Tuesdays, 8:30 - 11:20 a.m.
Instructor: Bruce Samuelson
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.5 Undergraduate Credits (see description)

Note:  This course does not meet during Spring Break, March 4 – 10.

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to enroll in select BFA courses for credit or non-credit.  Open Academy students enrolled in PAFA’s renowned studio arts courses learn technical skills, creative expression, and critical thinking from master artist-teachers while working amongst dedicated full-time students in PAFA's classrooms. 

The purpose of this course is to promote an individual way of seeing and working from the human figure and develop personal vision. This includes approaching the figure either as an end in itself or as a point of departure, and exploring an individual use of materials and techniques. Instruction for this course will be directed to the individual along with some group criticism and group discussion.

Optional: This course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $1,400. Select credit option with price adjustment during registration.

Image: Bruce Samuelson.

Register by: January 11

Materials List

Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Tuesdays, 8:30 a.m. - 3:50 p.m. 
Instructor: Al Gury  
Credit: Non-credit or 3.0 undergraduate credits (see description)

Note:  This course does not meet during Spring Break, March 4 – 10.

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to enroll in select BFA courses for credit or non-credit.  Open Academy students enrolled in PAFA’s renowned studio arts courses learn technical skills, creative expression, and critical thinking from master artist-teachers while working amongst dedicated full-time students in PAFA's classrooms.

Life Drawing will focus on developing skills and exploring the use of the figure with the following concepts: (1) structural and anatomical delineation of human form with line and tone. (2) The figure as an expressive end in itself. (3) Simple group compositions in interior as well as invented space. The class is open to various media & techniques.

Optional: This course is available for 3.0 undergraduate credits for $2,800. Select credit choice with tuition adjustment during checkout.  

Image: Al Gury.

Register by: January 11
Materials List
Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Open studio access, 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. daily, January 16 - May 3 
Weekly meetings/studio-visits on Thursdays, January 18 - May 2,* 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Instructor/Lead Critic: Roger Chavez
Credit: Non-credit or 1.5 undergraduate credits (see description)

Taking the leap to start or cultivate an art-making practice in a private studio space can be both exciting and daunting. Learn how to create work and stay motivated on your own terms in this new and unique combination studio-rental and classroom course! Tuition for this fifteen-week program will confer an individual studio space on PAFA’s Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building’s 9th floor, as well as weekly meetings for critique and instruction on a variety of artist’s concerns led by artist-instructor/critic Roger Chavez. Studios for this program are located side-by-side within a private, key-accessible corridor for an engaging community atmosphere. Each space is approximately 9 x 16 feet, white-walled and curtained (no individually locked doors, but with secure hallway access), opening out to the corridor’s large east-facing windows for an artist’s dream of beautiful natural light. A limited number of interior studios spaces (no natural light, but with lockable doors) also will be available (select preference during registration). Weekly meetings will feature both one-on-one in-studio critiques/discussions as well as group instruction on art topics designed to motivate and assist you in your work, including drawing sessions, assignment prompts, materials and techniques demonstrations, health-safety lectures for artists, gallery visits, group critiques from guest critics, and more. This class is perfect for artists of varying levels of experience wanting to jumpstart or advance their personal practice, for students considering application to a studio-centered certificate or degree program, or for anyone lacking a home studio and seeking a space (with additional support!) to pursue their work. Participants will benefit from some prior art-making experience and the ability to work independently.

Note: Registration requires a $200 studio deposit that is refundable upon satisfactory return of the studio to its original condition at the end of the program. Students must agree to and sign PAFA’s studio agreement form. Membership and early registration discounts cannot be applied to course tuition, but students are eligible to receive 10% off additional Fall CE courses to supplement their studio pursuits.

*This course’s weekly meeting will not take place during Spring Break, March 4 - 10.  Studio access permitted during break.

Optional: This course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $3,100 (plus refundable deposit). Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.

Image: CE Summer Studio/Critique Program, 2022. 

Registration Deadline: Rolling, on a space-available basis. Late registration (after first weekly meeting) available.

Materials List (Approved Materials - Coming Soon) 

Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Tuesdays, 1:00 - 3:50 p.m. 
Instructor: Renee Foulks

Credit: Non-Credit or 1.5 Undergraduate Credit (see description)

Note:  This course does not meet during Spring Break, March 4 – 10.

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to enroll in select BFA courses for credit or non-credit.  Open Academy students enrolled in PAFA’s renowned studio arts courses learn technical skills, creative expression, and critical thinking from master artist-teachers while working amongst dedicated full-time students in PAFA's classrooms. 

Students will learn the structure of the portrait, the history of historic and contemporary portraiture, methods and materials of portraiture and will be encouraged to develop a personal point of view in portrait painting. Issues of form, spatial concepts, color, visual and critical thinking will be addressed. Individual and group critiques will be conducted.

Optional: This course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $1,400.  Select credit option with price adjustment during registration.

Image: Renee Foulks.

Register by: January 11
Materials List
Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Wednesdays, 8:30 - 3:50 p.m. 
Instructor: Doug Martenson
Credit: Non-Credit or 3.0 Undergraduate Credits (see description)

Note:  This course does not meet during Spring Break, March 4 – 10.

