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Continuing Education at PAFA

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Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Figurative Open Studio, SC 203 (In-Person)

$1,400

with John Horn

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 8, 2026 at 8:30 am, runs for 15 weeks

Thursdays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM*  
Instructor: John Horn  
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 – 90 Hours)
  
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 – 8.
 

PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon! 

Open Studio is a comprehensive clay figure modeling class. The class will continue the study of the figure, with afocus on anatomy and proportion, but will also emphasize the crucial elements of gesture and rhythm, spontaneity, and spirit. Students will be encouraged to work in a variety of sizes and outside projects should be expected. Independent study and experiment is always encouraged. Issues concerningadvanced students will be discussed on an individual basis. Broader topics/discussions, such as the nature and philosophy of art and the artist will also be introduced. Course Modality: in-person. 

*Optional: This course is also available for full-day attendance (morning, 8:30 - 11:30 a.m., and afternoon, 1 - 4 p.m.) for $2,800. Select length with tuition adjustment during checkout. 

Image: John Horn

Register by: January 2  
Materials
will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class.  
Please review the CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies  
Notes:
Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering. 

Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Portrait Painting, PT 221 (In-Person)

$1,400

with Douglas Martenson

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 8, 2026 at 8:30 am, runs for 15 weeks

Thursdays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM*  
Instructor: Douglas Martenson  
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 – 90 Hours)  
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 – 8. 

PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon! 

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, andvisual and critical thinking will be addressed. Individual and group critiques will be conducted. Course Modality: in-person. 

*Optional:  This course is also available for full-day attendance (morning, 8:30 - 11:30 a.m., and afternoon, 1 - 4 p.m.) for $2,800. Select length with tuition adjustment during checkout. 

Image: Douglas Martenson

Register by: January 2  
Materials will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class.  
Please review the 
CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies  
Notes: Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering. 

Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Relief Printmaking, FY 120 (In-Person)

$1,400

with Dan Miller

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 8, 2026 at 8:30 am, runs for 15 weeks

Thursdays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM 
Instructor: Dan Miller 
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 Hours) 
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 – 8. 

PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon! 

This course offers an introduction to the craft and art of relief printmaking emphasizing basic drawing, cutting, and printing techniques. Black and white hand printing will be stressed with simplified color experimentation made possible later in the term. A variety of matrices and methods will be discussed. Scheduled slide lectures will demonstrate woodcuts contribution to the development of illustrated books as well as discussing the careers and visions of major practitioners past and present. The primary objectives of the course are to introduce fundamental techniques, to challenge students to be proficient in the methods, to encourage self-expression, to foster the development of visual purpose and to instill confidence and ease with the processes. Course Modality: in-person. 

Image: Dan Miller 

Register by: January 2  
Materials
will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class.  
Please review the 
CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies  
Notes: Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering. 

Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Form and Structure in Sculpture, FY 121 (In-Person)

$1,400

with Steve Nocella

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 8, 2026 at 1 pm, runs for 15 weeks

Thursdays, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM  
Instructor: Steve Nocella  
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 Hours)
  
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 – 8.
 

PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon! 

This class introduces students to sculpture. It provides a point of departure by defining a sculpture as being a three-dimensional complex comprised of medium, subject matter, form, and content. The class focuses on the integration of these comprising principles, but more importantly, how process informs and changes their interrelationship and ultimately integrates them. Students will be given assignments that stipulate one or more of the comprising principles and are asked to create those remaining. They will be taught skills for a variety of mediums such as modeling, carving, and constructing, as well as skills for creative and critical thinking such as divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and inferential thinking. Course Modality: in-person. 

Image: Steve Nocella 

Register by: January 2  
Materials will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class. 
Please review the CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies  
Notes:
Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering. 

Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Art Seminar: Arts of the World, AH 106 (In-Person)

$2,800

with Tony Rosati

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 9, 2026 at 8:30 am, runs for 15 weeks

Fridays 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM 
Instructor: Tony Rosati 
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (90 Hours)
 
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 – 8.
 

PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. See our regular CE traditional-length and short courses for additional options. 

This course places the world’s major art movements in their cultural contexts, analyzing relationships between art, religion, culture, geography, and global pathways.  The course also explores issues in the world of art today, identifies themes and iconography used in art, and introduces stylistic analysis. Course Modality: in-person. 

Image:  

Register by: January 2 
Materials
will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class. 
Please review the 
CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 
Notes:
Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering. 

Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Developing a Major Work Through Preparation and Improvisation, PT 222 (In-Person)

$1,400

with Peter Van Dyck

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 9, 2026 at 8:30 am, runs for 15 weeks

Fridays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM*  
Instructor: Peter Van Dyck  
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 – 90 Hours)
  
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 – 8.
 

PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon! 

This class is an opportunity for the student to develop three complex works of escalating ambition. As has often been said, “all art comes from other art” in the sense that artmaking is a culture in continuous negotiation with present needs and precedent. Students will develop a small group of imaginative peers from the labyrinth of painting history to consult and debate in the development of three works. The resulting pictures may include the production of studies, copies, collages, and any other kind of visual fodder to develop ambitious compositions that will explore the overlapping terrains of abstraction and figuration. What is meant here is that Piero, de Stael, Gorky, Ingres, Mary Cassatt, and Kerry James Marshall are fraternal and in solidarity about the demands of painting. Course Modality: in-person. 

*Optional: This course is also available for full-day attendance (morning, 8:30 - 11:30 a.m., and afternoon, 1 - 4 p.m.) for $2,800. Select length with tuition adjustment during checkout. 

Image: Peter Van Dyck 

Register by: January 2  
Materials
will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class. 
Please review CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies  
Notes: Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering. 

Observational Drawing Practices (In-Person)

$565

with John Horn

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 20, 2026 at 9 am, runs for 12 weeks

Tuesdays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 
Instructor: John Horn 
Twelve-Week Course (36 Hours) 
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 - 8.

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

Strengthen and hone your foundational drawing skills through a series of one- and two-day projects. Topics of concern will be design, structure of space, perspective, and light and shade. Subjects will include interior space, single objects and still life arrangements, and the life model. All levels from beginner to advanced are welcome. Tuition includes a $25 models fee.

Image: John Horn

Register by: January 13 
Materials List - Coming Soon  
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Drawing from PAFA's Historic Casts (In-Person)

$295

with Phyllis Laver

Calendar Next available session starts Jan 20, 2026 at 12:30 pm, runs for 6 weeks

Tuesdays, 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. 
Instructor: Phyllis Laver 
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours) 

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

PAFA’s breathtaking Cast Hall is back for Spring 2026! Following renovations to PAFA's Historic Landmark Building, this unique resource is again available to offer enrolled students opportunities to work from copies of Greco-Roman and Renaissance sculpture, including the Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, and the staggering life-size Michelangelo’s David, among other notable works. Students may also work from select casts on display in additional PAFA exhibition areas. Cast Drawing was one of the first courses established in the founding of the Academy and has remained a core part of PAFA’s fine arts curriculum for over 200 years. Become a part of this long and rich artistic tradition as you learn to draw accurately from observation, explore line and shape, describe form through light and shadow, and gain an appreciation for some of history’s most beautiful sculptural artworks. This course is an excellent introduction to drawing techniques and materials and is appropriate to all levels.

Read a History of PAFA’s Cast Hall by Faculty Member Al Gury here.

Image: Daniel Garber, [Cast drawing: female torso (4th century, Greece)] (detail), ca. 1899-1905, charcoal on cream paper, 24 1/4 x 18 3/4 in. Collection of the PAFA Museum. Accession # 1945.14.4. Gift of the artist.  

Register by: January 13 
Materials List - Coming Soon
 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.





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