Find Your Threads
Art School Interview Preparation for International Students
Helping You Feel Interview Ready
You’ve spent months preparing your portfolio for your art school application.
Now you have a short window to prepare your English.
Based on the method we use with professional artists preparing for artist talks and presentations, this six-week programme helps international art school candidates express their ideas, describe their work clearly, and speak with confidence in their art school interview.
It’s much more than English practice.
Our method helps you understand the value of your artwork — and communicate it during a short art school interview.
Find Your Threads
First, we find your threads (the themes within your work).
Then we pull at them and tease them out to reveal the stories and research inherent in your work. (They are there. but often artists can be the last ones to see them).
Lastly, we shape your language so that you can share this in your true voice.
We never tell you what to say, we help you understand your work and express it with the language an art school wants to hear.
Start: Monday 20 January 2026
Finish: Sunday 2 March 2026
Fix The Gap in Your English
Your English lessons prepared you for exams, essays, grammar, and tests.
They did not prepare you to talk about the ideas behind your artwork.
They didn’t teach you how to:
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explain the progression of your ideas
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describe your creative decisions
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talk about influences or research
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show progression in a project
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communicate uncertainty
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express artistic intention
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speak spontaneously about visual work
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participate in creative conversations in English
Most international applicants only realise this when they’re in the interview.
Interviews are incredibly stressful situations: preparing your response to sample questions, and practising – a lot – is key.
Interviews are incredibly stressful situations. Preparing your responses to sample questions, and practising — a lot — is key.
Now imagine practising your answers with English language experts who can build the clarity you need, who have sat on these interview panels, and who know how to turn a good answer into a great one.
Not by telling you what to say — but by helping you see the threads within your work.
Find Your Threads exists to help you discover and close this gap before your interview, not during it.
Find Your Threads exists to help you discover and close the gap before your interview, not during it.
The stakes are high. A strong interview can secure your place at your first-choice art school — and save you the time and cost of an extra foundation year.
Preparing properly is one of the most valuable investments you can make in your future.
Improve Your Odds
Only 10 – 30% of UK art school degree course applications are successful.
How the Programme Works
Find Your Threads runs for six weeks, guiding you through a clear weekly rhythm during interview season.
TUESDAY — Question Drop (sent to your phone)
We send you a key interview question and you prepare your response in your own time.
THURSDAY — English Skills Workshop (live, with recording available)
An intensive coaching session with an English tutor or coach to develop one aspect of interview English — including structuring a response, pronunciation, reflective language, and how to handle a question you don’t understand.
SUNDAY — 1:1 Coaching Session (live)
A 30-minute 1:1 session where you give your answer to the week’s question (using the skills we focused on on Thursday).
You receive tailored feedback on how to sharpen your response to impress an art school selection panel.
PLUS
Studio-to-Studio Artist Conversations
During the programme, you receive two artist-conversation vouchers which you can use at any point within the six weeks.
This flexible structure lets you book sessions that match both your schedule and the artist’s availability.
These conversations are part of the True Voice signature method.
We have a small team of professional UK artists and designers who meet with you, talk with you about your work, and give you real studio-to-studio experience.
These sessions are not English lessons.
They are a rare opportunity to speak with real working UK artists — something most international applicants, and even many UK applicants, never experience before their interview.
For interview panels, this kind of authentic artistic conversation and cultural awareness is a genuine differentiator.
In each 20–30 minute conversation you will:
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practise talking about your projects with someone new
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learn how UK artists talk about practice, ideas, and process
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experience low-stakes, tutorial-style dialogue
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gain outside perspectives on your work
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deepen your conceptual and reflective vocabulary naturally
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build confidence speaking about your art outside the classroom
Your Thursday workshops and Sunday 1:1 sessions support you as you integrate what you discover in these conversations — but the conversations themselves are studio experiences, not coaching.
They exist to help you walk into your interview already sounding and feeling connected to the UK art community.
Imagine if you were able to mention during your interview that you’d been chatting with a UK artist in her studio last week…
Programme Outcomes
By the end of Find Your Threads, you will:
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know the themes and “threads” in your portfolio and understand how your projects connect
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speak clearly and confidently about your ideas, your decisions, and your development
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describe your process in English using reflective and conceptual language
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talk calmly about your influences, research, materials, and intentions
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respond to interview questions without freezing or translating in your head
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handle unexpected questions with confidence and maturity
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sound like an emerging artist, not a nervous applicant
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understand the value of your own work — and articulate it naturally
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feel prepared rather than overwhelmed when your interview invitation arrives
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record a clearer, more confident presentation video
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enter your interview with a voice that feels like you
Find Your Threads doesn’t just prepare you for an interview.
