Curriculum

Just as the classical paradigm merges supernal ideas with natural forms, training at the academy develops into a dual focus: cultivating conceptual capacities while honing skills of representation.

Progress through the curriculum entails training the memory and the imagination as well as visual accuracy, and studying the laws and tendencies in nature as well as the principles and parameters of design and composition. These skills grow in concert with a comprehensive study of the language of classicism and the history and interpretation of the arts, including the Grand Tour (visiting museums and traveling abroad to study in person the great masterpieces from history).

The scope of the curriculum includes: cast drawing, cast painting, cast sculpture, studying the model from life (in drawing, painting and sculpture), history of technique, master-copying, grand tour study, composition and design, architectural history and theory, sacred geometry, archetypal human anatomy, classical drapery, structural drawing, perspective, color theory, plein-air and landscape painting, still life, portraiture, imaginative realism, culminating in multi-figurative compositions.

Patterned after history’s most effective methods (which were incorporated into the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France in the 19th century) the Beaux-Arts Academy combines three proven systems of artistic development: the academy, the atelier, and the apprenticeship model.

The Academy, typified by the class experience, affords a broad, comprehensive understanding of art history and philosophy, as well as exercises and assignments designed to develop diverse abilities and techniques, helping each student become well-versed and complete in their skill set, and discerning in their connoisseurship of the classical canon and capacity for critical thinking.

The Atelier, typified by the studio environment, has a focus on the production of artworks under the specific working methods and techniques of a practicing artist. Students are entrusted with various responsibilities in the execution of actual commissioned projects, gaining real-life experience with deadlines and meeting professional standards, and eventually the demands of a specialized focus produce the depth and expertise of the master.

The Apprenticeship model, typified by the mentor relationship, guides the student through the full scope of the artist’s practice. Working side by side with the master, the aim is to gain expertise at every step, eventually in the context of their own original projects, receiving whatever immediate feedback they need in their progress, continually working under the wing of the master at a higher and higher level, until they excel at the entire creative process.

At the Beaux-Arts Academy, these three models combine to give breadth, depth, and height to artistic development, setting the artist on the path to become a fully realized, multi-dimensional master.