Don Bachardy Fellowship

The Don Bachardy Fellowship at the Royal Drawing School enables a gifted and dedicated post-graduate artist from outside the United Kingdom to join the Royal Drawing School during the Summer Term each year. The fellowship gives one artist the opportunity to join London’s vibrant art scene, with the School’s Shoreditch campus and artists' studios located in the heart of East London’s art, design and fashion scene. 

The fellowship is named after the Californian portrait painter, Don Bachardy (b. 1934), who studied at the Slade in 1961, had his first show at the Redfern Gallery in Mayfair that year, and has gone on to draw and paint over 10,000 portraits from life. 

The Don Bachardy Fellowship is sponsored by The Christopher Isherwood Foundation, www.IsherwoodFoundation.org. 

Past recipients have come from the US, Syria and Brazil. Hear from artist Pedro Ursini about their experience on the Don Bachardy Fellowship in summer 2024:

The next Don Bachardy Fellowship will take place during the Royal Drawing School's Summer Term: 28 April – 5 July 2025. The Don Bachardy Fellow will spend 3 full days per week for ten weeks, drawing alongside postgraduate students studying on the Royal Drawing School's MA level programme, The Drawing Year, as well as students on the Public Programme. Courses are taught by a distinguished faculty of over 75 practising artists. The Fellow will be invited to curate their own programme, choosing from over 60+ different drawing courses: from drawing out of house in London’s streets and green spaces, to life drawing, and drawing from art in major museums and galleries, as well as intaglio printmaking courses. The artist will also be provided with a shared studio space alongside the School's postgraduate-level Students. 

Hear from artist Pace Taylor about their experience on the Don Bachardy Fellowship in summer 2023:

The Fellow will also have the opportunity to attend our lecture series, which includes in-conversations with leading contemporary artists and art history lectures. Speakers have included Cornelia Parker RA, Denzil Forrester, Maggi Hambling CBE, Helen Cammock, Walid Siti, and Michael Landy RA.

To assist with travel and accommodation costs, the Don Bachardy Fellow will be awarded a $5,000 stipend, half of which will be granted on receipt of the Fellowship and the remainder on arrival in London. Artists applying for the fellowship should show evidence of observational drawing in their practice. The purpose of the fellowship is to help support an emerging artist and to nurture drawing as their foundation skill.

You can hear from more past Fellowship recipients here.

Applications are now open for the Don Bachardy Fellowship 2025, application deadline 5pm GMT Monday 20 January 2025.

The residency jury will meet late-January 2025 to consider all applications, shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview via zoom on Tuesday 4 February, after which applicants will be told if they have been successful. The Fellowship is open to international artists who have studied at BA or MA level only, please note artists who are from the UK or have studied in the UK are not eligible to apply. If you have any questions regarding the fellowship or your application, please contact residencies@royaldrawingschool.org.

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