Parsons The New School for Design

Established 1896
Type Private
Dean Tim Marshall
Faculty 705
Undergraduates 3,100
Postgraduates 400
Location New York City, USA
Campus Urban

Parsons The New School for Design (abbreviated Parsons), located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, is a design school affiliated since 1970 with The New School, formerly known as New School University. Parsons is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), a consortium of thirty-six leading art schools in the United States.

Parsons has approximately 3,100 undergraduates and more than 400 graduate students enrolled. The School also offers continuing education courses and certificate programs, as well as weekend and summer pre-college programs for high school students.

Parsons used to have four affiliate schools, located in France, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, and Japan. These affiliate schools operated independently, but embrace Parsons’ philosophy and teaching methodology. Recently, Parsons has cut off connections with all other schools except Parsons Paris in France.

There are 30 full-time faculty members and more than 675 adjunct faculty members, many of whom are successful working artists and designers in New York City. Faculty members and visiting critics include architect Brian Lewis and artist Brian Tolle.

Parsons is the setting for the Bravo reality television program Project Runway.Contents

History

Founded as the Chase School in 1896 by impressionist painter William Merritt Chase, it changed its name in 1898 to the New York School of Art.

Frank Alvah Parsons joined the faculty in 1904. He became an administrator in 1907, and worked to broaden the curriculum, opening the first programs in interior design, graphic design, and advertising in the United States. In 1909, the school was renamed the New York School of Fine and Applied Art to reflect these offerings. Parsons became sole director in 1911, a position which he maintained to his death in 1930.

William Odom, who established the school’s Paris Ateliers in 1921, succeeded Parsons as president. In 1941, he renamed the institution the Parsons School of Design to recognize his predecessor’s formative influence.

In 1970, the school was incorporated into The New School for Social Research. In 2005, when the parent institution was renamed The New School, Parsons School of Design was renamed Parsons The New School for Design.