities to address the relationship between art practices and audiences in networked spaces. The eight participating artists exchanged work to exhibit it in their own private spaces for a period of 10 days. Audiences will have the chance to experience the exhibited work through live-streams between the 20th and 31st of July 2022.
Artists: Thanasis Foteinias, Nela Milic, Marie Molterer, Basil Olton, Messua Poulin Wolff, Ann Shuptrine, Klaus Wehner, Wei-Hsiang Weng