Art Schools

Table of Contents

Best Art Schools

Art schools offer a unique and rich environment where students can stretch their creative muscles, experiment with new ideas, and hone their artistic abilities. Artists engage with the world in a myriad of ways and the artistic skills required to do so must be learned in an environment that is conducive to creativity. Art schools provide such a place for artists just entering the art world.

What Is an Art School?

A simple, uncomplicated answer to this question would be “a place where students learn about and practice art.” By this general definition, though, almost every school would qualify, since almost every school with any pretense of education offers art classes. It might be more useful, then, to say that “art schools” are institutions of higher education in which students focus on mastering a specific discipline within the visual arts, such as painting or sculpture.

Art schools offer a more hands-on approach to teaching and learning… an experiential approach, while the traditional college or university is more theory-based and lecture-focused. Art schools thrive on interaction; they’re not for the introverted artist who wants to isolate themselves from other like-minded folk and create in a vacuum. If you take seriously the idea that art and artistic endeavors are collaborative, and interaction is essential to the process, then it’s easy to understand why an art school is a better fit for those who want to study fine art.

Why Art School?

When attending an art school, you will be able to take classes and concentrate on a specific field of art that most interests you. Perhaps the most obvious difference between an art school and a traditional four-year college is that you will focus primarily on an artistic discipline and receive a focused education in the arts, while a traditional college will provide a much broader education, with courses in the arts being a smaller part of the experience.

Art schools are an excellent choice for those who want to focus solely on their artistic career and not dilute their focus with the requirements of a more traditional college or university. This allows prospects to focus their time on mastering artistic techniques and skills and, perhaps more importantly, networking with their instructors and other students in the field. This interaction is one of the primary reasons that students with serious aspirations in the arts are drawn to art schools.

School Rankings

The 20 Best Art Schools in the U.S. for 2023

Each year, our experts spend hundreds of hours analyzing public and private data from almost 600 qualifying institutions to create a comprehensive ranking of the best art schools in the U.S. The 20 schools ranked here represent the best of the best, with each earning exceptional scores across the board in areas such as academic strength, graduation rates, value, and long-term graduate success. 

Best Colleges
Rhode Island School of Design

20 Washington Place, Providence, RI 02903

4.7/5
California Institute of the Arts

24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, California 91355

4.7/5
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

36 S. Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL 60603

4.5/5
Yale University School of Art

1156 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06511

4.6/5
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture

240 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90095

4.5/5
Savannah College of Art and Design

516 Drayton St, Savannah, GA 31401

4.5/5
Virginia Commonwealth University

325 N Harrison St #201, Richmond, VA 23284

4.5/5
Maryland Institute College of Art

1300 W Mount Royal Ave, Baltimore, Maryland, 21217

4.5/5
NYU Tisch School of the Arts

721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

4.4/5
Parsons School of Design

66 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011

4.4/5
Carnegie Mellon University School of Art

5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

4.4/5
Pratt Institute

200 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205

4.4/5
Bard College

30 Campus Rd, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504

4.3/5
Columbia University School of the Arts

2960 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

4.3/5
Tyler School of Art and Architecture

2001 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122

4.3/5
Cranbrook Academy of Art

39221 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303

4.3/5
ArtCenter College of Design

1700 Lida St, Pasadena, CA 91103

4.2/5
California College of the Arts

1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA 94107

4.2/5
Drexel University Westphal College of Media Arts & Design

3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

4.1/5
Arizona State University School of Art

1151 S Forest Ave, Tempe, AZ 85281

4.2/5

Our Ranking Methodology

Our ranking of the best art schools in the U.S. is an objective evaluation of schools’ overall academic excellence and reputation as reflected by our eight weighted categories: 1) Post-Graduate Success, 2) Student Selectivity, 3) Academic Experience, 4) Faculty Resources, 5) Financial Aid, 6) Graduation Rate Performance, 7) Early Career Success, and 8) Value.

While we do not discount the importance of a school’s prestige and its ability to open doors for students after graduation, we believe that the best art schools in the U.S. should have a reputation for providing students with world-class art education at a price that is not prohibitively expensive.

That’s why we consider factors like a school’s acceptance rate, the percentage of students receiving need-based or merit-based financial aid, average standardized test scores, student-to-faculty ratio, graduation rate performance (meaning the school’s ability to retain and graduate students), recent alumni success, and cost to attend when determining the overall quality of each school.

Contributing Data Sources

Art Schools FAQ

According to our research, Rhode Island School of Design is the best art school in the U.S. for 2023. Factors that placed them at the top of our list include their impressive rates of post-graduate success, student selectivity, graduation rate performance, and high marks for overall academic experience.

To keep things simple, yes. Art colleges offer students an exceptional opportunity to advance their creativity through various visual mediums. While it is true that some of the most successful people in all walks of life did not go to art college, it is also true that art college teaches students valuable skills that go far beyond what can be learned from a textbook or blog tutorial.

Art colleges provide a unique environment where students learn how to think critically, solve problems on their feet, work collaboratively, and be creative thinkers in an ever-evolving field.

Choosing the best art school for you is a personal choice that requires some research on your part. First and foremost, students should think about their goals and what they want to get out of their education. Do they envision art as an academic pursuit or something more vocational?

Next, we recommend that students think about their personal background, including the types of art that they enjoy and their level of experience in a particular medium. After making a list of schools that appeal to them, students can then determine which factors are most important and if any specific school is a good match.