School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts, or SVA, is an art school in New York City, and is the largest independent undergraduate art college in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and was renamed in 1956.
Curriculum
SVA is a fully accredited college that requires the completion of a four-year, 128 credit course for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. This includes 70 accumulated credits' worth of studio classes (where the curriculum requires the creation of some type of art), 32 accumulated credits of Humanities and Sciences courses, 12 accumulated credits of art history courses, and 14 discretionary credits.
As of 2005, the undergraduate degrees offered at SVA are Advertising, Animation, Cartooning, Computer art, Film & Video, Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Design, and Photography.
In 1983, the school introduced its first graduate offering, a Master of Fine Arts program in painting, drawing and sculpture. Since then, SVA has added six more graduate programs: Art Education; Art Therapy; Computer art; Design; Illustration as Visual Essay; and Photography, Video and Related Media. In the fall of 2005, the college opened its eighth graduate program, an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing. Graduate courses in Illustration as Visual Essay and Video & Related Media are also available. [1]
Location and Campus
The school has two Manhattan locations: in the Gramercy neighborhood, on the East Side; and in the Chelsea neighborhood, on the West Side, with a number of buildings catering to classes in different departments.
Main Building
The Main Building is located at 209 East 23rd Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, and features, in addition to classrooms, administrative offices. The upper floors are mostly designated for film courses, and the building features an amphitheater. The building’s lobby and two adjoining rooms also serve as a museum space for exhibits and public events.
Humanities Building
The school does not own this entire building, which is located at 380 Second Avenue, but only three of its floors, including the second, where the school’s library and some classrooms are located, the fifth floor, where animation studios are located, and the eighth floor, where offices and classrooms designated for Humanities and Sciences classes are located.
Photography Building
Located at 214 East 21st Street, this building is where classrooms and studios used for Photography classes are located, as well as the school’s radio station, WSVA, and some administrative offices. One of this buildings lesser known features is that it also houses the cartooning studio, on the third floor.
Fine Arts Building
This building, located from 133-141 West 21st Street, between 7th and 6th Avenues, contains most of the studios serving drawing and painting classes, particularly for freshmen. It also features classrooms for courses in interior design, computer art, and art history. In more recent years it has also come to house the Computer Art Department on the second and third floors.
Sculpture Building
Located at 30 West 17th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, this building is used for sculpture classes on the ground floor and lower level. [2]
Instructors and Notables
The school’s teaching staff is composed of professionals within the various fields to which the students’ aspire. For example:
- Instructors in the cartooning department have included professional cartoonists such as Klaus Janson, a veteran of several Batman comics, Walter Simonson, who worked on Thor and X-Men-related comics, and Sam Viviano, a contributor and now current Art Director at MAD magazine, Jessica Abel, who did "La Perdida", her husband Matt Madden, who did "Odds off", Tom Hart, who does Hutch Owen, Gary Panter, who has done "Jimbo in Purgatory" and Keith Mayerson who did "Horror Hospital Unplugged". Other cartooning instructors have included Carmine Infantino and Joe Orlando.
- Calligrapher and typographer Edward Benguiat, who created over 600 typeface fonts, such as the Barcelona and Bookman fonts, and who has designed the logos for many periodicals, such as The New York Times, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, teaches a typography course at the school.
- Illustrator Marshall Arisman, who has contributed illustrations for Time and the Village Voice, teaches an illustration class at the school, and conducts an annual contest for his students to produce a piece to accompany the winner of Playboy magazine’s annual College Fiction writing contest, which Playboy publishes with that article, along with several runners-up.
- Other instructors have included Milton Glaser, Robert Weaver, Ray DiPalma, and James McMullan.
- Keith Haring was an alumnus of SVA.
- Todd Radom, designer of logos for professional sports teams and leagues, is a graduate of SVA.
- Jesse Richards, painter, Remodernist filmmaker and founder of U.S. Stuckism center attended SVA until quitting after a nervous breakdown.
- Bryan Singer , film director, attended SVA but felt that he'd be better off going to a film school in California.
- Ralph Bakshi, animator and director of the X-Rated cult classic Fritz the Cat and The Lord of the Rings animated feature.
- Harry Savides, graduated with a degree in photography and film. He is the cinematographer of the films Last Days, Elephant, and Gerry, and Zodiac.
- The Triumverate
- Gerard Way, lead singer of the popular rock band My Chemical Romance. He graduated from SVA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999.
- Cojo "Art Juggernaut", is one of Maxim Magazine's top illustrators with almost 100 drawings published since 2002 in 13 countries and 12 languages. He's also a noted fine artist and portraitist having graduated from SVA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999. Here is Cojo's Official website.
- Jared Leto, film actor (Requiem for a Dream, Lord of War, Fight Club) attended SVA for a BFA in Film and Video; during which time he directed and starred in a short film entitled; "Crying Joy".
- Whitest Kids U Know sketch comedy group members Trevor Moore, Sam Brown and Zach Cregger got BFAs from SVA
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