Tuesdays, 1:00 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Instructor: Jill A. Rupinski  
Fifteen-Week Open Academy Course (45 Hours)  
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.5 Undergraduate Credits (See Below) 

PAFA’s Open Academy provides the opportunity for Continuing Education (CE) and non-matriculated students to experience PAFA’s renowned certificate-level instruction on a course-by-course basis.  Earned credits are eligible for transfer to the one-year Foundation and Studio Residency Certificate Programs, for students considering an immersive fine arts education with additional benefits. (Up to 7.5 credits are eligible for transfer as equivalent courses or electives.)

Using imagination, observation, and personal ideas students will push the boundaries of oil and acrylic painting materials and subject matter. Works will be developed through guided application using a variety of materials working from the figure, objects, and other source material. Instruction will utilize PAFA’s collection, the PMA and field trips to galleries to illustrate techniques and how materials are used in different applications. Students will gain in-depth technical information and hands-on practice including learning to stretch canvas and prepare different painting surfaces and grounds. Individualized instruction and group critiques will be given throughout the session.

Optional: This course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $1,800. Select credit option with price adjustment during registration.

Image: Jill A. Rupinski

Register by: August 25 
Materials List 
Open Academy Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Wednesdays, 1 – 4 p.m. (Zoom) with Supplemental Canvas Content 
Instructor: Kate Samworth
Ten-Week Course (30-Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

Explore color, painting methods, and composition in gouache – vibrant and easy-to-use opaque watercolor paint.  Instruction will address fundamentals including materials, paint application techniques,and control of flow.  Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding and mixing color, examining harmony, relativity, value, temperature, and chroma through guided exercises using limited palettes.  Subjects will range from pattern designs to copying masterworks. Instruction will include slide presentations, painting demonstrations, and feedback on student artwork.

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $595. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering. 

Image: Kate Samworth

Register by: September 17

Materials List
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies  
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses

Tuesdays, 6 - 9 p.m.
Instructor: Marguerita Hagan
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

Explore a custom sculpture experience in clay with veteran ceramicist, Marguerita Hagan. Learn various hand-building processes with an emphasis on abstraction. Create work that is either wall-hanging or free-standing, focused on 3D qualities or surface treatments, or both. Whatever you imagine will be supported with experienced individualized attention and specific hand-building and painting techniques to manifest your intention. Gain exposure not only to hand-building directions but also to many surface treatment methods including airbrush, underglaze paints, pencils, masking, resist, glaze, overglaze lusters, and waterslide and rice paper transfer decals. Instruction will be tailored to serve the individual whether for learning basic hand-building methods or realizing a work or series. Come with no experience or translate your existing practice into the transformative language of clay. Note: Tuition includes a $30 lab fee.

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $625, including lab fee. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.

Image: Marguerita Hagan

Register by: September 23 
Materials List 
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Tuesdays, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Instructor: Phyllis Laver 
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

If you’ve never drawn before, or your skills are a little rusty, then this class is for you. Learn to draw what you see with confidence. Work from still life arrangements, selections from PAFA’s casts and statuary, interior spaces, and the human figure to master the drawing elements: shape, contour line, composition, light and shadow, texture and perspective. Instruction will guide students through sight-drawing and measuring techniques, use of materials, shading methods, and ways of defining form and space. This course is also excellent as a foundation for future study, including for painting and other disciplines.  Note: Tuition includes a $25 models fee. 

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $620, including lab fee. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.

Image: Phyllis Laver

Register by: September 30 
Materials List 
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Tuesdays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Phyllis Laver 
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

Develop your ability to render the portrait through the time-honored methods of drawing from both the cast and life. Learn techniques of observational drawing such as measuring, recognizing proportions and anatomical landmarks, and establishing the effects of light and shadowwhile working in a variety of dry drawing media. Part of the portrait study will be devoted to working from selections from PAFA’s historic cast collection of Antique and Renaissance sculpture to master sighting techniques and tonal gradations. The rest of the class will focus on drawing from the model, both clothed and unclothed, to capture the subtleties and vitality of the head and figure, for both traditional and extended portrait representations.Throughout the semester, the work of varied artists will be introduced and discussed.  Note: This portrait course includes the use of nude models. Course tuition includes a $50 model fee.

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $645, including lab fee. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.

Image: Phyllis Laver

Register by: September 30 
Materials List 
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Tuesdays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Instructor: Roger Chavez 
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only

Cultivate fluid mark-making and bold approaches to subject matter through rapid and loose painting studies. Tight and precise painting, especially in the early stages of an artwork, can sometimes lead to work that appears stiff and over-labored, or to locked-in compositions that are difficult to change or correct. Working from the still life, cityscapes, and the life model, utilize short, small painting exercises to learn new ways of starting paintings, keeping compositions open to adjustment, and both initiating and retaining a sense of freshness in your forms and brushstrokes. Instruction will address color mixing, painting materials and methodologies, and the importance of cultivating viablemethods for growth in your painting practice. Discover the beauty and freedom of loosening up your painting! Note: Tuition includes a $15 models fee.

Image: Roger Chavez

Register by: October 28 
Materials List 
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies