Preparing for an art school interview
Once your portfolio is submitted, the real challenge begins: finding the language to express your ideas, your process, and the thinking behind your artwork with confidence in English.
Find Your Threads is a six-week interview-season programme designed for international art and design applicants who want to speak about their work clearly, naturally, and with the maturity an art school panel is looking for.
Built on the same methodology we use when coaching professional artists for talks, tutorials, and public presentations, the programme guides you through a structured weekly rhythm of reflection, language development, and targeted practice — all centred on your portfolio.
In this post, we’re sharing an outline of how the programme works: the weekly flow, the purpose behind each stage, and how the combination of language coaching, personal reflection, and real conversations with UK artists helps you enter your interview feeling fully prepared. If you’ve ever wondered what meaningful, specialised preparation for an art school interview actually looks like, this is for you.
Get Confident Spontaneity
Prepare for your art school interview with our free audio rehearsal.
Experience real interview timing, surprise, and space to answer out loud.
TUESDAY — Question Drop
Your weekly preparation task
Each Tuesday, you receive a key interview question sent directly to your phone.
Your task is to:
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Read the question carefully and think about how you could answer it in different ways.
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Consider several artworks, not just one. Interviews often require you to move between projects.
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Research any vocabulary you don’t know or any concepts you struggle to name in English.
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Spend time reflecting — we deliberately build in a gap for your mind to process the question before you speak about it.
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Journal, sketch, or make notes around the ideas the question brings up.
(This is often where the real insights appear.)
Art schools do not want your first, instinctive answer.
They want a thoughtful, mature, reflective answer — one that shows you understand your practice and can talk about it clearly.
Tuesday gives you the time and space to find that answer.
THURSDAY — English Skills Workshop (Live on Zoom)
Interview English with a specialist coach
Thursday’s session is an intensive, practical workshop led by an English coach with expertise in:
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interview communication
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pronunciation and clarity
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reflective and conceptual English
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creative-practice conversations
This is not a conversation class.
It is focused, purposeful training designed to help you quickly build:
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pronunciation clarity for key art-school vocabulary
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structured responses that feel natural rather than memorised
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language for describing research and development
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confidence when you don’t understand a question
(how to ask for clarification without losing composure) -
awareness of when to sound certain and when to sound curious and open — a major part of how interviewers evaluate your maturity as an emerging artist
Thursday is about sharpening the English around your ideas, so you can express them with confidence and precision.
SUNDAY — 1:1 Coaching Session (Live)
Sunday is where everything comes together.
You bring the answer you’ve been shaping since Tuesday — the ideas you’ve reflected on, sketched, tested, and refined — and you present it in a live 1:1 coaching session.
This is your chance to:
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deliver your answer under gentle interview-style pressure
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practise speaking clearly, calmly, and without rushing
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integrate the language skills from Thursday
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receive detailed, personalised feedback on what’s working
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identify what needs tightening, simplifying, or clarifying
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learn how to express certainty when needed — and curiosity when appropriate
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sharpen your delivery so it feels confident, thoughtful, and authentic
Your coach will help you:
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strengthen your structure
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clarify your ideas
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highlight the “threads” within your work
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avoid vague or generic language
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refine your pronunciation and pacing
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develop a response that sounds mature, reflective, and ready for an art school interview
This is not a test.
It is a supported rehearsal, designed to give you the experience of presenting your ideas in English — and receiving immediate guidance on how to improve before your real interview.
By the end of each Sunday session, you will know exactly:
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what landed well
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what needs deeper thought
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which phrases or ideas to develop
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and how to strengthen your voice for the next week’s question
It is the most transformative part of the programme — the moment where your ideas, your language, and your confidence begin to align.
Studio-to-Studio Artist Chats
How to use them
Your two Artist Conversation vouchers are an informal supplement to the programme.
They are not English lessons.
They are real studio-to-studio conversations with professional UK artists from the True Voice team.
Use them to:
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talk about your work with someone new
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test how your ideas land outside a teaching environment
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hear how UK artists speak about practice, influences, and process
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deepen your understanding of the UK art scene
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gain confidence in spontaneous conversations
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discover new perspectives on your work
Most international applicants — and many UK applicants — never get this experience.
These conversations help you enter your interview already sounding like someone who belongs in a UK art school studio.
Team Teaching for English For Creative Careers
Choose to learn English for Art Purposes with us and you’ll get daily creative challenges, and regular conversations with Scottish artists in their studios – all supplemented with a light touch of English coaching by 2 different language coaches.
Jennie Reed (left), a Neurolanguage Coach, and Ruth Pringle (right), a real-world English specialist are the True Voice English course designers, but not the whole team.
Including Art School Candidate Interview Coaching and our Art School Offer-Holders English Conversation Club
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