What are some of the best art schools you know of?

[Artyczar]

Around here, in southern California, the Claremont colleges in Pomona have a great painting program--good teachers, and I've seen excellent painters come out of there who have induvial voices. That's what I've observed anyway.

California State Long Beach has an excellent fiber arts and sculptural (ceramics) department. It's been highly recommended and a good many artists have succeeded in their careers after coming out of that school.

UCLA also has a pretty good painting program, but I believe it's much more expensive than Claremont.

I have not gone to art school, but I have a lot of friends that did and this is just a little bit of what I've seen among my peers. There are big named, expensive schools here, like Art Center and CalArts, but I would never recommend them for painters.

 

[stlukesguild]

I was going to say that CalArts was a big name... and had churned out some big name artists... but as you say, not recommended for painters. I've also heard good things about the Laguna College of Art and Design in California, and know a number of artists who've come out of there... and one former professor.

 

[xie-kitchin]

I want to a less well known school (but I think fairly well known regionally?), Kansas City Art Institute. I worked there as a tech for several years, but the school has undergone lots of changes since that time, so I don't feel like I can evaluate their current programming all that well. There have been lots of updated to facilities in the last decade or so, which is a plus, and some pretty good faculty from what I've seen. I studied printmaking, and from what I've seen, it's still a good program.

 

[stlukesguild]

For whatever reason, there seems to be a number of Midwest art schools that were/are particularly well known for their printmaking programs.

 

[Artyczar]

For whatever reason, there seems to be a number of Midwest art schools that were/are particularly well known for their printmaking programs.

I heard Iowa is a good one, I knew a Master Printer from there who wound up teaching there after her masters.

 

[xie-kitchin]

A former classmate of mine taught printmaking at University of Iowa for a while, and it looked like they had good facilities from what I saw.

KU in Lawrence also has a good printmaking program, from my understanding. I recognize the names of their faculty, they show a lot here locally. Bitters and Krueger were both involved w/the 2007 SGC conference, which I was part of.

 

[stlukesguild]

The major printmaker that I know taught at Iowa was Maurizio Lasanski. One of our professors in the print department at the Cleveland Institute of Art was a student of Lasanski.

The Institute had a number of Lasanski's prints stored in the print department's flat files that we could peruse.

Another Mid-West powerhouse in terms of Art was Washington University, St. Louis. Among the biggest names of artists who taught there were Phillip Guston and Max Beckmann and St. Louis collectors were early champions of German Expressionism which was often ignored by New York collectors who were more interested in French Formalism and Surrealism. I had a friend who attended Washington. It still seemed to have a solid art program at that time.

 

[xie-kitchin]

I've heard good things about Wash U's art program too. I visited their campus gallery with a group from the KCAI painting dept back around 1999, and it was a beautiful space.

 

[Artyczar]

I've heard good things about Wash U's art program too. I visited their campus gallery with a group from the KCAI painting dept back around 1999, and it was a beautiful space.

I've heard that too actually. I haven't seen it, but I know they have a very good art dept.

 

[RobinZ]

Around here, it's Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the oldest continuous art school in America a lot of great painters in their history. It's influence spreads beyond those walls, though, we have lots of community art programs and they are all staffed by a LOT of PAFA alums, as well as the famous Philadelphia Sketch Club and Plastic Club. So if you are not interested in a degree or certificate of any type, you can get some pretty great instructions, very concrete.

I noticed when I joined a now defunct crit club, that the PAFA grads had very concrete crits that were very helpful, especially to beginners. They were able to help with composition, value, color, you know, the basics. And they mastered the crit sandwich. Others asked things like "well, what are you trying to SAY here" (which was like asking a kindergartener learning to write his alphabet what he was trying to SAY here).

 

[musket]

Cooper Union and Pratt in New York both have big time reputations.

 

[HalifaxCB]

I was going to say that CalArts was a big name

I can’t remember who said it, but the person described CalArts as training artists down to the wrist. I spent a couple of months there (in Nam Jun Paik/Shuya Abe’s studio) when CalArts was still in Valencia. It was an interesting experience.

For those looking for training in traditional techniques, I would recommend looking into community college (like junior college in the States) programs in courses such as illustration. I met a number of their grads, particularly from Miramichi in New Brunswick, through life drawing groups and was very impressed by their skills.

Our own art school, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, at one time had a good reputation. But over the last decade or two it’s been wrapped up in its own internecine battles over internal politics and money, so I’d advise prospective students to think carefully before applying.

 

[HalifaxCB]

Our own art school, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, ...

I just wanted to add that NSCAD was founded in part by Anna Leonowens of The King and I fame. A quite fascinating person:

Anna Leonowens - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Annie]

Around here, it's Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the oldest continuous art school in America a lot of great painters in their history. It's influence spreads beyond those walls, though, we have lots of community art programs and they are all staffed by a LOT of PAFA alums, as well as the famous Philadelphia Sketch Club and Plastic Club. So if you are not interested in a degree or certificate of any type, you can get some pretty great instructions, very concrete.

I noticed when I joined a now defunct crit club, that the PAFA grads had very concrete crits that were very helpful, especially to beginners. They were able to help with composition, value, color, you know, the basics. And they mastered the crit sandwich. Others asked things like "well, what are you trying to SAY here" (which was like asking a kindergartener learning to write his alphabet what he was trying to SAY here).

I've heard many good things about PAFA, and also notice that I tend to always follow PAFA grads on Instagram because what they teach there tends to appeal to me.

 

[Artyczar]

I knew a professor from there and she wound up being a big art critic for Art in America, among other pubs, and apparently she taught there for many years. I went to the Vermont Studio Center with her, and she taught me a lot during my stay there.

 

[bob]

the University Of IOWA is a top notch school in the visual arts all - around , the PrintMaking program is excellent
& considered one of the best in the nation year in & year out .

 

[Artyczar]

Especially their writing program.

 

[bob]

Especially their writing program.

So true ,
U. IOWA writing program is arguably Second to none