The New York Studio School is a unique institution where drawing, painting, sculpture and art history are explored in depth. Embodying an attitude of seriousness, dedication and commitment to the rigors of becoming an artist, the School’s demanding program develops the student’s personal vision by a thorough examination of his or her perceptions.

Founded by students and artists, with a faculty of working painters and sculptors, the School provides students with access to a diversity of attitudes from the most distinguished artists in their fields. The community is united by a quest for quality in art, integrity in and intensity of research. It is a school based on the maxim: “Ambition for the work, not ambition for the career.”

The School is housed in a National Historic Landmark, the site of the original Whitney Museum of American Art. The many skylit studios are perfectly suited for painting, drawing and sculpture. Located in the heart of Greenwich Village, the School is closely situated to New York’s many galleries and museums.

The New York Studio School occupies the original site of the Whitney Museum of American Art and recalls the successful partnership between two visionaries: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, whose patronage built the foundations of the Whitney Museum, and Julianna Force, the Museum’s first director and the person who molded Whitney’s original concept into a workable enterprise. The two women created the first museum exclusively devoted to exhibiting American Art while sponsoring the greatest number of non-academic artists in the United States. The genesis for this type of museum dates back to 1914 when Whitney opened the Whitney Studio to exhibit her personal collection and prevailed upon Force to manage it. In 1929 she offered the entire collection–nearly 500 pieces–to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with an offer to build a new wing. The offer was rejected, and in 1931 Whitney, after remodeling the studio in a more Moderne and Classical revival style, opened the Whitney Museum with Force as the gallery manager. Under Force, the museum avoided the simple display of established artists, preferring to exhibit the progressive side of American Art. The Whitney became the first museum to display American abstract art and it was instrumental in reviving interest in 19th-century American artists such as Winslow Homer and Robert Feke. The Whitney moved from this location in 1954. Thirteen years later the New York Studio School saved the building from demolition. With a faculty of renowned artists, art historians, and critics, the New York Studio School has been educating students in the rigors of art since 1967.

The New York Studio Program is sponsored by the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design of which the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a member. This program provides an opportunity for upper level students to spend one semester in New York City. The New York Studio Program provides private studio space with 24-hour access. Participants meet with faculty members every week to review their work. There is also an extensive Visiting Artists program, gallery visits, weekly Contemporary Art in New York seminar and an end of the semester exhibition that is widely attended. This is an excellent step for students wishing to make contacts in New York and who wish to spend a concentrated period of time working in their own studio. Students wishing to attend the New York Studio Program must apply through Off-Campus Programs the semester before they wish to go.