Portraitzeichnung Prima Mathawabhan

Educational Pathways

How I Discovered My Interest in Art Education at the Academy

Author: Prima Mathawabhan (UGC)

I was on an exchange program at a high school in Vienna. The art teacher there had studied painting at the Academy. She told me I should try to apply there. After the exchange program, I went back to Bangkok, graduated from high school, and came back to Vienna to apply for the architecture program at the Academy, and I was accepted. I went to Copenhagen for a semester abroad in the last year of my bachelor’s degree. 

After my degree, I did internships in various offices in Vienna. Without giving it much thought, I started my master’s degree at the Academy. At the same time, I started working as a freelance stage and exhibition designer for an artist in the Netherlands. Then I also discovered my interest in art education. Through the Academy Goes to School (AgidS) coordination office I got the chance to participate in a lot of art education projects with young people.

Towards the end of my studies, I did a guest semester in what was then the Graphic Arts and Printmaking Techniques department, which made me realize that I wanted to move away from architecture a bit. I completed my master’s degree in architecture at the beginning of 2023. Now I’m doing my second degree at the Institute of Fine Arts (IBK) at the Academy and continue to work freelance in the fields of architecture, exhibition architecture and art education.