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 later 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 creation of some type of art forms the curriculum), 32 accumulated credits of Humanities and Sciences courses, 12 accumulated credits of art history courses (Such as World Art, History of Illustration, History of Animation, History of Film, etc.), and 14 credits that can be filled according to the students' discretion.
The current undergraduate degrees offered at SVA are: Advertising, Animation, Cartooning, Computer art, Film & Video, Fine Arts, 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 that time, 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, A Master of Fine Arts in Art Criticism and Writing. Graduate courses in Illustration as Visual Essay and Video & Related Media are also available. [1]
Location and Campus
Today the school is located in the Gramercy (on the East Side) and Chelsea (on the West Side) areas of Manhattan, 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 Ave., and features, in addition to classrooms, administrative offices such as the Registrar’s Office, Financial Aid office, Continuing Education Office, and the school Vice President’s office. The upper floors of the building, beginning with the fourth floor, are mostly designated for courses in film. The building’s most unique feature is a mini amphitheater, which is used for everything from large classes to movie screenings to public events such as orientation for freshmen. The building’s lobby and two adjoining rooms are also noteworthy for serving as a museum where various exhibits are displayed throughout the year, the openings for which are often 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.
Fine Arts Building This building, located from 133-141 West 21st Street, between 7th and 6th Ave, features, like the Main Building, a diverse array of offices and student services, but is most obviously known as the location of 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.
Sculpture Building Located at 30 West 17th Street, between 5th and 6th Ave., this building is used for sculpture classes on the ground floor and lower level. [2]
Instructors
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 illustrators 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. Other cartooning instructors have included Carmine Infantino and Joe Orlando.
- Calligrapher and typographer Ed 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.