Colleges and Academies of Fine Arts

I'm not really sure if arts can be taught. You can learn the history of art, the artists, the past movements, but you can't learn how to make a work of art. You can learn all the techniques and become a good painter or a good illustrator, designer or drawer, but that won't make you an artist. Of course I do realize that studying is a good start point (after all I'm an art student myself...), so I've decided to dedicate a post to the most renowned schools, colleges and academies of fine arts around the world.What you think? Is art a matter of studying or not? Can someone be an artist without ever studying it?

The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze was founded in 1563 by Cosimo I de' Medici under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. While the Company was a kind of corporation which every working artist in Tuscan should join, the Academy was constituted only by the most eminent artistic personalities of Cosimo’s court, and had the task of supervising the whole artistic production of the medicean state. The extraordinary contribution of academics including Michelangelo Buonarroti, Francesco da Sangallo, Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini, Giorgio Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Giambologna, increased the prestige of this institution.

 

California College of the Arts (CCA)  

College of the Arts offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, balancing innovation with tradition and integrating theory with practice. Additionally, the college offers public adult and youth programs that are specifically geared toward professional and academic advancement.

 

École desBeaux-Arts  refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years, training many of the great artists in Europe. Beaux Arts style was modeled on classical "antiquities," preserving these idealized forms and passing the style on to future generations. The origins of the school go back to 1648 when the "Académie des Beaux-Arts" was founded by Cardinal Mazarin to educate the most talented students in drawing, painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture.

The Academy of Fine Arts, Prague (Czech: Akademie výtvarných umění v Praze, acronym AVU) was founded in 1799 and is the Czech Republic's oldest art college. The school offers twelve Master's degree programs and one Doctoral program.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either entity. Providing degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels, SAIC has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top graduate art programs in the nation, as well as by Columbia University's National Arts Journalism survey as the most influential art school in the United States.

The Städelschule was established by a foundation set up by the Frankfurt merchant Johann Friedrich Städel in 1817. With his bequest Städel made it possible to set up the ‘Städelsches Kunstinstitut’, for the purpose of introducing students to his prodigous art collection and to establish a school for talented young students; the public also gained access to his collection. Städel's institute was concerned with an assessment of traditional and contemporary art as well as the development of entirely new practices.