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to enroll in select BFA courses for credit or non-credit.  Open Academy students enrolled in PAFA’s renowned studio arts courses learn technical skills, creative expression, and critical thinking from master artist-teachers while working amongst dedicated full-time students in PAFA's classrooms.

For the first part of this class, students will work in PAFA's museum to paint master copies of landscapes in the collection. When the weather warms in March, the class will move to outside locations to put into practice the lessons learned from their master studies. Students may work in a variety of drawing and painting media from various locations in and around the city. Individualized instruction and group critiques will be given throughout the session. Van transportation available for outdoor locations.

Optional: This course is available for 3.0 undergraduate credits for $2,800. Select credit option with tuition adjustment during registration.

Image: Doug Martenson, Pines in a Field, oil on linen, 32 x 52.

Register by: January 11
Materials List
Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Wednesdays, 8:30 - 3:50 p.m. 
Instructor: Al Gury

Credit: Non-Credit or 3.0 Undergraduate Credits (see description)

Note:  This course does not meet during Spring Break, March 4 – 10.

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to enroll in select BFA courses for credit or non-credit.  Open Academy students enrolled in PAFA’s renowned studio arts courses learn technical skills, creative expression, and critical thinking from master artist-teachers while working amongst dedicated full-time students in PAFA's classrooms.

Students will learn the structure of the portrait, the history of historic and contemporary portraiture, methods and materials of portraiture and will be encouraged to develop a personal point of view in portrait painting. Issues of form, spatial concepts, color, visual and critical thinking will be addressed. Individual and group critiques will be conducted.

Optional: This course is available for 3.0 undergraduate credits for $2,800. Select credit option with price adjustment during registration.

Image: Al Gury.

Register by: January 11
Materials List
Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Thursdays, 8:30 - 11:20 a.m. (includes option to add afternoons, 1 - 3:50 p.m., for full-day attendance -- see description)
Instructor: John Horn
Credit: Non-credit or 1.5/3.0 undergraduate credits (see description)

Note:  This course does not meet during Spring Break, March 4 – 10.

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to enroll in select BFA courses for credit or non-credit.  Open Academy students enrolled in PAFA’s renowned studio arts courses learn technical skills, creative expression, and critical thinking from master artist-teachers while working amongst dedicated full-time students in PAFA's classrooms.

Students taking Open Studio this semester will have several choices of studio work to make as they see fit. The course is designed for half-day/morning-only or full-day attendance. The morning session will be dedicated to making an écorché.* However, students not interested in making an écorché may sculpt in clay directly from the model. The afternoon session will be dedicated to applying the lessons from the écorché to the model.

For students opting to make an écorché, the semester will consist of making one flayed figure on a 24” wire armature in plasteline. The class will begin by making the axial skeleton and then adding on the appendicular components. To the finished skeleton structure, the student will begin by first placing the deep muscles and continue for the rest of the semester building up muscular form to the surface. The model the class will use was made by the French sculptor A. Houdon (1741-1828) as a study for his sculpture of St. John preaching (1766) now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, Italy. It is considered one of the finest anatomical models in the history of sculpture.

* Écorché - (Fr.)flayed figure. Écorché is the three dimensional study of human form. For contemporary artists this study has its roots in the Italian Renaissance. Artists in conjunction with the medical college in Bologna began to study anatomy in depth in order to further understand human proportions that Italian art theory demanded as essential to the creation of art.

Optional: This course is available for half-day for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $1,400. For full-day (morning, 8:30 - 11:20 a.m. and afternoon, 1 - 3:50 p.m.), this course is available for $2,300 non-credit or $2,800 for 3.0 undergraduate credits. Select length and credit choice with tuition adjustment during checkout.  

Image: John Horn

Register by: January 11
Materials List
Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Thursdays, 1 - 3:50 p.m. 
Instructor: John Horn

Credit: Non-Credit or 1.5 Undergraduate Credits (see description)

Note:  This course does not meet during Spring Break, March 4 – 10.

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to enroll in select BFA courses for credit or non-credit.  Open Academy students enrolled in PAFA’s renowned studio arts courses learn technical skills, creative expression, and critical thinking from master artist-teachers while working amongst dedicated full-time students in PAFA's classrooms. 

The goal of this course is to strengthen and hone a student’s foundational skills of drawing through a series of one and two-day drawing projects. The major topics of concern will be gesture, design, perspective, structure and space. Students will be encouraged to experiment with different media and to develop a personalized drawing practice. Subjects for this exploration will be the life model, anatomical models, the city and the observable environment in general. The course includes field trips to the Wagner Free Institute of Science, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Reading Terminal and the Observation Deck at Liberty One.

Optional: This course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $1,400. Select credit choice with tuition adjustment during checkout.

Image: Larry Day, [Nude in Armchair] (detail), 1975, graphite on cream wove paper, 21 x 17 1/2 in. Collection of PAFA, Accession #1987.13. Gift of Christopher K. and Barbara A. Bullard. Copyright © artist or artist's estate.

Register by: January 11
Materials List
Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies