Art school

An art school is a special kind of educational institution where students learn how to create art and design. These schools teach skills like illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can be separate or part of a bigger university. Some are also connected to an art museum.

Students at art schools can study at different ages, from young children to adults. They learn art and many useful skills for life. Over time, different teaching methods have shaped how these schools work around the world.

History

Art schools teach art in many ways that have changed over time. These ways include learning from a master artist, going to special schools that began in Italy, studying the basics like color and shape, showing feelings through art, thinking about ideas in art, and learning how to use art in business and popular culture.

Over time, art schools became part of universities. Before the 1980s, art was often just an extra activity. After that, art programs became official courses that could be graded like other subjects. Some people think this made art less creative, while others think it helped art be treated the same as other school subjects.
Western
Old Masters
copying
masterpiece
Bauhaus
Neoplatonism
romanticism
business
pop-culture

Contemporary art schools

Modern art schools teach many kinds of art, such as painting, printmaking, drawing, illustration, theatre, and sculpture. Some schools also teach newer topics like graphic design, filmmaking, graffiti art, and digital media. Others may include video game design, photography, fashion design, textile design, conceptual art, web design, architectural design and engineering, journalism, and social media. Traditional crafts like pottery, embroidery, metalwork, and building crafts are also sometimes taught.

These schools also cover topics about culture, such as cultural anthropology, cultural theory, and cultural history, including the histories of art. They may also include studies about business, like marketing, communication, customer profiling, and production. Some art schools now offer classes online, letting students learn from anywhere in the world. Online classes often include computer-based projects, just like in regular schools. Learning art and music can help students of any age.

North America

United States

In the U.S., schools that teach art and design and give special degrees come in different types, with some similarities and differences.

The best-known schools joined together in 1991 to form a group called the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. These schools are different from other schools because they include many general education courses along with art and design classes.

Some art schools work together with bigger universities. Examples include the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with Roosevelt University, the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University, and the Rhode Island School of Design with Brown University.

There are also public art schools supported by the state, such as the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Cooper Union in New York City is very selective, and all students receive half scholarships. The Yale School of Art at Yale University offers only advanced classes for students who already have a degree.

Larger universities often have big departments for art and design. These usually include many types of art studies, such as painting, photography, and architecture. They also include more general education courses than smaller, independent art schools.

The most common type of art school is part of a university and offers different levels of degrees. Some of these schools do not focus much on traditional painting and drawing. Other schools, called Atelier schools, teach inside an artist's studio or in special locations.

Canada

Canada has four main public universities that focus on art and design. They are Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, NSCAD University in Halifax, OCAD University in Toronto, and Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary.

Emily Carr University has strong research programs, and OCAD University also does important research. All four schools teach many kinds of art, from painting to new digital media.

NSCAD University was started in 1887 and became famous in the 1970s for its creative art teaching. Mount Allison University in Canada has taught visual arts since 1854 and was the first in the country to give a degree in fine arts. The Owens Art Gallery, which is very old and has many important artworks, is closely connected to the university's art department.

Europe

Belgium

Art schools in Belgium include the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque, and La Cambre.

France

The oldest art academy in France is Paris Fine Art School, established in 1648. Many public art schools there are over two centuries old. Today, France has 45 national or territorial public schools of art that offer bachelor and master degrees. These schools are not part of universities.

Germany

The Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg was founded in 1662 and is the oldest art academy in German-speaking Central Europe. It focuses on fine and applied arts.

Greece

Art education in Greece is provided by institutions such as the Athens School of Fine Arts, established in 1837. Other schools include Thessaloniki School of Fine Arts, Florina School of Fine Arts, and Ioannina School of Fine Arts. These schools offer programs in various visual arts.

Italy

Italy has twenty state-supported Academies of Fine Arts and eighteen private and public academies. The Florence Academy of Fine Arts in Florence is the oldest Academy of Fine Arts in the world. All these academies are part of a special section of the Italian Ministry of University and Research.

The Netherlands

The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague was founded in 1682 and is the largest and oldest art institution in the Netherlands. Other schools include Design Academy Eindhoven, founded in 1955, and Gerrit Rietveld Academie, founded in 1924 in Amsterdam.

Sweden

Art schools have existed in Sweden since the 18th century. Students may attend the Royal Institute of Art, founded in 1735. Konstfack, established in 1844, offers bachelor's and master's degrees in ceramics, glass, textiles, metalworking, and more. There are also art schools attached to universities in Gothenburg, Malmö, and Umeå.

United Kingdom

Art education in the United Kingdom includes institutions like the Royal College of Art, established in 1837, and other schools such as the Slade School of Fine Art and the Glasgow School of Art. These schools offer programs in various art disciplines.

There are about eighteen autonomous colleges or schools of art offering courses across further and higher education boundaries. The University of the Arts London includes several colleges such as Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion, and Wimbledon College of Arts. Other institutions include The Slade School of Fine Art, Ravensbourne University London, The Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Outside of London, art schools include Arts University Bournemouth, Coventry School of Art and Design, University for the Creative Arts, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Gray's School of Art, Hereford College of Arts, Leeds College of Art, Liverpool School of Art, Loughborough University School of Art and Design, Manchester School of Art, Norwich University of the Arts, Moray School of Art, The Northern School of Art and Plymouth College of Art and Design.

Since the 1970s, degrees have replaced diplomas as the top qualification in art education.

Asia

Indonesia

The first art school in Indonesia was the Universitaire Leergang voor Tekenleraren en Handenarbeit in Bandung. It was started in 1947. Today, it is part of Institut Teknologi Bandung. In 1950, ASRI opened in Jogjakarta, now known as ISI Jogjakarta. Now, there are important art schools on every major island in Indonesia, such as ISI Surakarta, ISI Denpasar, and ISBI in Aceh, Papua, Kalimantan, and Bandung. Private art schools include Institut Kesenian Jakarta, and visual arts programs at Telkom University and Maranatha University.

Oceania

Australia

Art schools in Australia are usually part of universities. This changed in the late 1980s because of reforms called the Dawkins higher education reforms. Before that, some art schools were part of universities, and others were separate colleges that focused on just one type of art.

Today, art schools in Australia are represented by a group called the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS). There are also other art schools, like the Julian Ashton Art School, but these schools either do not give university degrees or are private schools that are not part of the university system.