"The most important thing I took away from my education at PAFA was the act of actually looking at things and transferring that onto another surface." -Justin Matherly, Cert. '00
Studio-Centered Creative Training
The Certificate program emphasizes excellence in studio art-making skills and abilities and provides comprehensive creative training centered in painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and illustration. It is a demanding process of self-discovery for those with the goal of becoming a practicing studio artist. Inspired by a rich heritage of serious artistic achievement, the Certificate is grounded in foundational skills and working with master artist-instructors.
Fluency in a Visual Language
The Certificate program gives depth and dimension to the act of making art and nurturing personal expression. Each artist cultivates a fluency in a visual language and learns to embrace the artistic struggle, which often offers glimmers of success in disguise.
Program Structure
This four-year, studio-centered program offers intensive training in the principle disciplines of drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and illustration. With a significant emphasis on drawing as the basic language of any artistic development, students develop the foundational skills and knowledge necessary to become an exhibiting artist with a meaningful and distinct point of view.
In the first two years, students receive a traditional atelier-style training. Under the mentorship of master artists, students take classes in cast drawing, life drawing and painting, anatomy, color, still life, figure modeling, perspective, etching, woodcut and art history. In the second year, they choose their area of focus.
Third- and fourth-year students receive private studios while continuing an intensive mentoring relationship with critics chosen from a large faculty of professional working artists, representing a wide range of aesthetic viewpoints.
All students attend critiques and lectures given by visiting artists and critics, and are in daily contact with PAFA's outstanding collection of art. At the conclusion of their studies, students mount a thesis exhibition within the galleries of the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building.