Welcome to School of Visual Arts

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Westside Campus

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Welcome to the School of Visual Arts—a leader in the education of artists, designers and creative professionals for over seven decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, dynamic curriculum and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation. Our urban campus is fully located in Manhattan and home to 11 undergraduate and 20 graduate degree programs that attract more than 4,000 students each year from across the United States and around the world. Before we get started, let me explain the many ways in which you can explore our urban campus: - You can select any location by using the list or by clicking directly on the map - You can jump to the next stop by clicking the "Next" button - You can hover over items within a location to view the highlighted hotspot and click for more info - Lastly, remember that you can explore any particular location in more detail by clicking on the interactive elements of a stop

Printshop

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The Printshop is open to students of all majors at SVA and offers classes in silkscreen, lithography, etching, woodcut, letterpress, and bookmaking. Printmaking classes have a very social atmosphere with students working side by side and sharing ideas. Working in a new print medium challenges artists to take established skills like drawing and painting and apply them to a new process and inform their art practice. The space has four spacious classrooms containing printing presses, scanners, printers, a plate-making darkroom, and a computer lab. Students taking printmaking classes have access outside class schedules and the facilities are open 9:00am to 9:00pm daily.

BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects

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The BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects program follows a production-based computer art curriculum in which students are instructed in the latest computer animation technologies and produce portfolio-quality work each semester. The department offers comprehensive instruction in 3D computer animation with advanced classes in 3D modeling, lighting, texturing, dynamics, character animation and motion capture. The courses offered in visual effects feature advanced instruction in digital video, greenscreen studio production, compositing, rotoscoping and VFX animation.

BFA Animation

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The creative environment in BFA Animation allows students to use 2D animation and imagination to tell stories with a unique vision, style, and intent. Students are challenged to be curious and open to collaboration and experimentation while following the high standards of academic performance and professionalism. The curriculum, taught by industry professionals, covers all aspects of the production pipeline with students creating and producing work both independently and collaboratively. Several noteworthy alumni have gone on to create their own shows such as Breadwinners, Courage the Cowardly Dog, *Hazbin* Hotel, *Helluva* Boss, *OK K.O*! Let's Be Heroes, Steven Universe, and The Owl House.

BFA Interior Design: Built Environments

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Working in an environment akin to an urban design studio, BFA Interior Design students are encouraged to think like industry professionals, working collaboratively, adapting to cultural and economic conditions and taking creative risks while assuming responsibility for their creations. With 24/7 access to a state-of-the-art computer lab and individual computers for seniors, students explore the power of both pencil and the latest 2-D and 3-D technology. Students combine their artistic and technical knowledge and skills to envision and create spaces for any use imaginable from residences to offices, hotels, community centers, cruise ships, stores and casinos.

BFA Visual & Critical Studies

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In BFA Visual and Critical Studies, students are exposed to the studio arts while they simultaneously investigate the historical, cultural and theoretical movements that give those arts shape, dimension and power. Classes are taught by Fulbright and Getty scholars, NEA grant-winners, painters, writers, filmmakers, historians, philosophers, photographers and graphic designers—all of whom embody the confluence of creativity and intellect that electrifies and defines New York City. VCS students enjoy a thriving lecture series, open studio events as well as enriching outings that help inform multidisciplinary coursework as well as students' independent research.

BFA Fine Arts - Sculpture

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Bringing the technologies of high-end fabrication to SVA, the CNC and 3D Printing facilities at BFA Fine Arts enables our students to employ the newest and most innovative tools in the fabrication industry today. From ABS prints to laser engraving, the CNC and 3D Printing facilities are just the beginning towards realizing ambitious projects. The BFA Fine Arts department also provides opportunities to work in painting, digital media, video, ceramics, digital embroidery, printmaking and a myriad of other traditional and emerging art forms. With NYC Chelsea's art scene at our back door, students easily stay tuned in to art history in the making.

BFA Fine Arts - Bio Art Lab

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Conceived as a place where scientific tools and techniques become media and methods in art practice, the SVA Bio Art Laboratory was founded in 2011 as part of BFA Fine Arts Department's new 54,000-square-foot facility in the heart of Chelsea. The lab houses biological microscopes for photo and video production, specimen and skeleton collections, a slide archive, an herbarium, an aquarium and a library.

BFA Design, BFA Advertising

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The BFA Design and BFA Advertising programs at SVA focus on teaching visual communication problem-solving, a skill that can open the door to a host of rewarding and innovative careers. One of several workspaces for students, the Digital Imaging Center is a state-of-the-art computer-based workshop with over 150 stations. In this and our other workspaces, students can focus intensively on a chosen concentration within the department, including print, motion graphics, interactive design, typography, 3-D and brand advertising. Whatever the focus, the department's award-winning faculty—drawn from the best of the city's design firms and advertising agencies—provide students with valuable support and exposure to the industry.

