We are an independent art school,
run by artists for artists.
Our Teachers
ERIKA GOFTON is a professional artist with over 20 years exhibiting and industry experience, and the founder of The Art Room.
Erika is passionate about teaching her students how to connect with their unique visual language and communicate through drawing, and believes in empowering artists to take charge of their own career and practice.
JENNIFER WHITTEN is an American-born artist and immigrated to Melbourne in 2009. At first her fastidious manner of image-making seemed well suited for medical illustration, but she ultimately exchanged a medical career in pursuit of her own artistic investigations.
Jen teaches our Foundation Painting Program and created Blending Bootcamp, an On Demand class.
FILOMENA COPPOLA’S work explores the complexities of duality and what it is to navigate a journey between two cultures. Her delicate pastels capture these moments of duality – of being a hybrid of Italian/Australian cultures. This is represented in her work through presence/absence, plant/animal, and internal/external. Together these elements subvert their original forms and create a new context which infers to a possibility of nature morphed, changing and mutating.
Filomena teaches Open Studio, Expanded Practice, and pastel workshops.
KATE JONES has a practice that is grounded in clay – ranging from her characteristic painterly sculptural forms to pots made to be used for a lifetime. Research, writing, curating and teaching all support and inform this work.
Kate oversees the Ceramics program at TAR, as well as teaching Open Studio – Ceramics.
NIC PLOWMAN’S work is full of observation and insight – describing time, memory, and lived experience with intimacy and visceral energy. Known for his dedication to traditional and experimental drawing, his practice also includes painting, printmaking, and sculpture.
An active member of the arts and education sectors, Nic is Head of Education at Zart, designing professional learning experiences for teachers and students across Australia.
Nic teaches Life Drawing 1, Life Drawing 2, and Life Drawing workshops.
FRAN O’NEILL was born in Wangaratta, Australia, and currently lives and works between Australia and Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been included in various group shows throughout the USA and in Australia. She has recently taught at the Arts Students League and Pratt Institute, and with the New York Studio School for 20 years.
Fran teaches Transcribing the Masters, plus specialised studio workshops.
KATE BUTLER is an artist working in drawing and ceramic sculpture. Originally from North Carolina, USA, Kate holds a Master of Fine Arts and MS in Art History from the Pratt Institute in New York and also studied at the Leo Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Kate teaches Handbuilding, and specialist workshops.
STEFAN GEVERS is a Melbourne based artist who embraces the unpredictability and fluidity of watercolour. His work is not about gaining mastery over this medium, but rather about understanding its innate properties, natural inclinations, and learning to work collaboratively with it. Stefan has been teaching contemporary watercolour since 2009 throughout Australia and Internationally.
Stefan teaches Watercolour 1 and Open Studio – Watercolour.
The breadth of MARIEKE DENCH’S practice is vast and includes painting, encaustic painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and architectural installation. Her work is held in numerous Australian public and private collections and she has undertaken major commissions in both of these sectors.
Marieke teaches Etching, Lino Printing and Open Studio – Printmaking.
