The School of Fine Art’s degree programs provide you with the creative, technical, and business skills needed to graduate with a professional-level portfolio and thrive in today’s art world.
Fine Art students at the Academy have access to their own private painting studios in San Francisco’s iconic Cannery, featuring breathtaking inspirational views. You’ll also have access to drawing and painting workshops; these are available for both on campus and online students.
Our equipment lab features state-of-the-art equipment like a jet-milling machine for cutting metal, a McEnglevan MIFCO forge machine, a plasma cutter, and 250-amp welders. The lab also features the only complete art and sculpture neon studio in California, and a mold-making studio for one, two and three-piece plaster and rubber casts.
Painting Studio
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Our painting facilities include twelve classrooms, two of which are full-time anatomy studios, and a full-time multimedia room with theatre seating. All classrooms and studios are equipped with easels, tabarets, model stands, spotlights, cleaning stations, and painting storage racks to accommodate any style of painting. The prop room is well stocked with over 100 fabrics and over 2500 different props for your reerence. We also have a dedicated room for framing and photographing art.
Printmaking Studio
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Our main printmaking facility includes six presses for intaglio, relief and monotype printing. The intaglio and relief studio embraces both traditional as well as sustainable approaches with support for both zinc and copper etching. The silkscreen studio concentrates on the photo emulsion process and includes a dedicated darkroom. The studio is equipped with ink, screens, a light table and digital output capabilities.
Sculpture Center
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Our sculpture center houses a complete wax studio with gating and sprue-stations, and a ceramics room with slurry tank, silica sand stations, front-loading computer programmed electric and gas kilns, a slab roller, extruder, and a pug mill.
Welding Studio
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Our welding studio features industry standard TIG, MIG, stick, and gas welders; power tools; a sand blaster; and patina stations.
Wood Shop
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Fabricate objects and jigs on both natural and artificial wood in our wood shop. Work with band saws, drill presses, a jointer, a planer, miter saws, a panel saw, wood shapers, and table routers. Two wood lathes and two isolated sanding rooms with spindle and disc sanders and one more lathe for working foam plastics give you the control to polish your designs. The wood shop also features four SawStop table saws as part of our ongoing commitment to safety.
Partnerships
The school of Fine Art hosts guest speakers, workshops, and events that create insider connections with working professionals in the gallery world and more. Enjoy unique opportunities to pursue fine art partnerships, such as collaborations with artists, designers, and innovators outside of the classroom.
Galleries who have attended our annual Spring Show include Waterhouse Gallery, Elle Richardson Fine Art, Chloe Fine Art Gallery, Paragone Gallery art consultants.
Fine Art Events: Fine Art Faculty/Alumni Auction Spring 2024, Fine Art Speaker Series on zoom, Study Abroad 2024, Live Painting demonstrations every Friday at noon.
Study Abroad
Summer Program – Florence, Italy
The Study Abroad Summer program in Europe exposes students to the art of featured regions within the broader context of European history and artistic culture. As a student in the School of Fine Art, you’ll have the opportunity to explore and capture the extraordinary architecture, monuments, and local sights of Florence, Italy. You’ll take weekly excursions to a quaint, hilltop Tuscan town and also experience a 3-night, 4-day stay in Venice.
The program in Italy takes place during seven weeks of our summer semester. Classes are offered Monday through Thursday.
Program Highlights: – Tuition credits – Day excursions to small Italian towns – On-location classes led by Academy instructors – Exploration of different mediums, techniques, styles and subjects – Museum visits
Fine art painter Michelle Jung always kept the dream of pursuing her MFA in Fine Art on her bucket list. When the time was right, she began to take workshops and discovered that artists from Academy of Art University had the level of skill that she hoped to achieve. Jung is inspired by the coast in Santa Cruz, California, where she lives and creates her award-winning paintings. Jung’s ocean and floral-themed works can be seen in exhibitions all over the country. Check out her video!