BFA Illustration

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The BFA Illustration department cultivates individual voices with a high degree of craft. Students gain the ability to carefully read and cross-reference texts, research visual styles, and conceptualize and produce significant bodies of work. Comic books, graphic novels, children's books, editorial illustrations, theatrical posters, movie credits, and television production designs are powerful vehicles for artists' inner worlds and meaningful contributions to a public forum. As a result, students are prepared not only to excel at self-expression but also to solve problems and perceptively comment on our culture.

BFA Comics

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You've arrived at SVA's BFA Comics department. In the 1940s, we began as a training ground for some of the pioneers of the Golden Age of Cartooning. Now, we're in the midst of the New Platinum Age, one where multicultural influences, ambitious new formats and an ever-expanding audience have made this challenging medium one of the most exciting and cutting-edge art forms on the planet. Our department covers all the bases in style, including classic adventure comics, experimental graphic novels and Amerimanga.

BFA Film

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SVA's BFA Film program offers an immersive and hands-on undergraduate education for filmmakers. Beginning in the first semester, students write, rehearse, shoot and edit their own films alongside award-winning industry professionals as their teachers. The program culminates in a showcase of student work to industry professionals and luminaries at the Dusty Film & Animation Festival.

BFA Film - Editing Lab

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The BFA Film program offers hands-on learning. In film, the best way to learn is by doing—and students are in production from their very first class. All freshmen work with Black Magic 6k Pro cameras and receive a hard drive to store their footage. The department boasts two state-of the-art editing labs featuring the leading postproduction applications: Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut. Our staff—many filmmakers themselves—stays current with the changing technologies in the industry to ensure our students are working with cameras and production equipment used in professional studios. These labs offer top-of-the-line Mac computers for students to bring their projects to professional standards.

BFA Photography and Video - Darkrooms

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The BFA Photography and Video program's forward-thinking curriculum ensures that students can decipher how still and moving images have operated for the last two centuries, how they function today, and how they will work in the years to come. That knowledge, paired with rigorous technical training, prepares students to make original work with meaning and purpose. Our students study photography and video from their first semester, ensuring four years of dedicated education in all aspects of lens-based media. Our cutting-edge facilities and equipment include full-frame, medium, and large-format cameras; video and sound recording equipment; industry-standard lighting equipment; analog darkrooms; fully equipped photo studios; and digital labs with professional large-format printers.

BFA Photography and Video

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The BFA Photography and Video program provides students with the creative and technological skills of the media and teaches the practical and strategic knowledge of the professional world. Students can explore fashion photography, experimental video and AI, portraiture, photojournalism, studio photography, and all other genres of the medium. The department's renovated, cutting-edge facilities, including studios, darkrooms, and digital labs are open 7 days a week. Students in this program follow a specific curriculum centered on photography and video and are working in the medium from their first semester.

SVA Chelsea Gallery

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The SVA Chelsea Gallery is SVA's premier exhibition facility. Located in Chelsea on the 15th floor of the landmark Starrett-Lehigh Building, it comprises four state-of-the-art galleries and a large terrace with a commanding view of Lower Manhattan and the Hudson River. The SVA Chelsea Gallery and SVA's other gallery spaces offer select students the opportunity to exhibit and sell their work in the same environment as some of the country's leading artists.

Student Center

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The Student Center provides SVA students with a common space to meet, check their email, finish a project, or just relax between classes. The space has numerous computer stations for student use and is also a great meeting place for clubs or social gatherings. In addition, gallery space is available to display student artwork, upon request.

SVA Library

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The SVA Library is a comfortable, accessible and peaceful space on campus where the SVA community can relax, study and collaborate. The collection is is tailored to the needs of artists, designers, and creative professionals and consists of more than 80,000 books, a picture file of 150,000 images and special collections of videos, DVDs, scripts and comics. The library maintains subscriptions to 400 print periodicals as well as a number of online reference databases in art, design, the humanities and popular culture, and offers computers with Internet access and a range of digital-imaging hardware. The Library is also home to the *Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives.

24th Street Residence

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You're now inside the 24th Street Residence, which offers double and triple rooms in a microapartment format. This triple room houses three students and includes a private bathroom and kitchenette. Rooms are fully furnished with a twin bed, a desk and a chair for each student. Each microapartment is equipped with wi-fi, Central air conditioning and heat and HDTVs.

23rd Street Residence

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The 23rd Street Residence Hall offers two and three-bedroom apartment-style residences and is reserved primarily for new students. The three-bedroom apartment pictured here includes three double rooms, a full kitchen, and two bathrooms for six students to share. Rooms are fully furnished with a twin bed, a desk and a chair for each student. The building is outfitted with Central air conditioning and heat as well as Cable and Ethernet connections. A community room features a TV lounge, ping-pong and foosball tables as well as easels.

Ludlow Residence

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The Ludlow Residence is located in the heart of the Lower East Side, a famed, super-hip neighborhood bustling with activity and conveniences. The Ludlow Residence is a traditional style residence hall that offers suite-style single and double rooms with adjoined bathrooms. Rooms include a mini-refrigerator and microwave, and are outfitted with Central air conditioning and heat. The Ludlow Residence is conveniently located to subway and bus transportation just a block away.

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