It prepares you to take your place in an art school community — able to speak about your practice with clarity, coherence, and confidence.
Who This Programme Is For
Find Your Threads is designed for international art and design applicants who:
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have already submitted their portfolio
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expect interview invitations between February and March
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can talk about their work in their first language, but not with the same confidence in English
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want to speak about their ideas, process, and decisions clearly and naturally
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know there is a gap between their artistic ability and their English for art school
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want a structured way to prepare, not last-minute guessing or memorised scripts
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feel anxious about freezing, misunderstanding questions, or losing their ideas in translation
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want a place to practise reflective, conceptual English that school lessons never covered
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want guidance from experts who understand both language and art school expectations
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want to enter their interview feeling prepared, calm, and confident
It’s especially suited to:
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applicants who want to make a strong impression at a competitive UK art school
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applicants who know their artwork is strong but worry their English will let them down
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applicants who want a professional, artistic, culturally relevant preparation — not general English lessons
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applicants who value clarity, reflection, and having a voice that feels genuinely their own
If you want to speak about your work with the confidence you already have as an artist, this programme is for you.
Join the Waiting List
Find Your Threads runs once a year and has only 8 places worldwide.
This is an intensive programme taught by two industry leaders:
Applicants can explore our work and professional experience through our public profiles.
We have spent years helping artists, designers, and creative professionals express their ideas with clarity and confidence.
Because the programme is built around this level of expertise — and because we prepare your sessions and artist conversations in advance — each place is reserved with care and intention.
If you’d like to be considered for the next cohort, join the waiting list below.
You’ll be the first to know when applications open.
Important Note About Places & Commitment
Because each participant receives:
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a reserved weekly 1:1 coaching slot
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access to specialist English tutors
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two conversations with professional UK artists
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tailored workshop preparation from our entire team
…your place is prepared for you in advance.
For this reason:
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we do not offer refunds for cancellations
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we do not offer refunds for no-shows
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late withdrawals mean another applicant loses their chance
We take on only eight applicants, so every place must go to someone who is committed to taking full advantage of the opportunity.
Selection Crieria
Find Your Threads is designed for a very specific group of applicants.
To join the programme, you must meet the following criteria:
1. You have already submitted a portfolio to a UK art or design school.
This programme is for the interview stage, not the application-building stage.
2. You already meet the English language requirements for your chosen art school.
You do not need perfect English — but you must already have the level required for admission.
Find Your Threads builds interview English, reflective English, and artistic communication — not general language foundations.
3. You are expecting (or hoping for) an interview invitation between February and March.
This is the point in the cycle when applicants most need the support our programme provides.
4. You are ready to talk about your work every week.
You don’t need confidence — that’s what we help you build.
But you do need willingness to reflect, speak, revise, and practise.
CAMERA ON, FULL PARTICIPATION
5. You can commit to the weekly structure.
The programme works because each week builds on the last:
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Tuesday question
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Thursday skills workshop
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Sunday 1:1 coaching
Plus two studio-to-studio artist conversations you can schedule flexibly.
6. You want to communicate your artistic identity — not memorise scripts.
Our method is about understanding your work more deeply and expressing it in your true voice, not performing rehearsed answers.
7. You want to enter your interview prepared, calm, and confident.
This is the right programme for applicants who want guidance from experienced coaches who understand both language and the art school selection process.
Interviews happen fast.
Preparation takes time.
Join the waiting list to be considered for one of 8 places.
Course Overview
Tuesday — Question Drop
Each Tuesday you receive a key interview question to prepare.
Your task is to explore different ways you could answer it, research any vocabulary you need, and spend time reflecting. We deliberately leave space for deeper processing — journaling or sketching is strongly encouraged. Art schools don’t want your first answer; they want your mature, considered one.
Thursday — English Skills Workshop
A live Zoom session with a specialist English coach.
Thursday is for sharpening your English so you can communicate and amplify your ideas with confidence and precision. It isn’t a conversation class — it’s targeted support in pronunciation, structuring answers, describing your research, and knowing when to sound certain and when to sound open and curious.
Sunday — 1:1 Coaching Session
On Sunday you give your answer to the week’s question in a private 1:1 session.
You receive tailored feedback on clarity, delivery, structure, and artistic communication, helping you turn your ideas into a strong, convincing response that speaks directly to what art school panels want to hear.
Studio-to-Studio Artist Conversations
You also receive two artist-conversation vouchers to use during the programme.
These informal studio-to-studio chats with professional UK artists are not English lessons — they’re real creative conversations that expand your perspective, help you learn how UK artists speak about their work, and give you cultural insight most applicants never gain before an interview.